Seungjin Whang

Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of Operations, Information and Technology

Codirector of the Stanford-National University of Singapore Executive Program in International Management

Phone: (650) 723-4756

Email: [email protected]

Academic Areas: Operations, Information and Technology

Professor Whang's research interest is in supply chain management and the economics of information systems. He studied how demand information may be distorted in a supply chain, and what impacts a secondary market (where retailers exchange excess inventories) has on a supply chain. He has also addressed various pricing issues in a congestion-prone facility. For example, he studied the optimal priority prices in a queueing system where users have their private information about the benefit, time value and service requirement. Recently, he analyzed the menu of fixed-up-to tariffs structure commonly used for mobile phone service and studied how demand uncertainty affects the retailer's dynamic priciing strategy.

Bio

Seungjin Whang is the Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of Operations, Information and Technology, Stanford Business School. He obtained a bachelor of engineering at Seoul National University, Korea (1974), master of arts (1983), master of science (1985), and PhD (1988), at the University of Rochester. He has been on the faculty of the Stanford Business School since 1987. His research interests include supply chain management and economics of information technology. He has published widely in academic journals including Management Science, Operations Research, and Information Systems Research (ISR). In 2005 his paper "Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect," coauthored with H. Lee and P. Padmanabhan (1997), was elected to be one of the “top ten most influential” papers in Management Science in its 50 years of publications history. Also, his paper "Optimal Incentive-Compatible Priority Pricing for the M/M/1 Queue," coauthored with Haim Mendelson (1990), was the 7th most-cited paper among the papers published in Operations Research between 1952 and Aug. 2012. During 2006-2008 he served as senior editor to Information Systems Research. He teaches various courses in Supply Chain Management and has prepared cases on Tamagoya of Japan, Big Cola in Mexico, OnStar, POSCO, SAP R/3, Seven Eleven Japan, Toyota, and TSMC. He won Honorable Mention in Distinguished Teaching Award at the Stanford GSB in 1995-1996. At Stanford, he serves as codirector of the Stanford-NUS Executive Program.

Academic Degrees

PhD, Univ. of Rochester, 1988; MS, 1985; MA, 1983; BEng, Seoul National Univ., 1974.

Professional Experience

At Stanford since 1987.

Visiting Prof., Graduate School of Intl. Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi Univ. of Japan, Spring 2005; Instructor, Univ. of Rochester, 1986-87; Systems Analyst, Bank of Seoul and Trust, 1980-81.

Selected Publications

  • The Impact of the Secondary Market on a Supply Chain: Management Science, 2002
  • Price Protection in the PC Industry: Management Science, 2000
  • Dynamic Pricing for Network Service: Equilibrium and Stability: Management Science, 1999
  • Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect: Co-author, Management Science, April, 1997
  • Competing in Product and Service: Management Science, April, 1997
  • Response Time Design in Integrated Order Processing/ Production Systems: Operations Research, Sept./Oct., 1995
  • Market Provision of Custom Software: Learning Effect and Low-Balling: Management Science, Aug., 1995
  • Contracting for Software Development: Management Science, March, 1992

Working Papers

  • 1824: Higher Supply Chain Security with Lower Cost: Lessons from Total Quality Management
  • 1033R: On Manufacturing/Marketing Incentives
  • 1123: Response Time Design in Integrated Order Processing/Production Systems
  • 1549: Information Sharing in a Supply Chain

Selected Cases

  • OIT13: Information Flows in Manufacturing Under SAP R/3
  • IB14D: NIKE - Global Supply Chain
  • GS22: Instill Corporation: Improving the Foodservice Industry Supply Chain
  • GS5: E-Greetings Network
  • E17: 3DO Company and the Videogame Industry
  • GS14B: Tong Yang Cement (B): Demand Foecasting and Globalization
  • GS28: i-Mode: NTT DoCoMo's Wireless Data Service
  • GS30: People Magazine: The Transition to Pre-Weekend Delivery
  • GS38: OnStar: Connecting To Customers Through Telematics
  • GS42: Toyota: Demand Chain Management
  • GS40: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: The Semiconductor Services Company
  • GS44: POSCO: Global Supply Chain Management
  • GS55: Marui Group of Japan
  • GS41: Toyota: Service Chain Management
  • GS45: New Vine Logistics: Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management in the U.S. Vine Industry
  • GS60: Tamago-Ya of Japan: Delivering Lunch Boxes to Your Work
  • GS50: Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain
  • GS68: Zhejiang Corporation of China Telecom
  • GS16: Streamline, Inc.: A Lifestyle Solution Through Information-Smart Logistics

Awards and Honors

  • Finmeccanica Faculty Scholar, 1994-96, 1996
  • Bob and Marilyn Jaedicke Faculty Scholar for 1991-92, 1992
  • Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar for 1989-90, 1990
  • IBM Research Award, 1986

Courses Taught

  • OIT 562: Supply Chain Management & Technology
  • OIT 655: Foundations of Supply Chain Management

Centers/Programs

Affiliations

In The Media

  • Maximum Security, DC Velocity
  • Internet Revolution Hits Supply Chain Management, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun (translation from Japanese)