The 19th Session of the Business School’s Excellent Academic Forum Lecture Series in 2024 Is Successfully Held

On the morning of October 15, 2024, the Business School held the 19th Session of the Business School’s Excellent Academic Forum Lecture Series in 2024 at the Conference Room 615 of the Main Teaching Building on the Xueyuan South Road Campus of the Central University of Finance and Economics. Ellie C. Falcone, assistant professor of supply chain management at Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University, was invited as the guest speaker of this lecture. The Business School’s teachers and postgraduate students attended this event.

This meeting was chaired by Chen Jinliang, deputy dean of the Business School. Before the official start of this lecture, Professor Chen Jinliang introduced Assistant Professor Ellie C. Falcone’s resume in detail. Dr. Ellie C. Falcone is an assistant professor of supply chain management at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. Her research goes deep into the dynamics of supply chain networks and explores the topics such as supply chain plasticity, corporate social responsibility and innovation. He has published papers in top journals such as Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management and Journal of Operations Management, and serves as an associate editor of Journal of Supply, Chain Management and Journal of Operations Management.

The topic of Ellie C. Falcone’s lecture is “Understanding the Impact of Supplier Concentration on Firm Innovation Diversity and Innovation Efficiency: The Moderating Roles of Supplier Overlap and Outreach”. In the research of Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM), the impact of suppliers on corporate innovation has been recognized, and two main means of driving corporate innovation have been emphasized. This research conducted an investigation into the impact of supplier concentration on different elements of enterprise innovation performance (innovation diversity and innovation efficiency). Then, we studies how these relationships were moderated by supplier overlap degree - the extent to which the buyer shares suppliers with direct competitors within the industry - supplier extension - the extent to which the buyer shares suppliers with enterprises outside the industry. The results suggest that centralized supply has a positive impact on innovation efficiency, but has a negative impact on innovation diversity. Supplier overlap will reduce efficiency gains, while supplier outreach will enhance the positive impact on efficiency. This research has driven the development of OSCM literature on supply base management and innovation performance. It also provides management insights for the strategic management of suppliers in complex networks.

After the sharing, with regard to the topic of Ellie C. Falcone’s lecture, the attending teachers and students actively participated in the discussion about research directions and publication of high-level papers and so on, further deepening their academic exchanges.

The “Excellent Academic Forum” is an academic exchange platform established by the Business School to fulfill the mission of “contributing new management knowledge”, which focuses on cutting-edge theoretical issues and organizational development dilemmas in the discipline of business administration and the Chinese enterprise management practice, and brings together frontier ideas and innovative ideas in China and abroad, so as to explore Chinese solutions for China's social and economic development.