Tag Archives: supply chain management

Asst. Prof. Karen Zheng: When a handshake is enough–the role of trust in supply chain management

MIT Sloan Asst. Prof. Karen Zheng

Trust is important to our relationships with friends, family, and acquaintances. Less understood, though, is the role trust can play in business relationships. When businesses deal with each other, their first impulse often is to summon their lawyers. But I have found in my research that there are many situations in which trust can be an effective replacement for costly and time-consuming contract negotiations.

To understand the role of trust in business, I and two colleagues, Ozalp Ozer of the University of Texas at Dallas and Kay-Yut Chen of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, conducted a series of computer laboratory experiments that simulated one of the most vexing problems in supply chain management: The tendency for manufacturers to issue overly optimistic forecasts.

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Jackie Wilbur: MBA job offers back to pre-recession numbers

Despite the ongoing economic turmoil, the job numbers for our MBA class of 2011 are very strong. In fact, we’re back to the same offer rates we saw before the recession.

As of this writing, 94% of the class has an offer. This is up from 81% last year and closely matches the 93.4% we saw in 2006 and 92.7% in 2007. Similarly, on-campus recruiting opportunities were back to the same levels we saw in 2006 and have so far remained firm as we move into this academic year.

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Japanese crisis: When major supply chains break

MIT Sloan Sr. Lecturer Don Rosenfield

Measured against the deaths of thousands and the threat of nuclear meltdown, economic damage to supply chains seems a small matter. But it is nonetheless true that the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week will affect important global industries. When major supply chains break, businesses and consumers around the world feel the consequences.

Japan is a world leader in many industries, from computers to steel to machine tools to automobiles. In the region hit by the quake and tsunami, factories and other businesses have been shut down and may not reopen for weeks or months. Interruption of energy supplies has forced plants elsewhere in the country to close or limit operations.

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