UT Supply Chain Faculty Named Among World’s Top Researchers

January 14, 2020

Supply chain management faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business are among the world’s best researchers in the field. Six past and present faculty were recognized by Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, for the quality, quantity and scope of their scholarship.

The peer-reviewed paper, “Supply Chain Research Leadership: The Ranked Agents and Their Networks,” considers researchers from around the globe, examining their publication records and leadership roles in the field.

Stephen L. Mangum, dean and Stokely Foundation Leadership Chair, at Haslam, said the work of UT’s supply chain faculty aids business, as well as students and the companies who hire them. “The work of these talented individuals in creating, applying and disseminating knowledge directly benefits our students and the many organizations that we count as corporate partners,” Mangum said. “We take pride in the thought leadership of these faculty.”

Five Haslam faculty members were represented in the paper’s ranking for total degree centrality, which ranks thought leaders in the field based on the relative number of direct connections an author has with others in the supply chain management network. Chad Autry, head of the supply chain department, came in at no. 2 in this category, followed by Tom Goldsby (tied for no. 5), Ted Stank (tied for no. 10) and Ken Petersen (no. 17). (Petersen is now at the University of Oklahoma, but the ranking is based on research that was published during his time at Haslam.) Tom Mentzer, a leading scholar who taught at UT for nearly 20 years and passed away in 2010, still ranks no. 1 in the world for total degree centrality.

Mentzer also topped the paper’s ranking for Bonocich power centrality, a metric that indicates the influence of authors within the worldwide network of supply chain researchers. Analyzing a researcher’s potential “to stimulate research and the quality of research outcomes by serving as hubs of connectivity and informational bridges between entities engaged in supply chain research,” the Bonocich power centrality ranking also recognized the work of Haslam’s Autry (no. 2), Goldsby (no. 3), Stank (no. 7), Petersen (no. 12) and Wendy Tate (no. 27).

Petersen, Goldsby and Stank ranked at numbers 20, 26 and 43 respectively on publication score, which takes into account the number of papers a professor authors or co-authors and the quality of the journals in which their work appears. Journal quality is determined by each journal’s Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide rating score.

In addition to the recognition of individual faculty members, the paper ranked Haslam’s supply chain management department at no. 4 overall in research leadership globally. This is the latest in a string of accolades for the program, which Transportation Journal ranks at no. 1 in the world for research productivity.


CONTACT:

Stacy Estep, business writer/publicist (865-974-7881, sestep3@utk.edu)