Faculty & Research

Our supply chain management faculty members stay at the leading edge of the industry by pursuing rigorous applied research.

Stella Tomasi, Ph.D.

Temple University

Dr. Tomasi’s area of expertise includes supply chain process improvement, logistics, human-computer interaction and machine learning. She teaches the business process management course that includes robotic process automation (RPA) in the program. She has received multiple awards for her outstanding teaching and was ranked by Poets&Quants as one of the top 50 business professors nationally. Dr. Tomasi is the graduate program director and can be reached at supplychain AT_TOWSON.

Chaodong Han, Ph.D.

University of Maryland, College Park

With academic interests that include data and decision analysis, logistics and distribution, project management and international supply chain management, Professor Han teaches EBTM 710 Logistics and Distribution. His research interests include humanitarian logistics, outsourcing strategies and the effects of inventory strategies and information technology investment on firm performance. He has received multiple awards for his outstanding research and teaching.

Feng Cheng, Ph.D.

Arizona State University

Dr. Cheng specializes in supply chain management, logistics, and business analytics. Her research focuses on food-transportation logistics, equitable supply-chain governance, and buyer–supplier relationships. Dr. Cheng teaches EBTM 602: Introduction to Supply Chain Management, where she integrates current industry practices with data-driven decision-making.

Xiaolin Li, Ph.D.

Kent State University

Dr. Li's teaching interests include e-Business, customer relationship management, and applied ERP systems. His research interests include team dynamics, search engine optimization, and the use of business IT solutions. He teaches the Customer Relationship Management course and is two-time recipient of the College of Business and Economics Outstanding Scholarship Award.

Natalie Scala, Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Scala's areas of expertise include decision modeling, energy utilities, elections security, military applications, spare-parts management and cybersecurity. She has published numerous papers in leading journals and actively consults industry clients. She teaches the supply chain analytics course.

Dong Qing Yao, Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Dr. Yao's teaching interests include project management, operations management and supply chain management. His primary research interests include supply chain management for technology-intensive industries as well as innovative supply chain technology integration. He teaches the operations management course.

Selected Research

An Empirical Study of Truck Driver Detention Time: a shipper's perspective (2025)
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
Authors: Feng Cheng, Chaodong Han and Stella Tomasi

This study aims to conduct a regression analysis of factors contributing to truck driver detention time, including shipper, carrier and customer facility characteristics. Specifically, we examine how the impact of private fleets versus for-hire carriers on detention time varies with customer facilities that have different operating hours and cargo processing efficiency. The findings offer managerial insights and policy recommendations to address detention, a significant challenge facing the US trucking industry.

Quality certification decision of online retail platform under heterogeneous manufacturers (2025)
Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
Authors: Qi Zhang, Jingxia Chen, Ju Zhao and Dong-Qing Yao

This paper studies whether retail platforms can improve the product quality of sellers (manufacturers) through implementing quality certifications. We develop a game-theoretic model which consists of one retail platform and two competing manufacturers with differentiated brand positioning. We find that the certification is profitable (unprofitable) for platform when the certification cost coefficient is low (high). Additionally, we identify two effects of the consumer preference on the certification: the low-preference effect and the high-preference effect, which have opposing impacts on the standard and the quality investment of certified manufacturers.

Analysis of Security Behaviors of Supply Chain Professionals (2024)
Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers
Authors: Hao Nguyen, Natalie Scala and Josh Dehlinger

The digitization of supply chains facilitates integration of upstream and downstream resources but also increases the likelihood of cyber-attacks. Therefore, as supply chain professionals pose an insider risk to supply chain cybersecurity, this research delves into their information security behaviors. The objective is to assess the security practices of supply chain professionals and identify strategies for improvement. Utilizing principles from information theory for analysis, results of this preliminary research reveal significant inconsistency in information security behaviors among supply chain professionals, particularly with Password Generation, Device Securement, and Proactive Awareness.

Sustainable Food Supply from the Perspective of Paddy Ecosystem Elasticity: Policies and Implications (2022)
Sustainability
Authors: Teng Yeng, Yanhua Sun and Xiaolin Li

This study estimates how paddy ecosystem elasticity and external human activity affect paddy ecosystem sustainable food supply. In particular, we analyzed how sustainable food supply is affected by three key domains of external factors—ecological factors, including the proportion of paddy Area (Are), per capita cultivated land area (Lan), and annual wastewater discharge per capita (Was); economic factors, including the agricultural economy level (Inv) and urbanization rate (Urb); and social factors, including the education of farmers (Edu) and rural medical level (Med). Based on our findings, we lay out a series of recommendations that may guide future formulation of policies on paddy ecosystem protection and sustainable food supply.

An Exploratory Examination of the Direct and Indirect Effects of Industry Competition on Manufacturing Industries (2019)
Journal of Supply Chain and Operations Management
Authors: Chaodong Han, Tobin Porterfield and Stella Tomasi

Inventory theory has not clearly addressed the relationship between industry competition and inventory levels. Grounded in the classic Structure - Conduct – Performance (S-C-P) paradigm, this study builds a theory-based research model and uses regression models to test the direct and indirect effects of industry competition on manufacturing inventories at all three stages (i.e., raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods). Industry competition is operationalized as upstream industry competition, focal industry competition and downstream industry competition. Regression results suggest that industry competition has both direct and indirect effects on manufacturing inventories through several moderating inventory drivers.