The purpose of this honors thesis project is to gather information and expand upon current research within the field of Supply Chain Management. The first step taken to effectively learn about research within the field was the attendance of supply chain seminars geared toward PhD level students. After attending these research seminars, summaries and personal reflections have been created to synthesize the material and highlight the topics discussed. After an analysis of each of the research seminars, an in-depth literature review for the specific topic of “Production Process Moves” is given. This literature review will expand upon the areas of research from this seminar, as well as explore various topics with a focus on knowledge transfer that could have been incorporated into these studies.

The purpose of this thesis paper is to discuss the life cycle curves of today’s innovation-driven digital services and how these life cycles can be extended. To decide on this subject, four supply chain management seminars were attended and summarized, and personal notes were added. After analysis of the seminars, the paper will dive deeper into the topic discussed by Professor Adegoke Oke of Arizona State University in his lecture on innovation-driven life cycle curves and their exemplification of the shark fin curve. This paper will analyze the nature of product life cycle curves, discuss three PC games and their life cycle curves, and evaluate the best methods for creating life cycle extension.

Single-use plastic has rapidly increased pollution in the United States, and the urgency to address its growing consequences is a complex undertaking. Significantly contributing to plastic pollution is the waste of single-use beverage plastics like cups and straws. In order to make impactful changes in the supply chain of single-use beverage plastics, we must first understand the stakeholders involved and the current extent of their actions. Therefore, this paper will investigate how stakeholders elicit sustainable changes to improve supply chain practices in this particular situation. We will use principles of sustainable supply chain management including corporate social responsibility and the triple bottom line model as the theoretical framework. Methodology consists of a stakeholder analysis where we conduct literature review, a consumer survey analysis, and interviews with industry experts to examine how various stakeholders elicit sustainably focused change. Essential insights made will be to understand different stakeholder actions and perspectives in relation to single-use beverage plastics, and how they contribute to creating sustainable changes in the larger context of plastic pollution control.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight into the work of Arizona State University Supply Chain professors, as well as Supply Chain faculty from around the world. In order to gain a more thorough understanding of the research, a summary and reflection will be provided for each of the seminars attended. Summaries will include a brief background of the presenters, a summary of their research, and my personal takeaways. The seminars include research from Dr. Srimathy Mohan and Dr. Adegoke Oke from Arizona State University. Each of these professors will cover the topic of their past and/or current research in addition to their findings and key conclusions. Additionally, research from Dr. Barb Flynn of Indiana University and Dr. Seyed Emadi of University of North Carolina will be included. Research from Dr. Flynn is on the subject of understanding adaption to sustainable technologies, specifically within a manufacturing context. Research from Dr. Emadi is on the topic of determining the most effective policies to reduce attrition, specifically in call center businesses.
This thesis also includes a literature review on the subject of consumer responses to service failure. Specifically, it covers 10 articles related to the overarching subject of consumer responses to service failures in a variety of scenarios and industries. Additionally, it includes a section of potential areas for future research, with an emphasis on the growing online cloud services industry. There is room for additional research to be completed in terms of determining where consumers will place their blame for service failures that occur on cloud service platforms such as online gaming.

For the Supply Chain Management Alternative Thesis, I was required to attend 4 research seminars. After attending all four seminars, I wrote a summary for each one and then did my own research on a subject from one of the seminars. I selected the lecture from Mahyar Eftekhar to do more research on due to my passion of humanitarian work. The lecture delivered by Mahyar Eftekhar on September 27th, 2018 there was a question being asked, “How to improve service delivery, considering the peculiar characteristics of humanitarian supply chains?”. This question can either cost a company a lot of money or save it a lot of money. The problem is how do you reduce risk for a supply chain in humanitarian work? The objective of my research is to find different solutions on risk mitigation for humanitarian organizations and how to bring down costs for the supply chains that these organizations have. Risk mitigation can be difficult for events that happen randomly, but there are ways to help reduce risk. Reducing risk is key to humanitarian supply chains because it can save money for companies that have financial restrictions. Humanitarian supply chains are much different from typical supply chains, due to what is at stake. These supply chains cannot fail, because if they do lives will be put in danger. Disasters can happen at any moment and can range from all different types. Being prepared for the worst case scenario is important in humanitarian efforts in order to bring down costs and save lives.

The objective of this paper is to provide an educational diagnostic into the technology of blockchain and its application for the supply chain. Education on the topic is important to prevent misinformation on the capabilities of blockchain. Blockchain as a new technology can be confusing to grasp given the wide possibilities it can provide. This can convolute the topic by being too broad when defined. Instead, the focus will be maintained on explaining the technical details about how and why this technology works in improving the supply chain. The scope of explanation will not be limited to the solutions, but will also detail current problems. Both public and private blockchain networks will be explained and solutions they provide in supply chains. In addition, other non-blockchain systems will be described that provide important pieces in supply chain operations that blockchain cannot provide. Blockchain when applied to the supply chain provides improved consumer transparency, management of resources, logistics, trade finance, and liquidity.

The main factor that has brought humanitarian logistics to the forefront of the disaster relief process is simply the general increase in the number of natural disasters that affect our world. This increase is due to a few different factors. First, global warming is raising the average temperatures of the oceans, which will bring more intense storms in years to come. Next, the overall increase in global population means that more and more people are affected by these storms. Finally, the increased number of people living in low-lying, coastal regions means that a larger percentage of the population will be affected. Focusing more heavily on humanitarian logistics will help mitigate the amount of suffering by the affected populations. For the purposes of this research paper, humanitarian logistics will be defined as the activities of "planning implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of and storage of goods and materials as well as related information, from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people" (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005 page 4). A relatively large amount of research has been conducted over the past several decades in regards to humanitarian logistics. However, there is a lack of studies that compare the effectiveness of relief responses on a region-by-region basis. In order to understand why these location-driven logistical differences exist, this study compares and contrasts relief responses from both developed and developing countries. The responses were analyzed in terms of government regulations, beginning infrastructure of the country, relative wealth/GDP of the citizens, and the regional culture. The four disasters that were examined are Hurricane Katrina in the United States, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Tohoku Earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, and the Haitian earthquake. These cases are first analyzed separately, and then are evaluated against each other. Each case had its shortcomings in terms of humanitarian logistics. Overall, it was concluded that the governments are typically more involved in developed countries, infrastructure and culture affects all regions, and beginning relative wealth/GDP affects mostly the developing countries. These effects can be both positive and negative; for example, the government regulations in the United States severely hampered the response to Hurricane Katrina, while in Japan the government involvement saved lives and reduced suffering. The other effects are analyzed in depth throughout this paper. Overall, there has never been and probably will never be a perfect relief response that is able to immediately end suffering, but there are many steps to take. These future implications can take various forms. One option is to reduce competition between aid organizations so that they may pool resources and share modes of transportation to both lower cost and increase efficiency of response. Natural disasters are only going to increase in number and severity, so understanding how to respond to them will be integral in the world community moving forward.

This thesis focuses on the supply chain of the wine industry from a smaller scale operational perspective. A standard process from converting grapes to wine has been identified and confirmed. The sequential order of harvest, destemmer/crusher, fermentation, press, barrels, bottling, and distribution constitute the main tasks in the red wine conversion process. Variations in production between red and white wines are observed; but, the overall process is roughly the same with white wines switching the fermentation and press steps and eliminating the barrels task. In addition, it is established that supply chain considerations do effect overall quality such as taste, aroma, and smell. The ability to utilize a combination of diverse techniques, such as wooden barrels or stainless steel tanks for aging, is what contributes to the differentiation of each wine and makes it unique. While the production methodology and use of specific materials/inputs will alter the quality of wine, it must be recognized that the majority of wine quality is influenced directly by the grape itself. The use of technology and machinery in the wine making process is investigated and determined to be pivotal to the creation of wine and the survival of any size winery. Technology has facilitated the wine making process and the current creation path could not occur without it. Wine operations will adapt and incorporate new procedures to take advantage of growth in technology as it occurs, especially in automation. The information used to assess the wine supply chain was obtained from an extensive literature review, interviews with industry professionals, and onsite tours of production facilities. Given all the results and data, it is evident that the production of wine can greatly benefit from the use of supply chain practices and concepts. The ability to reduce variation in the process and determine which aspects contribute most to wine quality are vital for small scale winery operations to remain competitive and become successful.

The coffee industry is enormous and has grown around the world. Today, 125 million people depend on coffee production for their livelihood, and coffee is consumed in every part of the globe. Arizona State University, the largest public university in the United States, gathers a large number of coffee drinkers as college students become dependent on caffeine in order to perform their best in multiple facets of their hectic lives. Researchers realized that there is still a gap that has not been filled in the Tempe retail coffee market. Thus, the objective of this project is to conduct a detailed research on the retail coffee industry, and to craft a profitable business plan for a coffee shop in the Vista del Sol community. The researchers utilized both quantitative and qualitative analysis tools. All survey results, calculations, and maps can be found in the appendices and the Excel file.
To help the readers better understand the industry, the researchers provide a detailed analysis on the retail coffee industry from both macro and micro levels. The Coffee Break House aims to be the leader of the retail coffee industry by delivering consistent, fast and superior service, providing high-quality beverages, being the most inviting store, and having the friendliest staff in a relaxing and welcoming environment. The coffee shop will be owned and operated by four equity investors. The business plan, which includes six major sections, shows investors’ vision and strategic focus.
• Market Situation Analysis
• Marketing Strategy
• Supply Chain Strategy
• Financial Strategy
• Expansion Plan
• Risks
The researchers believe that the Coffee Break House has the potential to become a successful business and provide lucrative returns to potential investors. This is due to the company’s aggressive marketing strategy, establishment of the company as a unique entity in the industry, careful development of its products, a well developed supply chain strategy, and a profitable revenue model.

Although many examples have demonstrated the great potential of a human crowd as an alternative supplier in creative problem-solving, empirical evidence shows that the performance of a crowd varies greatly even under similar situations. This phenomenon is defined as the performance variation puzzle in crowdsourcing. Cases suggest that crowd development influences crowd performance, but little research in crowdsourcing literature has examined the issue of crowd development.

This dissertation studies how crowd development impacts crowd performance in crowdsourcing. It first develops a double-funnel framework on crowd development. Based on structural thinking and four crowd development examples, this conceptual framework elaborates different steps of crowd development in crowdsourcing. By doing so, this dissertation partitions a crowd development process into two sub-processes that map out two empirical studies.

The first study examines the relationships between elements of event design and crowd emergence and the mechanisms underlying these relationships. This study takes a strong inference approach and tests whether tournament theory is more applicable than diffusion theory in explaining the relationships between elements of event design and crowd emergence in crowdsourcing. Results show that that neither diffusion theory nor tournament theory fully explains these relationships. This dissertation proposes a contatition (i.e., contagious competition) perspective that incorporates both elements of these two theories to get a full understanding of crowd emergence in crowdsourcing.

The second empirical study draws from innovation search literature and tournament theory to address the performance variation puzzle through analyzing crowd attributes. Results show that neither innovation search perspective nor tournament theory fully explains the relationships between crowd attributes and crowd performance. Based on the research findings, this dissertation discovers a competition-search mechanism beneath the variation of crowd performance in crowdsourcing.

This dissertation makes a few significant contributions. It maps out an emergent process for the first time in supply chain literature, discovers the mechanisms underlying the performance implication of a crowd-development process, and answers a research call on crowd engagement and utilization. Managerial implications for crowd management are also discussed.