To read this content please select one of the options below:

An international university-industry collaboration model to develop supply chain competences

Karla M. Gámez-Pérez (Center for Transportation and Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA and Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Leon, Mexico)
Ana Maria Sarmiento (Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico)
Heriberto Garcia-Reyes (Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico)
Josué C. Velázquez-Martínez (Center for Transportation and Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

Supply Chain Management

ISSN: 1359-8546

Article publication date: 24 March 2020

Issue publication date: 6 May 2020

789

Abstract

Purpose

The increase in the supply chain complexity demands new professionals who are able to deal with the new challenges faced nowadays. The purpose of this work is to propose an international university–industry collaboration model to develop supply chain management competences in students as a tool for the training of future professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposes an international collaboration model to develop supply chain competences. The model consists of three main phases from the genesis of the collaboration to the assessment of the competence development. This study validates the model collaborating with one of the largest retailer companies in Mexico.

Findings

Results identify collaboration good practices and point at possible improvements for the next model iteration. This study identifies four key supply chain competences as part of this model. Three didactic approaches (i.e. guidance methods) and two student’s involvement schemes were tested. The results show that professors acting as an advisor (i.e. acting as a guider without telling student directly what to do or how to do it) plus a voluntary student’s involvement in the project promote better competence development.

Originality/value

The first contribution of this research is the definition of an international collaboration model that promotes competence-based education. Also, this study documents good practices for this type of partnership. The second one refers to a large-scale model validation (i.e. 14-week experiment in nine different regions of Mexico involving a retail company, 20 professor-researchers and more than 100 students). The third contribution includes the assessment of different levels of competences development using diverse students’ participation schemes and professor’s guidance methods.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Retail Company that supported this research and the students of Tecnologico the Monterrey, who worked in the field data validation.

Citation

Gámez-Pérez, K.M., Sarmiento, A.M., Garcia-Reyes, H. and Velázquez-Martínez, J.C. (2020), "An international university-industry collaboration model to develop supply chain competences", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 475-487. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-08-2019-0317

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles