Surya D. Pathak
Research Associate, Systems and Decision Making Group,
Lecturer, Engineering Management Program,
Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, TN, USA.
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Surya D. Pathak Research Associate, Systems and Decision Making Group,
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VU Station B #351831 Tel (Cell):615-275-8519 |
Supply chain management is becoming an increasingly critical area in the operations management discipline.
In practice, supply chains, or networks, are composed of a large number of firms, from multiple inter-related industries,
that maintain both local and global objectives within a dynamic environment. One of my primary research interest is in
investigating supply networks as complex, dynamic, and evolving systems, and approaching the buyer-supplier relationship issues
from an evolutionary angle. Along with fundamental Supply Network research, I am simultaneosuly developing policy design frameowrks
for complex large scale network based systems that include supply networks, transportaion networks,telecommunication networks,
emergency response networks and healthcare networks. Thus my reserach is positioned at the interface of Supply Chain Management and Decision Sciences.
Complex Adaptive Supply Networks
As part of my dissertation research titled; “An investigative framework for studying the growth and evolution dynamics of
supply networks (SN)”, I focused on the dynamic growth aspect of Supply Networks (SNs) and
addressed two fundamental questions: 1) how do supply networks grow, evolve and
emerge and 2) are there simple rules and conditions that impact the growth and emergence process?
Building on the conceptual idea of a SN as a Complex Adaptive System, this work focused on understanding
this phenomenon based on theoretical foundations from classical network theory, industrial organization
theory, market structure theory and game theory. Using a bottoms-up approach, I have shown how individually
each theory contributes a piece to the puzzle of SN adaptation and, taken together, the theories unite to
create a framework for researching the fundamental processes of SN emergence and evolution. The framework
specifies categories of rules that may evoke different behaviors in the two fundamental components of any
adaptive supply network, i.e., the environment and the firms in that environment. To show the applicability
of the framework, I created a simulation-based model using software agent technology and a grid computing
system to investigate the actual and potential emergence of the US automotive industry SN from 1920 to 2000.
Using only simple rules and conditions, results conform to Utterback’s theoretical industrial growth curve
and to the actual evolution of the US automotive industry over the past 80 years. Interestingly, there also
were statistically significant results showing that supply networks grow and emerge based on interactive
effects of local decision-making rules and environmental conditions, and that there is an underlying order
to the emergence process. Additionally, a rich set of evolutionary patterns on how SNs might have emerged
given slightly different initial conditions was observed. Finally, this research developed novel chaos theory
analysis techniques for predicting the SN system behavior over time. Representative Publications
1. Pathak SD , Day J, Nair A, Sawaya WJ, and Kristal M, 2007. Complexity and adaptivity in supply networks: building supply network theory using a complex adaptive systems perspective. Decision Sciences Journal, vol 38(4). Buyer Supplier Relationships in Supply Chains
Simultaneous competition and cooperation behavior (called co-opetition) between a buyer and a supplier has become an interesrting and challenging area of reserach
in the Supply Chain Management discipline. I am investigating buyer-supplier and buyer-buyer co-opetition as an evolutionary process, focusing on
understanding how different modes of co-opetition evolve, what are the factors that controls this process and what kind of
managerial insights could be gained from both buyers and suppliers perspectives.
Along with researchers from the Systems and Decision Making group here at Vanderbilt and collaborators from University of South Carolina and University of Washington
we have developed a conceptual, simulation and an optimization model for both buyer-buyer co-opetition and buyer-supplier co-opetition.
We are using a novel set of analysis techniques such as non-linear time series analysis methods, granger causality technique and
hamiltonian optimizations for gaining insights from a decision makers perspective.
Working Papers
1. Pathak SD, Pierce J, McDonald MP, Mahadevan S, November 2007. Analysis of co-opetitive relationship in a buyer-buyer supply chain dyad. Management Science (In preparation). Policy Optimization in Super Networks
Due to my experience with modeling and analysis of supply networks, I have developed a natural interest in inter-disciplinary
networked system research; particularly from a policy design and optimization perspective. Networked systems provide the
infrastructure and foundation for the functioning of today's societies. Examples of such systems include: transportation and
logistical networks, communication networks, economic and financial networks, and supply chain networks.
Such networks often share certain properties, including large-scale nature and complexity, information asymmetry,
alternative behaviors of users of the networks, as well as interactions between the networks themselves. Policy decisions in
such networks require an understanding of the behaviors of those who use the network system as well as their interaction with the
underlying topology/topologies. At the Systems and Decision Making (SDM) group at Vanderbilt I along with my co-investigators
employ a multidisciplinary approach that combines decision theory, network theory, reliability theory, and complex adaptive system
theory along with mathematical modeling, optimization and advanced agent based simulations for investigating policy
design in transportation networks, emergency response networks, avian influenza networks, military supply networks and super networks.
I particularly lead resrearch in the areas of:
Working Papers
1. McDonald MP, Pathak SD, Mahadevan S, 2007. Modeling and analyzing system response behavior in a traffic super network with bounded rational users. Transportation Research Record (Submitted). |
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