The three areas of specialization offered in the Ph.D. in Business and Technology are Customer Management, Supply Chain Management, and Management of Information Technology.

Customer Management
The domain of Customer Management (CM) includes issues relating to how businesses identify, attract, capture, service and retain customers. Organizations today are complex, comprising of multiple product lines and operating in multiple industry categories. They therefore not only need a total 360 degree view of customers, they also have to use customer information for designing integrated marketing programs across the enterprise for each individual customer.

From a program perspective, the study of CRM should incorporate areas such as consumer behavior, marketing strategy, development of CRM strategy and its fit with both marketing and corporate strategy, relationship marketing, campaign management, data mining and warehousing, customer value measurement and creation, and CRM technologies and tools.

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Supply Chain Management
The domain of Supply Chain Management includes the design, development, and control of business processes for the conversion of inputs into outputs and distribution of those outputs. The traditional focus of SCM was on integration of processes across multiple functions within the firm—operations management, logistics, and purchasing primarily, with elements of marketing and information systems included as well. However, in today’s world, where competition is across supply chain networks, SCM also involves integrating business processes across firms.

Accordingly, the proposed program in Supply Chain Management will be interdisciplinary in nature and cover both intra- and inter-organizational issues. One focus area is supply chain strategy that governs the entire set of activities from the time an idea or product is conceived to when an order for the product is placed to when the product is received by the customer. Another focus area is “supply management,” sometimes referred to as purchasing; this area has become increasingly important because of the outsourcing phenomenon being witnessed today. Associated with supply management is the concept of demand management—which looks at issues relating to matching the rate of production to the rate of consumption, a key challenge today since product life cycles have become much shorter.

Supply Chain Management is of critical importance to the business community and will continue to be so in the future. More than one executive has remarked that the basis of competition is no longer company versus company, but supply chain versus supply chain. Yet at the very same time when business has recognized this criticality, there is a shortage of qualified Ph.D.’s in this field. The proposed concentration in supply chain management will meet this specific market need.

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Management of Information Technology
Management of Information Technology (MIT) is a term that defines the set of functions related to developing, building, managing, and using information and knowledge-based technologies. Such technologies enable users to collect organizational data, provide a platform for organizing and disseminating the data, and offer operational, decision support, and knowledge management tools through which users can leverage data and information for making better organizational decisions.

From an academic perspective, MIT involves multiple disciplines that span functional and disciplinary boundaries. Specifically, three areas are encompassed in this area: 1) decision and management science, 2) technology and software systems, and 3) organizational and behavioral science. Programmatically, MIT will incorporate courses in areas such as information technology analysis and development, database and knowledge management systems, decision support and data mining, human computer interaction, system security and integrity, and project management and collaborative teamwork.

MIT will continue to be an important area in organizations because it provides the infrastructure that enables functional areas to operate and achieve strategic success. The proposed track in MIT will help to meet the continuing demand for quality academic researchers and teachers in fields such as Management Information Systems, Information Security and Assurance, Information Sciences, and Human Computer Interaction.

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Spotlight

“If you can’t manage information, you won’t be able to manage material flows. And the customer relationship side is the ability to determine how well you’re executing.”

David Ecklund
1972 industrial administration graduate of Iowa State University
After a successful career with Caterpillar Inc. and Caterpillar Logistics Services, Ecklund has returned to academia as a faculty member at the University of Tennessee. From early in the process of developing Iowa State’s PhD program, he has brought the perspective of alumnus, business executive, and faculty member.

Sridhar Ramaswami, Ph.D.
(515) 294-5341
sramaswa@iastate.edu
3216 Gerdin Business Building
Ames, IA 50011