Operations Management and Information Systems
Overview
The Operations Management and Information Systems (OMIS) area of the Schulich School of Business offers PhD students the opportunity to work closely with highly productive faculty in a unique setting. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the OMIS area, PhD students are provided with a grounding in both the Operations Management and Management Information Systems disciplines. Students then specialize in one of the two disciplines for purposes of completing a dissertation. The goal of the OMIS area is to provide our PhD graduates with the skills they need to become successful and productive research-oriented faculty members at the world’s leading business schools.
OMIS faculty regularly publish their research within the best journals in their respective fields (such as the Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, and MIS Quarterly) as well as leading journals in other disciplines (i.e. Strategic Management Journal and Environmental Informatics Archives). Research interests within the faculty range from mainstream topics such as supply chain strategy and knowledge management systems to emerging topics such as environmentally sustainable business practices. While the area has a core capability in empirical research methods, OMIS faculty have successfully applied a range of empirical and analytical methods depending on the requirements of specific research programs.
The OMIS faculty is open to a wide range of methodologies and research topics. OMIS faculty presently conduct research in the following areas:
- Supply chain management
- Sustainable supply chains
- The role of human resources in operational decision making and outcomes
- Service sciences
- Environmental informatics
- Productivity of service operations
- Environmental planning under uncertainty
- New technology adoption
- Solid and hazardous waste management
- Information systems strategy
- Information management in turbulent environments
- Technology adoption among small and medium-sized firms
- Expectations and emotions in IS design
- Knowledge management systems
- Sustainable manufacturing
- Decision support systems
We have purposefully limited the size of our PhD program in order to offer students the opportunity to pursue a tailored research agenda, and to provide them with frequent contact with OMIS area faculty members. When students begin to map out a personalized research agenda, they are encouraged to pursue topics they find interesting and relevant. Backed up by the resources of the Schulich School of Business and York University, OMIS PhD students will have the methodological tools and faculty support needed to complete their PhD studies in a rigorous manner.
Involvement in area faculty research provides excellent funding for travel and learning in addition to the basic funding provided by the Schulich School of Business. The School provides PhD students with financial support for four years (click here for typical funding package). Most applicants are also eligible to receive various stipends and scholarships to supplement the basic package. There are also opportunities to earn supplemental income via summer teaching in the later years of the program. In addition, our students benefit from low-cost access to high-quality health care for themselves and their dependents. A yearly allowance is made available for students to present research at select academic conferences. Exceptionally qualified students may also be eligible for a number of national, provincial, university and school-wide fellowships, scholarships and grants during their studies.
We encourage students with interests in all areas of Operations Management and Management Information Systems to apply. The OMIS PhD program is designed to be completed within four years. Students are encouraged to teach courses, attend academic conferences, and publish their research in scholarly journals while in the program.
The area is most interested in individuals with the following attributes:
- a GMAT over 600 with high achievement in both quantitative and communication scores,
- evidence of intent to do empirical research on management issues that is both theoretically and methodologically rigorous,
- commitment to seeking employment as an academic in a leading university, and
- at least a couple of years of work experience outside of academia.
Requirements
COURSEWORK
When students enter the program, the PhD program coordinator reviews each student's academic background and designs with them a course of study. During the first year, students typically complete a set of general doctoral courses in common with doctoral students in other fields. During the second year, they take more specialized courses in their chosen major area of interest. Schulich also requires students to develop a minor area of interest in keeping with the cross disciplinary spirit of the program.
Required General Courses
| SB/DCAD 7100 3.00 | Logics of Social Research |
| SB/DCAD 7250 3.00 | Research Design |
| SB/DCAD 7400 3.00 | Qualitative Research Methods |
In rare cases, students may take courses in other faculties as substitutes. All exemptions from optional courses and substitutes must be approved by the area PhD program coordinator and the Schulich PhD committee.
Note: DCAD Requirements for students admitted prior to Fall 2006 are available here.
Required Courses for Major
Students must complete three of the following core courses in Operations Management and Management Information Systems.
| SB/OMIS 7000 3.00 | Behavioral Issues in Information Systems |
| SB/OMIS 7100 3.00 | Strategic Operations Management |
| SB/OMIS 7200 3.00 | Management of Technological Innovation |
| SB/OMIS 7300 3.00 | Empirical Methods in Operations Management Research |
In addition, students are encouraged to complete at least two of the following MBA electives. Students will be involved in the normal course activities but will be assigned additional tasks and projects reflective of a doctoral level mastery of the content.
| SB/OMIS 6350 3.00 | Advanced Spreadsheet Modelling & Programming for Business |
| SB/OMIS 6500 3.00 | Global Operations and Information Management |
| SB/OMIS 6550 3.00 | Inventory Management |
| SB/OMIS 6560 3.00 | Supply Chain Management and E-commerce |
| SB/OMIS 6955 3.00 | Service Operations Management |
| SB/OMIS 6000 3.00 | Models and Applications in Operations Research |
| SB/OMIS 6953 3.00 | Projects in Operations Management |
| SB/OMIS 6700 3.00 | Managing New Technology |
| SB/OMIS 6710 3.00 | Management Information Systems |
| SB/OMIS 6720 3.00 | System Analysis and Design |
| SB/OMIS 6730 3.00 | Management Issues in Office Information Systems |
| SB/OMIS 6740 3.00 | E-BusinessTechnology |
| SB/SGMT 6960 3.00 | Strategic Management of E-business |
Each student is required as a condition of their doctoral funding to work with faculty members on research, preferably their advisor(s), in the summer following the first year of coursework.
Required Courses for Minors
Minors are recommended for Operations Management majors in the fields of Organizational Behavior, Strategic Management, Marketing and Accounting . It is also possible to take minors in Mathematics & Statistics, Economics, Environmental Studies and Computer Science. For the Schulich-based minors, at least two course are required from the chosen field. Please be sure to check with other areas as to changes in their PhD course offerings. The area recommends :
| Accounting |  |
| SB/ACTG 7010 3.00 | Overview of Accounting Research |
| SB/ACTG 7030 3.00 | Judgement and Decision Research in Accounting |
| SB/ACTG 7040 3.00 | Advanced Topics in Accounting Research |
| SB/ACTG 7950 3.00 | Special Topics in Accounting Research |
Organization Studies | |
| SB/ORGS 7010 3.00 | Individual and Group Behavior in Organizations |
| SB/ORGS 7020 3.00 | Advanced Topics in Organization Theory |
Strategic Management | |
Marketing | |
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Faculty
FACULTY MEMBERS AND THEIR RESEARCH INTERESTS| Markus Biehl* |
Supply chain management, outsourcing strategies, environmentally conscious manufacturing management, reverse logistics |
| John Buzacott** | Structure of service and manufacturing systems, production planning and inventory control, manufacturing and operations strategy |
| Wade Cook* | Multi criteria decision making, data envelop analysis (DEA), service operations in financial services |
| Ric Irving* | Information technology in services |
| David Johnston* |
supply chain management, management of innovation, sustainability, |
| Murat Kristal | Supply chain management, operations strategy and empirical research |
| Henry Kim* | Enterprise modelling, enterprise integration, ontologies, applied AI, quality management information systems, knowledge management, e-commerce |
| Ron McClean | Information systems |
| Dorit Nevo | Knowledge management systems, organizational memory, information systems adoption |
| Mark Pagell* | Sustainable supply chain management, supply chain integration, operational responses to the external environment, and integrating operational and human resource decisions |
| Scott Yeomans* | Environmental informatics, web-enabled environmental decision support systems, environmental planning under uncertainty, solid and hazardous waste management |
* Currently available to supervise doctoral students
** Emeritus Professors
Scholarly development is an integral part of student life at Schulich School of Business. Working on research topics with award winning faculty, you will present your findings at industry conferences and publish them in key publications. Highlighted below is a list of PhD students in the Operations Management and Information Systems area as well as a comprehensive list of dissertation topics of graduates in the program.
CURRENT STUDENTS
| Muhammad Ahmed | Sharvani Sharma |
| Altay Aksulu | Anton Shevchenko |
| Stephen Dobson | Hamed Tajedin |
DISSERTATION TOPICS
| 2012 | Ahmed Doha | The Dynamics between Imitation and Innovation within the Firm |
| 2010 | Olga Kaminer | Antecedents and Outcomes of Supplier Environmental Responsiveness |
| 2009 | George Brent Furneaux | Time for a Change:An Exploration of Information Systems Discontinuance |
| 2007 | Saggi Nevo | The Impact of Compatibility and Complementarity Between Information technology Assets and Organizational Resources on Firm Performance |
| 2005 | Bedour Osman | Antecedents to Effective Collaboration to Innovate |
| 2003 | Reena Yoogalingam | Applications of Evolutionary Algorithms and Simulation to Decision Making Under Uncertainty |
| 2002 | Hsiulin Steve Peng | Risk Sharing and Coordination in a New Aircraft Project |
| 2002 | Wendy Leigh Cukier | The rationality of media discourse on learning technology at Canadian universities: Communications distortions in selected popular, academic and practical texts |
| 2001 | Kamel Bala | EDEA-An Expert Knowledge-Based Performance Measurement Tool |
| 2000 |
William Johnson |
Technological innovation and knowledge creation: A study of the enabling conditions and processes of knowledge creation in collaborative R&D projects |
| 2000 | Moez Hababou | Performance measurement in multifunctional bank branches: A non parametric approach |
| 2000 | Pavan Singh | An empirical study of the idea generation productivity of decision-making groups: Implications for GDSS research, design and practice |
| 1997 | Jonathan Linton | Implementing environmentally friendly process technology: A network approach |