The doctoral program in Management Science is designed for people who plan to pursue an academic career in various areas of Data Analytics, Management Science, or Operations Research. The objective of the PhD program is to train our students to become Management Science scholars. To that extent the primary focus of the program is to prepare students to conduct rigorous and relevant research.
Management Science is concerned with the development and application of analytical models to all fields of management and business decision making. Students will acquire a strong understanding of the theoretical models and their application in modern industries and will develop an awareness of where competence in Management Science is essential for corporate survival and growth.
In order to prepare the students, the first two years of the program is predominantly centred on course requirements covering the fundamentals of Management Science, including decision theory, optimization, game theory, statistics, probability, stochastic processes, and simulation. Students will gain exposure to these subjects by taking graduate level courses from the Management Science area group as well as from other departments including the Economics Department, Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, Department of Applied Mathematics, Department of Computer Science, and the various Engineering Departments. In addition, the student needs to fulfill the Ivey PhD Program required courses and complete a first year research practicum. The special field seminar courses in Management Science explore the theoretical foundations of the subject, its current practice, and the leading edge of research.
Areas of Research Focus
- Healthcare Management Science (sample paper), Health (sample paper) and Pharma Economics (sample paper)
- Supply Chain Management (sample paper), Marketing Operations (sample paper), Blockchain Business Applications (sample paper)
- Revenue Management, Pricing Optimization (sample paper)
- Transportation Networks (sample paper), Energy Networks (sample paper), Smart Cities and Infrastructure (sample paper)
- Risk Management, Bayesian Statistics, Data Driven Models (sample paper)
- Optimization Methods (sample paper), Machine Learning (sample paper), Scheduling (sample paper)
- Healthcare Operations (sample paper), Medical Decision Making (sample paper), Stochastic Scheduling (sample paper), Analytics/OR Applications (sample paper, sample paper), Sports Analytics (sample paper).
PhD Student Opportunities
The Management Science group welcomes applications from qualified candidates that are interested in conducting research into themes related to their research interests.
Professors Joe Naoum-Sawaya and Hubert Pun are recruiting a PhD student in the area of big data analytics, supply chain and new business models. Areas of interest include operations strategy, resilient supplier ecosystems, supplier encroachment, platform economy and the management of user bases that create value through network effects.
Professor Fredrik Odegaard is recruiting a PhD student in the area of Revenue Management and Business Analytics. Areas of interest include pricing and capacity management, auction theory, empirical analysis, and analytical modeling of business operations.
Professor Greg Zaric is recruiting a PhD student in the area of Health Care Management Science. Areas of interest include contracting in healthcare, risk sharing agreements, disease modeling, resource allocation for control of infectious diseases, health care operations management, and machine learning applications in healthcare operations.
PhD Graduates
The doctoral program in Management Science is designed for those interested in pursuing academic careers in management science at top business schools.
Dr. Salar Ghamat (2017 PhD)
Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
Three Essays on Incentive Problems of Parties with Potential Conflict of Interest
I study the impact of different incentives on strategic decisions of parties that have the option of cooperating with each other. Incentive problems are well studied in various contexts, such as supply chain management and healthcare operations management. However, in the fast-changing business environment, there is a need to study and understand the new and emerging strategic behaviors of firms to adopt better incentive mechanisms and reach desired outcomes. This dissertation consists of three essays that examine the strategic behavior of parties under different incentive schemes... Read more about this thesis
Dr. Foad Hassanmirzaei (2016 PhD)
Assistant Professor, University of North Texas
Three Essays on Managing Customer-Based Strategies: A Pricing and Revenue Management Approach
Many firms and organizations with already-optimized business functions are under market pressure to protect their narrow profit margins. Their need for supplemental and reliable revenues calls for performance optimization beyond the core business functions. Motivated by applications from online social media and the airline industry, in my dissertation, I focus on the revenue management and pricing decisions of customer-based plans and programs. More formally, the research question addressed in this study is: How can firms effectively use customer-based pricing strategies to boost revenues?... Read more about this thesis
