Four Clemson management Ph.D. students awarded for dissertations

Published: November 17, 2011

By Max Sewesky

CLEMSON — Four graduate students in Clemson University’s management Ph.D. program in the College of Business and Behavioral Science have earned national recognition for their dissertations.

Tracy Johnson-Hall, a doctoral candidate in the management department focusing on supply chain and operations management (SC/OM), received the 2011 Juran Fellowship Award and will collect $10,000 to support her research.

Johnson-Hall, from Danville, Pa., received the award for the high potential impact and rigor of her doctoral dissertation “Essays on Product Recall Strategies in the FDA Regulated Food and Pharmaceutical Sectors: An Econometric Analysis.” 

“My dissertation examines firm and supply chain factors that influence the speed of product recalls of food and pharmaceuticals,” said Johnson-Hall. “With the overall number of food and pharmaceutical recalls on the rise, it is important that we seek to understand the performance of systems that remove potentially harmful products from the marketplace.”

“We are delighted to work with Tracy on this important endeavor,” said professor Aleda Roth on behalf of Johnson-Hall’s dissertation committee. “I might add that Tracy is also an outstanding teacher who won the College of Business and Behavioral Science student teaching award in 2011. Being an outstanding potential researcher and teacher bodes well for her success and is also a tribute to the impact of the supply chain and operations management track in the College of Business and Behavioral Science’s department of management.”

David Hall, a Kansas City native and doctoral student in the supply chain and operations management, was awarded $1,500 by the Association for Operations Management Education and Research Foundation for his dissertation research proposal “Supplier Evaluation and Selection: Attribute Substitution and Capability Inference.” Hall’s proposal earned him the first runner-up position for the 2011 George and Marion Plossl Dissertation Fellowship. 

“This recognition is truly an honor for David, and another indicator of the external regard of our doctoral students bringing rigorous and relevant research to the local, national and international operations and supply chain managers," said Roth, his dissertation adviser. "Importantly, David’s research brings a behavioral approach to sourcing decision-making, and his research is the first to show systematic bias that have negative unintended consequences, such as offshoring jobs.”

Michelle Carter and Enrico Secchi, two Ph.D. candidates in information systems and supply chain and operations management, respectively, have also been awarded for their dissertations. Both will receive a $3,000 Hipp Fellowship Award.

Carter's focus is researching individuals’ interactions with information systems in their work and personal lives.

“I am honored to be a recipient of the Hipp Fellowship Award,” said Carter. “Gaining the award would not have been possible without the research opportunities, ongoing support and collaborative efforts of information systems faculty and doctoral students within the management department.”

Secchi’s research involves how services can better manage customer variability by incorporating improvisation in their operational designs and for management of innovation and technology.

“It is a great honor to be the recipient of the Hipp Fellowship Award for research excellence,” said Secchi. “This award provides a strong motivation for me to continue pursuing the high-impact research effort that characterizes our department's presence in the international community of management scholars.”

Roth said the fellowships "not only bode well for the overall quality of our management department doctoral program, but they also send a strong signal to the larger academic and practitioner community that our doctoral students are conducting meaningful research that has the potential to have an enormous impact on practice.”

“I am proud of the accomplishments of management doctoral students. They have been consistently and regularly winning research and teaching awards within and outside the university,” said V Sridharan, chairman of the management department. “The research productivity of our doctoral students, especially in the information systems area, has been rated among the best in the world.”

END