2009 Headlines
Srinagesh Gavirneni Receives Grant to Research Inventory Decision Making Strategies in China
Study to Examine Behavioral Differences Between Chinese and Western Cultures
April 2, 2009 | Ithaca, NY | Srinagesh Gavirneni, assistant professor of operations management at the Johnson School at Cornell University, recently received a grant to study the decision making processes regarding inventories in China. The grant, awarded by the Jeffrey Sean Lehman Fund for Scholarly Exchange with China, will allow Gavirneni to collaborate with Professor Chen at Tsinghua University to complete the study. The Lehman Fund, named after Cornell's eleventh president, is awarded each year to projects involving interaction between Cornell and institutions of higher education in China.
The impact of human behavior on inventory decision making is a nascent field, and majority of the current research completed on the topic reflects individuals of western educational and cultural backgrounds. As students and practitioners in China are culturally and educationally different from their western counterparts, it is conceivable that their behavioral tendencies are very different. Because much of the world's industry is based in China and throughout Asia, the study will open the door to better understanding of inventory strategies in these areas and examine the differences in the behavior of U.S. and Chinese managers when making inventory decisions.
"Inventories are a major source of inefficiency in the global economy and even a five to 10 percent reduction could result in billions of dollars of savings to consumers. Our research is intended to highlight that human behavioral tendencies, unlike mathematics, are not universal across the globe, and proposed inventory reduction strategies must be tailored to fit the cultural and educational backgrounds of the people involved," Gavirneni shared.
In addition to inventory management, Gavirneni focuses his research on supply chain management, production scheduling, simulation, and optimization. Before joining the Johnson School at Cornell, he was an assistant professor at Indiana University. He has also worked as a Software Architect at Maxager Technology Inc., a research scientist with Schlumberger and as the chief algorithm design engineer of SmartOps. Gavirneni has had his work featured in Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and the European Journal of Operational Research, among others. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT-Madras, a Masters from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.
