Dr. Muhammad Asif, New Associate Professor of Management

Dr. Asif joined Northeastern State University in 2023. He teaches operations management,
business analytics, and quantitative courses. He believes that operations management and data
analytics are fundamental to management education, and supported by other management
courses, they constitute the bedrock of management education needed in today’s competitive
educational and business landscape.

Earlier in his career, he worked as a quality assurance officer in a German multinational
pharmaceutical company, where he learned that operational excellence is the key to survival in a
competitive environment. Dr. Asif earned his Ph.D. in operations and quality management from
University of Twente, the Netherlands. His research focused on exploring what makes excellent
companies truly excellent. What strategies, operational practices, and work dynamics lead
companies to achieve excellence?

His research spans sustainability, operational excellence, supply chains, and buyer-supplier
governance mechanisms. Currently, Dr. Asif is working on the Environmental, Social, and
Governance (ESG) disclosure practices of companies. His research applies modern technologies,
including blockchain, digital twins, cloud computing applications, sensors/RFID, and
simulations, to make supply chains and ESG disclosure more transparent. Another dimension of
his research is exploring why companies engage in malpractices. He has employed various
management theories to study and develop a better understanding of contemporary management
issues. Additionally, he is conducting research on applying business analytics in the supply
chain, whereby he explores how the interaction of technical (e.g., business analytics application)
and behavioral factors (e.g., conflict resolution approaches and entrepreneurial orientation) help
organizations to navigate the complex challenges they face in a highly dynamic environment.

Dr. Asif’s research has appeared in top-notch journals, including Technological Forecasting and
Social Change, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, the International Journal of
Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Transportation Research Part E, Journal of
Cleaner Production, Management Decisions, Total Quality Management and Business
Excellence, Operations Management Research, European Business Review, International Journal
Of Quality and Reliability Management, and the TQM Journal, among many others.