Supply Chain Management: An Empirical Study to Aid in the Design of Curricula

Supply chain management is an approach designed to synergistically enhance the value provided to customers by integrating the decision making and coordinating the activities of a group of businesses whose processes are sequentially related in the creation and distribution of goods and services. Recently, a very limited number of schools have begun to offer baccalaureate degrees in business with supply chain management majors. So too, there is a growing number of professionals with supply chain management explicitly mentioned in their job titles. These factors are bringing increasing pressure for business schools to determine how best to structure courses and programs in supply chain management. Our research, motivated by the perceived need to create a supply chain management major and minor within our school of business, seeks to identify business perspectives on the appropriate structure and extent of need for graduates of such programs.