Three-Minute Thesis Competition

Doctoral Students Present Their Research Against the Clock

In the spring of 2015, 13 Carson College doctoral students competed in the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®) research communication competition sponsored by the WSU Office of the Provost. Students had three minutes to present a concise, compelling summary of their thesis, explaining its significance to a non-specialist audience. Each college held its own challenge, with the winners advancing to the University competition

FIRST PLACE

Xun Xu, Ph.D.
Operations & Management Science

Xun Xu won the Carson College competition, earning $300 for his research presentation focusing on supply chain coordination and service operations. He advanced to the University competition and placed fourth. Xu’s dissertation “Coordinating a Tourism Supply Chain Using Pricing and Cooperative Advertising Strategies” analyzes a tourism supply chain containing a theme park, local hotels, and multiple travel agents using a game theory approach. He specifically focuses on sales of travel packages that include theme park tickets, air travel, and accommodations. His results demonstrate that profits can be further increased by incorporating pricing of both the hotel rooms and the theme park into a coordinated decision.

To watch a video of Xu’s presentation, visit 3mt.wsu.edu/business/xunxu.

 

 

SECOND PLACE

Jonathan Jackson, Ph.D.
Operations & Management Science

Jonathan Jackson placed second in the Carson College competition, winning $150 for his presentation “Quantity Discounts, Capacity Decisions, and Channel Structure Choices in Supply Chains.” Jackson’s research identifies several areas for future quantity discount research to help bring together the current academic literature and the needs of practitioners from both buyers’ and suppliers’ perspectives. His results may also help purchasing managers make appropriate procurement decisions when ordering multiple products simultaneously, each with its own quantity discount schedule and with the presence of a common resource constraint (e.g., warehouse space).

To watch a video of Jackson’s presentation, visit 3mt.wsu.edu/business/jonjackson.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Tyler Stumpf, Ph.D.
Hospitality & Tourism Business Management

Tyler Stumpf won the $100 People’s Choice Award for his presentation “Navigating the Elusive Industry: A Grounded Investigation into Hotel Business Management in a Developing Pacific Island Country.” His research develops a grounded theory on how to design and maintain a workable hotel business model in a developing Pacific Island country that does not have a workable tourism business model, and where ease of doing business is low. The results reveal how foreign and local hotel entrepreneurs structure transaction cost, economizing business arrangements with each other by effectively working within institutional constraints.

To watch a video of Stumpf’s presentation, visit 3mt.wsu.edu/business/tylerstumpf.