Associate Dean receives top award for co-authored research paper
Dr. Bertie Greer — who serves as an associate professor of global supply chain management and associate dean for strategy and planning at the Mike Ilitch School of Business — thought it was a mistake when she picked up her nametag and it read "Award Winner" at the 49th annual Decision Sciences Conference. After seeking further confirmation, Greer was surprised to learn that she and co-author Matthew Ford (Northern Kentucky University) had been awarded Best Theoretical Research Paper for their paper "Institutional Uncertainity and Supply Chain Management: A Conceptual Framework."
"I've worked with Matt since we both started at Northern Kentucky, and we'd been conducting this research for over five years," Greer said. "It was rewarding and surprising to receive this award."
Greer spent 15 years at Northern Kentucky before coming to Wayne State. She earned her Ph.D. from Kent State University in Business Administration and her MBA and bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toledo. Her research interests are in the areas of supply chain management, supplier diversity, project management and the implementation of change.
This paper considers the impact of institutional uncertainty on supply chain quality management (SCQM). The influence of institutional environments on SCQM practices is important to understand as lengthening supply chains cross international borders and are subject to increasingly complex institutional jurisdictions. Generally, SCQM facilitates stability of resource flows in institutional contexts. As uncertainty increases, SCQM practices are proposed to shift from abiding postures to those that evade and alter unstable institutional settings. An implication is that effective inter-organizational quality management requires capability for coping with political and legal instabilities that influence quality-related aspects of resource exchange between supply chain members.
