Supply Chain phd topics

[shamikPushkar]

Hi,

 

I'm planning to apply for phd in fall 2018. I wanted to know the research topics in supply chain management.

[XanthusARES]

What are you trying to ask? Like what are you interested in? What the hot topics currently are in Supply Chain Management? Or at a more basic level what people who study Supply Chain Management study?

 

You are likely to get little response if your question is about what people study. That's fairly easily to discern from doing a little bit of research on department websites. Also you should have some of an idea about that before you consider applying to PhD programs. It will be impossible to write an SOP if you don't know what people study.

 

If you're interested in finding out the hot topics, then I suggest you look at the top journals. See what topics people are writing on. If there are a lot of papers about one area, that is the hot topic right now. You may find some people on here who are willing to provide some guidance with that question.

[PoC]

SCM research falls primarily in two camps. Analytical and Empirical. Journal lists for each of these can be found here : Supply Chain Management Journal List

 

This website will also help you figure out the "rankings" (I use this word lightly) of all the programs in the SCM discipline.

 

Take a look at the recent papers in each of the journals to understand where the research is going. Alternatively, you can look up the faculty in the SCM/Logisitics/Operations departments of the Schools listed and their research.

 

Hope that helps.

[shamikPushkar]

I'm pretty sure i want to do something related to supply chain analytics. But that in itself is a vast topic. Also, most of the papers I've read are quite difficult and honestly I don't understand most of it. I'm looking for a more basic level knowledge on the research going on in the use of analytics in supply chain.

[XanthusARES]

Yeah when you first start reading academic papers they seem like they're written in some strange language. I remember picking up and trying to read the same paper over the course of a week when I first started thinking about pursuing an academic career. The great news is that by the time you finish classes you'll be a pro at reading papers and should be able to get through them pretty quickly.

 

My advice is that if you think you are interested in supply chain management, just keep on reading. Check out the journal list that PoC mentioned and try to read through the papers. Start with papers that are short on theory, those are almost always the easiest to get the point of. Just try to see the main point that they are trying to get across, or more basically what question they are trying to answer. Don't get caught in the weeds of the methodology, you'll get a deeper understanding of that during your classes. Rather try to discern, through their hypotheses, what they are looking at and then through the results and discussion what they actually found. It will get easier, but it will take some time. Also note that it never gets "too easy". A paper will still take you X amount of time to read and digest, no matter whether you are a grad student or a tenured faculty. Don't give up, though. Power through it.

 

To get to your specific inquiry, I would go to the journals posted above and do a search for analytics. Start with the shortest, but most cited papers. Slog your way through them and start building a "net" of papers.