Amrou Awaysheh, assistant professor of operations management, focuses on sustainable operations in his research, considering the link between sustainability activities and firm performance.
“The majority of my research focuses on what firms do to make sure they’re socially sustainable,” said Awaysheh.
“I consider the impact the firm has on individuals. For example, how does an organization treat its suppliers in a developing world? How do they make sure they don’t use slave labor or child labor? How do they make sure their employees have a good work-life balance, so they can do a good job for themselves and be good for the firm? I look at the interplay between these practices and firm performance.”
He recently had a paper, entitled “Minimizing Supply Chain Risk through Socially Responsible Practices,” accepted for publication in the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.
The research examines the relationship between sustainability and operations risk, supplier sustainability monitoring practices and supply improvement initiatives and firm performance.
“I believe that sustainability overall is a good thing. I work in a business school, so I don’t think the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a free-giving gift is sustainable in nature,” said Awaysheh.
“I think for CSR to be sustainable in the business environment, there needs to be a relationship between sustainability activities and financial performance. I enjoy finding that link to hopefully make the practice more sustainable. For example, a company may give away money to charity for a little while, but there are better ways to use its money to improve social welfare for its people.”
Awaysheh teaches in the Kelley Evening MBA Program. His course on operations management is part of the core and is required by all students. He also teaches a course on professional development and career leadership.
Additionally, Awaysheh is the director of the Global Supply Chain Enterprise (gSCIE), which is an experiential learning experience that provides Evening MBA students the opportunity to apply all they’ve learned to a real-world consulting project. Awaysheh trains and mentors students as they provide this consulting at F500 firms.
Awaysheh received his PhD in business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Upon graduation, Awaysheh went to work at the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. There, he taught in the full-time MBA program as a professor of operations management, and he also served as the International Consulting Project Faculty Director. In that role, Awaysheh trained and mentored students as they provided consulting services to companies.
Awaysheh has been at the Kelley School on the IUPUI campus since 2014.
He was nominated as Professor of the Year for The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2012 and was named Professor of the Week by the Financial Times in 2011.
When asked what advice he would give Evening MBA students, Awaysheh said this:
“This is likely the last time you’re ever going to be in school. I hope you really leverage the experience.”
“Across the board, you have faculty here at Kelley Indianapolis who are experts in their fields: ensure you leverage that breadth of faculty experience. Look at things beyond what you know or think you want to go into. This is the place and opportunity for you to broaden your horizons.”