Jayanth Jayaram

Dr. Jayanth Jayaram, the Earl E. Congdon Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Congdon School of Supply Chain Management at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is a scholar of diverse interests. His research areas, spanning sustainability, global sourcing, additive manufacturing, and supply chain risk management, are sure to pique the interest of students, faculty, and professionals in supply chain management and related fields. His PhD from Michigan State University laid the foundation for his broad-ranging research, which has been published in internationally reputed journals such as the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of International Business Studies, and more. He also serves (or has served) on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Operations Management (as a Departmental Editor), the Journal of Supply Chain Management, the Journal of Business Logistics, Decision Sciences, and the International Journal of Production Research (as an Associate Editor). He is a frequent external reviewer of applications for promotion and tenure at other universities and of grant proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation and similar grant agencies. He has been successful in obtaining grants from agencies such as CIBER and the Family-Owned Business Institute, as well as from professional associations such as the Institute of Supply Management. His past experience includes significant contributions to Supply Chain Centers and engagement with the business community through applied research projects with companies such as Westinghouse, Sam's Club, Target, Sonoco, Trane, and Bosch.

Education

Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management, Michigan State University
MBA, Central Michigan University
B.Sc in Mathematics, University of Bombay

Specialization in Teaching

Jayanth is a firm believer that pursuing rigorous and interdisciplinary research spills over to teaching as well. He has taught a wide variety of core and elective supply chain management classes across different forums, including undergraduates, honors students, graduate students, and PhD students. These electives span the length and breadth of supply chains, including courses in sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and new product development. He has taught in executive programs on global sourcing and renewable energy management. He likes to constantly update his teaching materials to align with the fast-changing environments facing today's supply chains. For example, the constantly evolving tariff rates across the globe have made managing supply chains, including their constituent decisions of planning and forecasting, very challenging. As another example of aligning with current phenomena, he is trying to incorporate AI/ML learning into his courses. One of his latest cases that he published through the Harvard Business School portal is an example of an AI app that has been used in healthcare settings. His wide range of teaching experience also includes pure online and hybrid classes. He has a long history of incorporating company projects into his course, which helps connect students to the supply chain problems companies face. He uses videos, TED talks, consulting white papers, case studies, and simulations to engage his students in active learning.

Research Interests

From his foundational research interest in supply chain integration, which spanned multiple decades, his research areas evolved to include more current topics in sustainability, supply networks, additive manufacturing, resilience, and supply chain risk management. He has examined research phenomena across a wide variety of units of analysis, including individual, firm, industry, and country levels. His research repertoire includes conducting both quantitative and qualitative research methods. While most of his research has taken a deductive approach, he has also pursued inductive research as well. He has published meta-analyses, rigorous research case studies, and longitudinal studies. Given his vast experience base at universities that excel in global supply chain management, he has successfully published studies not only in the USA but also in Europe, Australia, and South Africa. His vast network of collaborators includes researchers from other countries. He has also published in key practitioner journals like Supply Chain Management Review, typically with coauthors from industry. He has served on several dissertation committees and worked successfully with doctoral students, guiding them through the research dissemination process. He has conducted several online research workshops on topics ranging from theory building and testing to design science and case study research. By tapping into his vast experience serving on editorial boards, he has conducted workshops on publishing in quality journals, at conferences, and online, as well as for PhD students.

Professional Service

He has served in a wide variety of service engagements at the departmental, college, and university levels. Serving as a PhD coordinator in many schools and serving as the Promotion and Tenure Coordinator has helped him engage with stakeholders at the unit, business school, and university level. He has long associations with professional organizations such as ASCM, CSCMP, and ISM. He has served as a faculty advisor to supply chain student clubs. He has invited an executive to the classroom to present and help identify student talent for supply chain companies. He has served on faculty hiring committees both as a member and as chair. He has used his extensive network of contacts to recruit graduate students and faculty. He takes his mentoring responsibility seriously by also engaging in informal mentoring. The span of mentoring includes career advising for undergraduate, graduate, PhD candidates, and junior faculty. He also guides students through company interviews for supply chain positions.

Community Engagement

My community engagements include direct contact with companies and local chapters of professional SCM associations. Indirectly, I served the community by actively guiding students' projects as they work with small and medium enterprises on supply chain issues. I also connect hiring companies with our students to help match supply and demand for supply chain talent.

Honors & Awards

My honors include leadership positions in several top-tier journals. I have helped commission special issues on topics like modularity, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence. I have received best paper awards for some of my research studies. I have also received Best Editor awards for my editorial work. I have served as the director of several honors theses on supply chain topics. I am frequently invited to evaluate theses and grant proposals from universities in the US and abroad. I have received research grant monies from several grant agencies. I also obtained a grant from Target to start an SCM student club. I have been selected to participate in the Fulbright US Scholar program. I have been invited as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar to one university in India and one university in New Zealand. I was invited to deliver a keynote at PROCURECON, a leading professional association for practicing sourcing managers.