麻豆影院

Bin Jiang, a management听professor, talks about his decision to join 麻豆影院 in 2004 and his new role as the first Driehaus Fellow.

鈥淚鈥檓 so lucky,鈥� says Bin Jiang, the recipient of a five-year grant enabled by the $30 million donation by Richard H. Driehaus to 麻豆影院鈥檚 business school鈥攖o support the hiring and retention of extraordinary faculty.

Certainly, that luck runs both ways, as Jiang has contributed excellent research and teaching to 麻豆影院鈥檚 business school as a professor in the Department of Management.

鈥淲hen I was evaluating job offers, I was drawn to 麻豆影院 by the opportunity to work with our department chair, Scott Young, and other faculty on the business challenges that intrigue me, especially the complexities, both practical and ethical, in managing global supply chains,鈥� says Jiang. 鈥淎t 麻豆影院, I鈥檓 part of a bigger 鈥榤anagement鈥� discipline鈥攊n many schools, the subsets of management are kept separate鈥攁nd that keeps me open to ideas from other areas and from my colleagues. We鈥檙e an intellectually collaborative group, and I really like that.鈥�

applying formulas

In the past 10 years, Jiang has won recognition for his scholarship, including prestigious best paper awards from the Journal of Operations Management and the Academy of Management.

But Jiang鈥檚 first love is teaching.

In the classroom, Jiang brings a 鈥渓ived it鈥� perspective based on his 16 years working in business and industry in China before coming to the United States for graduate school.听

He explains the value that鈥檚 added by a real-world context:

鈥淚n operations management, we use a lot of formulas, but a student can鈥檛 know what they really mean unless they鈥檙e applied practically. I illustrate the principles of supply chain management with case studies based on my own experiences and those of my business friends still in China. Because I鈥檓 confident in the content, my students connect to the material better.

鈥淐ase writing is very time consuming, and many schools don鈥檛 count it as research. So, those teachers are hard-pressed to use cases as a teaching tool. But in law school, students learn by cases. In medical school, they learn by cases. Business school is not an academic education; it鈥檚 a professional education. If I couldn鈥檛 provide good cases to my students, I would not be a complete teacher, and I would not be adequately preparing my students for their careers. Long after my students leave my classes, they remember the case studies!鈥�

Outsourcing production

Jiang has always been drawn to supply chain management, particularly the role of outsourcing, because of the discipline鈥檚 central role in modern commerce.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 competition isn鈥檛 between company and company, but between supply chain and supply chain. Being a winner means tearing down the walls between companies. As a result, there鈥檚 a lot of risk in these relationships.

鈥淔or example, when a company outsources part of its production, is the other company a working horse or a Trojan horse? Will the supplier steal the other鈥檚 intellectual property or even its business? This has happened plenty of times. Given that possibility, management has to ask: 鈥楧oes outsourcing really increase our company鈥檚 value? Or is it just a short-term advantage with long-term liabilities?鈥� On top of those considerations are ethical ones: Are the working conditions in the foreign company fair and safe?

I鈥檒l never consider myself an expert in supply chain management鈥攖he field is just too large, complicated and dynamic.鈥�

Jiang considers the Driehaus Fellowship an affirmation of his work so far and a critical enabler of his work to come. 鈥淚鈥檓 honored to be appreciated by my peers, and I plan to use the award to explore an important, but underdeveloped, area鈥攖hat of post-outsourcing management. I think鈥擨 plan鈥攖hat this research will contribute to the reputation and prestige of the Driehaus College of Business.鈥� 鈻�