Ph.D. Student Tackles Analytical Issues Surrounding Risk Management in Supply Chain

Haoran Yu ’24 Ph.D. is a driven and analytical individual with a strong passion for risk management in the supply chain field. His desire to tackle complex business problems through quantitative methods and models has led him to pursue a Ph.D. in business administration with a concentration in supply chain management at the Whitman School.

Describing himself as someone who is risk-averse, Yu always considers how to make the most informed decisions when facing uncertain situations. He says, “I enjoy the process of creating models and finding solutions to problems. I want to explore analytical and empirical models further and learn how to tackle various problems.”

Yu’s interest in business analytics and modeling was sparked during his undergraduate program in retail management at Shanghai Business School in China, when he took a management science course. Since then, he has pursued further studies in this field, earning a master’s in business analytics from Drexel University in Pennsylvania, before starting his doctorate degree at Syracuse University.

Yu's research interests lie in supply chain risk management, with a focus on navigating supply and demand uncertainty in the food and agriculture industry. He is working on his dissertation topic exploring retailing strategies to sell imperfect produce and reduce food waste, as well as examining warehouse receipt financing to help small farmers and produce traders with the assistance of Whitman’s Burak Kazaz — the Steven Becker Professor of Supply Chain Management, the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and the director of the Robert H. Brethen Institute at Syracuse University — as well as Fasheng Xu, assistant professor of supply chain management.

Last summer, Yu presented his paper “Fighting imperfect produce: Grocery retailing strategies and the battle against food waste,” co-authored with Kazaz and Xu, at the 2022 Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society Conference in Munich, Germany.

Yu has greatly enjoyed his time at Whitman, particularly the seminars coordinated for Ph.D. students to engage in insightful discussions about various papers with colleagues and learn from speakers visiting from other universities.

He credits his advisors, Kazaz and Xu, for providing him with strong support during his studies and research, preparing him to meet the demands of the business world and his future career.

Yu's advice for others interested in the Ph.D. program at Whitman is to “stay enthusiastic and curious about innovative business practices and to pay attention to news every day.”

By Kimmy Kimball G’13 (NEW)