Browsing by Author "Baghersad, Milad"

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    Firms' Resilience to Supply Chain Disruptions
    Baghersad, Milad (Virginia Tech, 2018-07-16)
    This dissertation consists of three papers related to firms' resiliency to supply chain disruptions. The first paper seeks to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance by using a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions. To this end, we analyzed operating and stock market performances of over 300 firms that experienced a supply chain disruption during 2005 to the end of 2014. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with a significant decrease in operating income, return on sales, return on assets, sales, and a negative performance in total assets. Supply chain disruptions are also associated with a significant negative abnormal stock return on the day of the supply chain disruption announcements. These results are in line with previous findings in the literature. In the second paper, in order to provide a more detailed characterization of negative impacts of disruptions on firms' performance, we develop three complementary measures of system loss: the initial loss due to the disruption, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. Then, we utilize the contingent resource-based view to evaluate the moderating effects of operational slack and operational scope on the relationship between the severity of supply chain disruptions and the three complementary measures of system loss. We find that maintaining certain aspects of operational slack and broadening business scope can affect these different measures of loss in different ways, although these effects are contingent on the disruptions' severity. The third paper examines relationships between the origin of supply chain disruptions, firms' past experience, and the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. This third study shows that the impact of external and internal supply chain disruptions on firms' performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. For example, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions, although past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions.
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    A multi-attribute supply chain network resilience assessment framework based on SNA-inspired indicators
    Kazemian, Iman; Torabi, S. Ali; Zobel, Christopher W.; Li, Yuhong; Baghersad, Milad (Springer, 2021-07-22)
    This study proposes a supply chain resilience assessment framework at the network (i.e. structural) level based on quantifying supply chain networks’ structural factors and their relationships to different resilience strategies, by using a hybrid DEMATEL-ANP approach. DEMATEL is used to quantify interdependencies between the structural resilience factors, and between the resilience strategies. ANP is then used to quantify the outer-dependencies among these elements and to construct the limit super-matrix from which the global weights of all the decision network’s elements are estimated. To create the structural resilience factors, different network factors are selected and adopted from the social network analysis and supply chain resilience literatures. A case study is then performed to assess the performance of the proposed approach and to derive important observations to support future decision making. According to the results, the proposed approach can suitably measure the resilience performance of a supply chain network and help decision makers plan for more effective resilience improvement actions.
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    Trade-offs Between Equity and Efficiency in Prioritizing Critical Infrastructure Investments: A Case of Stormwater Management Systems
    Baghersad, Milad; Zobel, Christopher W.; Farahani, Mehdi H.; Behara, Ravi S. (Sage, 2024-03)
    Critical infrastructures in many countries face the problem of aging and, thus, require significant upgrades to continue serving their purpose for the next few decades, especially in the face of extreme weather events caused by global climate change. Given the urgent need for such improvements and the substantial funding gaps being experienced, prioritizing investments in critical infrastructures is a challenging task for governments. Furthermore, the need to assure equitable solutions, as well as to consider deep uncertainty due to climate change, adds to the complexity of the problem. We seek to address this complexity by developing a set of models that explicitly consider both horizontal and vertical equity, along with efficiency, in prioritizing stormwater infrastructure improvement projects. While horizontal equity seeks to provide equal resources to everyone, vertical equity aims to allocate relatively more resources to vulnerable groups who are disproportionately susceptible to shocks and are more likely to fall into chronic poverty. By differentiating between losses in horizontal equity and vertical equity due to efficiency considerations, the models provide a practical approach to find the right balance among efficiency, horizontal equity, and vertical equity. The initial models are then extended into regret-based optimization models to help address the issue of deep uncertainty. A case study of stormwater infrastructure improvement in the City of Miami is presented, through which the performance of the models is explored both with and without the projected sea-level rise scenarios. The findings highlight the value of the proposed approach in promoting equity while maintaining efficiency.