Dear friends,
My PhD dissertation developed mathematical models about quantity discounts for both buyers and sellers. But rather than having me jump right in and expand upon previously developed models, my advisor asked me to first gain a better understanding of industry practice by conducting interviews with 39 executives from both the purchasing side and the selling side. My advisor and I published “Theories and Realities of Quantity Discounts: An Exploratory Study.” Our findings on the executives’ insights influenced later mathematical models I developed.
Nearly 20 years later, I asked my own PhD student, Jon Jackson, now an associate professor at Providence College, to do the same thing. We compared his findings with mine. That study became part of a new publication, “Quantity Discounts: An Overview and Practical Guide for Buyers and Sellers.” The insights shaped his future modeling efforts as well. In our experience, real-world managerial insights have led to better and more practical theory and mathematical modeling.
Other Carson students have also made great use of industry connections. Fourth-year student Amir Moadab has met with a police officer in Indiana to understand how law enforcement uses drones for search-and-rescue operations after disasters. Fourth-year student Pingping Tang has met with several Amazon.com sellers to better understand how the platform works, which has helped inform several different studies she’s conducting about Amazon. While at WSU, Aysajan Eziz (’18 PhD), now an assistant professor at Ivey Business School, and his advisor, Tim Baker, developed a sophisticated revenue management pricing model for hotels. They collaborated with a hotel in western Washington that shared its demand data. Eziz created a user-friendly Excel interface for the hotel to implement the revenue model.
Most of the research our PhD students produce has direct implications for industry, but it can be difficult to get research participation from actual practicing managers. Academic journal reviewers constantly request that we incorporate real company data to test our models and theories, but such data can be very difficult to obtain.
I invite our readers to join our research endeavors. If you have an idea, contact us! Tell us what your company’s challenges are, and we can test previously published theories and models with your data or even develop new models tailored to your organization. It can be a golden opportunity to have a company approach a PhD student with a topic. Students are at the height of their academic training, can perform high-level analysis, and can devote one to three years to a project.
My initial exposure to managers from industry as a PhD student three decades ago opened up a research area for me that has led to multiple journal publications, a 132-page research monograph, and two related consulting opportunities. I encourage Carson Coug supporters to provide similar experiences for our current PhD students who can help solve some of your toughest problems!
Chuck Munson, PhD Program Director
