A Framework for household recycling

Project Investigators:
Kuntal Bhattacharyya , Ph.D.
Director, CSMR
Concetta DePaolo, Ph.D.
Professor, OSCM

Student Collaborators
Lydia (Lee) Barker
Charles (Joe) Carlson

Consulting Partners
Shikha Bhattacharyya, Ph.D.
Paul Reed
Caroline Savage

The Center for Supply Management Research, in association with the ISU Recycling Center and the Institute for Community Sustainability has embarked on a large scale project to design and implement a self-sustainable household recycling program for the mid-west region in the United States. In the spring of 2014, two recent graduates of the OSCM program, Lydia Barker and Charles Carlson, worked with Dr. Bhattacharyya on the first two phases of the project (read complete story here), respectively.

  Phase 1

In a growing urban landscape marred by vanishing ecosystems and biodiversity losses, proper recycling can ensure a livable world for future generations. The outcome of this research will help design self-sustainable household recycling programs based on demography-driven factors that help increase recycling habits. In essence, as a first step to create a self-sustainable household recycling model, this project seeks to understand the underlying dynamics that would impact one’s intentions towards recycling. We identify five antecedents to one’s recycling intentions – conscience, culture, convenience, compensation, and consequences (5 Cs). Our research questions are two-fold. First, we want to understand the impact of each of the identified Cs on one’s recycling intentions. Second, based on different demographics, we seek to comprehend the way users prioritize between the 5Cs when it comes to recycling decisions. The research idea was recently presented at the Mid-West Decision Sciences Conference in Chicago, IL and received raving reviews. Our results will be based on statistical and probabilistic analysis of sample data collected from a Qualtrics survey designed by Lydia Barker under the supervision of Dr. Bhattacharyya and Dr. DePaolo (you can take the survey here). The results will be presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Meeting in Tampa, FL, come November, 2014.

  Phase 2

Phase 2: The outcome of Phase 1 will feed into designing a household recycling model for sustainable usage. Data from ISU Recycle Center will be used as initial proxies for operating blueprints of the proposed household model. Therefore, as a first step, a thorough analysis of the operations of the ISU Recycling Center was conducted by Charles Carlson, under the guidance of Dr. Bhattacharyya. The analysis revealed key structural patterns and operating resource data (both human and machine) that will be used as proxies in the proposed model. A detailed report is available here.

  Phase 3

Phase 3: A basic model for household recycling will be simulated, complete with cost, revenue, and other features to make it self-sustainable. The Center is now seeking student volunteers to work on this project, beginning fall 2014. The work can be used towards an “independent study” or an “honors” addendum in an OSCM course. Interested candidates may apply with a resume and letter of Interest to scottcollegecsmr@gmail.com with subject line “CSMR Household Recycling Project – Phase 3”.

  Terre Haute sustainability championship – 2014

Project Investigators:
Kuntal Bhattacharyya , Ph.D.
Director, CSMR

In an attempt to plant the seeds of permanent and profound sustainability by bringing awareness on environmental issues in the Wabash Valley, the Center for Supply Management Research at the Scott College of Business, in association with the Institute for Community Sustainability at Indiana State University is collaborating with a local community organization (India Association of Terre Haute) to organize the Terre Haute Sustainability Championship 2014. The ISU media release is available here.

Incorporating risk metrics in service level agreements (SLAs) for third party logistics (3PL) companies

Project Investigators
Kuntal Bhattacharyya , Ph.D.
Director, CSMR

Student Collaborators
Seeking prspective students to collaborate

Consulting Partners
Andy Hendricks
President, Distributor Terminals,Inc.

Project Description
Third party logistics (3PL) providers are an essential form of intermediation for end-to-end fulfillment in today’s global businesses. The contractual agreement used to manage the relationship between shippers and 3PL providers is called a service-level agreement (SLA). While contemporary SLAs do a commendable job on specifying the required services from a 3PL provider in measurable terms, the element of risk is not well-integrated into the relationship between shippers and 3PLs. By superimposing risk on traditional performance metrics, this research provides a first take on incorporating risk metrics into SLAs for 3PLs and provides a risk-adjusted framework to better manage 3PL providers in a volatile business landscape.

  Indiana Rural Community Database

Project Investigators
Jen Perry, Marketability Solutions
RUDI, Indiana State University

Student Collaborators
TBD

Consulting Partners
Kuntal Bhattacharyya , Ph.D.
Director, CSMR

Project Description
This database is designed to gather information from those who are interested in information about rural communities in Indiana. Ideally, users will enter some basic demographic information and the database will show how various rural communities based on those elements that are most important to the user. The Center for Supply Management Research is serving as a consulting partner to create a probabilistic model that dampens information interchange during user interface with the database tool.

  Investigating the dining services Industry through the lens of national culture

Project Investigators
Kuntal Bhattacharyya , Ph.D.
Director, CSMR

Student Collaborators
Ashley Borhart

Consulting Partners
TBD

Phase 1:
This research analyzes differences in customers’ perceived quality of experience in dining services by comparing case studies from across five continents and investigating the impact of national cultural values on dining experiences in a cross-cultural setting. The meta-analysis provides an interesting departure from traditional assumptions on dining experience. The conceptual model and hypotheses will be presented at the Decision Science Annual Meeting at Tampa, FL on November 24, 2014.

Phase 2:
Based on the conceptual model, the data collection phase will be initiated in this phase to complete the meta-analysis.