John Gray

John Gray is a Dean’s Distinguished Professor of operations and business analytics. He joined Fisher after receiving his PhD from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he worked for eight years in operations management at Procter & Gamble, receiving an MBA from Wake Forest University’s evening program during that time. He holds two undergraduate degrees from Dartmouth College and its Thayer School of Engineering. 

From August 2022-February 2024, he served as a part-timeconsultant for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) of the United States. He advised the EOP on issues related to pharmaceutical supply chain resilience.

His work has been funded by outside entities on numerous occasions. He is currently the PI on a subaward grant from the Department of Defense, charged with examining global pharmaceutical supply chains. He was co-PI of a $1.7 million two-year contract with the FDA from October 2019-September 2021, and part of a major FDA subaward two years before that. In early 2010s, he was co-PI on an NSF grant.

Dr. Gray teaches/has taught an elective he created called Strategic Global Sourcing (at the Ph.D., Executive, MBA, , MSCM, and undergraduate levels) and Data Analysis (at the Ph.D., Executive, and MBA levels); he has won a college teaching award for each class. A student project from his elective led to a co-authored case (Scotts Miracle-Gro: The Spreader Sourcing Decision) that has been widely adopted, earning the title of an “Ivey Classic”.

He serves as academic co-director of the Master of Supply Chain Management program at Fisher. He also serves as academic director for Fisher’s Ph.D. programs.

Dr. Gray’s research has been published in top multi-disciplinary management journals, including Decision Sciences, Management Science and Organization Science; and top operations and supply chain journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and Production and Operations Management. His research has received several awards, the Jack Meredith Best Paper award from the Journal of Operations Management and the Emerald Citations of Excellence award which recognizes the most impactful articles across a wide range of journals. IN 2023, he was given the distinguished scholar award from the OSCM Division of the Academy of Management.

He has also served as a Department Editor at the Journal of Operations Management and a Senior Editor at the Production and Operations Management journal. He is currently editing a special issue at the Journal of Operations Management on the operations and supply chains of pharmaceutical products.

 Finally, he recently became President of the Industry Studies Association; for which we served as conference chair for its 2023 conference in Columbus.

Awards

• Distinguished Scholar, Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM), Academy of Management, 2023
• Distinguished Service Award, Journal of Operations Management, 2022
• Jack Meredith Best Paper Award, Journal of Operations Management, 2018
• Distinguished Service to the Operations and Supply Chain Management Division, Academy of Management, 2018
• Outstanding Senior Editor, Production and Operations Management, 2017
• Outstanding Full-time Core MBA Faculty, 2015
• OM Division Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Winner, Academy of Management, 2014
• OM Division Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Winner, Academy of Management, 2012
• Emerald Management Reviews Citations of Excellence Award, 2012
• Fisher College of Business Pace Setter Research Award, 2011
• Outstanding Working Professional MBA Elective Professor, 2010
• Elwood S. Buffa Doctoral Dissertation Award, Decision Sciences Institute, 2007

Areas of Expertise

• Antecedents and consequences of outsourcing, offshoring, and reshoring
• The relationship between boundaries (organizational and geographic) and quality risk
• Managing quality across organizational and geographic boundaries
• Sustaining quality and safety performance over time

• PhD in Business Administration, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• MBA, Babcock School of Graduate Management, Wake Forest University
• BS in Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College
• BA in Engineering Sciences, Dartmouth College

• Please see my 5 May 2020 piece, in Supply Chain Management Review (SCMR.com), on COVID-19 and sourcing
• See the archive of a 25 June Webinar on the above article.
• Please see my 30 May 2020 statement submitted to the 2 June 2020 Senate Finance Committee Hearing on COVID-19 and foreign drug manufacturing inspections

PUBLISHED PAPERS

• Anand, G., G. Ball, J.V. Gray, U. Mukherjee. 2025. Operations Management in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Journal of Operations Management, forthcoming.
• Noh, I., Gray, J., Ball. G., Wright, Z., and Park, H. Are All Generics Drugs Created Equal? An Empirical Analysis of Generic Drug Manufacturing Location and Serious Drug Adverse Events. 2025. Production and Operations Management, forthcoming.
• Dabestini, A. S. Grossman, J.P. Nathan, C.W. Bazil, R.C. Costantino, E. Fox, J. Graedon, J.V. Gray, H. Lever, D.Y. Light, R. Makuch, K.A. Schulman, C.M. White, K. Yu. 2023. A data-driven quality-score system for rating drug products and its implications for the healthcare industry. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 63:2, 501-506.
• Esenduran, G., J.V. Gray, B. Tan. 2022. A dynamic analysis of supply chain risk management and extended payment terms. Production and Operations Management, 31:3, 1394-1417.
• Altamuro, J., J.V. Gray, H. Zhang. 2022. Corporate Integrity Culture and Compliance: A Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Contemporary Accounting Research, 39:1, 428-458.
• Helper, S., J.V. Gray, H. Zhang, M. Hughes, A. Roman. 2021. Public policy and operations management. Journal of Operations Management, 67:7, 780-802.
• Lan, Y., B. Massimino, J.V. Gray, A. Chandrasekaran. 2020. The effects of product development network positions on product performance and confidentiality performance Journal of Operations Management, 66: 7-8, 866-894.
• Pagell, M., M. Parkinson, A. Veltri, J. Gray, M. Louis, F. Wiengarten, B. Fynes. 2020. The tension between worker safety and organization survival. Management Science. 66:10, 4863-4878.
• Gray, J.V., S. Helper, B. Osborn. 2020. Value first, cost Later: Total Value Contribution as a new approach to sourcing decisionsJournal of Operations Management 66:6, 735-750. (open access)
  • See a version of this paper useful as a classroom reading
• Massimino, B., J.V. Gray, Y. Lan. 2018. On the inattention to digital confidentiality in operations and supply chain research. Production and Operations Management 27:7, 1492-1515
• Tsay, A., J.V. Gray, J. Mahoney, I. Noh. 2018. A review of POM research on outsourcing in supply chains: Implications for the Theory of the FirmProduction and Operations Management 27:7, 1177-1220
  • Section 2 provides a rigorous yet readable summary of the Theory of the Firm literature, suitable for teaching. A slightly edited version of Section 2, which can be used for teaching
• Anand, G., J.V. Gray. 2017. Strategy and Organization Research in Operations Management. Journal of Operations Management 53-56, 1-8
• Gray, J.V., G. Esenduran, J. Rungtusanatham, K. Skowronski. 2017. Why in the World Did They Reshore? Examining Small-to-Medium Sized Manufacturer Decisions Journal of Operations Management 49-51, 37-51
• Massimino, B., J.V. Gray, K.K. Boyer. 2017. The Effects of Agglomeration and National Property Rights on Digital Confidentiality Performance Production and Operations Management 26:1, 162-179
• Handley, S.M., J.V. Gray. 2015. Managing Quality in a Heterogeneous Contract Manufacturing Environment. Decision Sciences 44:6 1011-1048
• Gray, J.V., E. Siemsen and G. Vasudeva. 2015. Collocation Still Matters: Conformance Quality and the Interdependence of R&D and Manufacturing in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Management Science 61:11, 2760-2781
• Gray, J.V., S.M. Handley. 2015. Managing Contract Manufacturer Quality in the Presence of Performance Ambiguity. Journal of Operations Management 38, 41-55
• Gray, J.V., G. Anand, A.V. Roth. 2015. The Influence of ISO 9000 Certifications on Process Compliance.  Production and Operations Management 24:3, 369-382
• Gardner, J., K.K. Boyer, J.V. Gray. 2015. Operational and Strategic Information Processing: Complementing Healthcare IT Infrastructure Journal of Operations Management 33-34, 123-129
• Ivanova, A., J.V. Gray, K.K. Sinha. 2014. Towards a Unifying Theory of Management Standard Implementation: The Case of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 34:10, 1269-1306
• Gray, J.V., and B. Massimino. 2014. The Effect of Language Differences and National Culture on Plant-Level Process Compliance Production and Operations Management 23:6, 1042-1056
• Handley, S.M., J.V. Gray. 2013. Inter-Organizational Quality Management: The Use of Contractual Incentives and Monitoring Mechanisms with Outsourced ManufacturingProduction and Operations Management 22:6, 1540-1556
• Gray, J.V., K. Skowronski, G. Esenduran, J. Rungtusanatham. 2013. The Reshoring Phenomenon: What Supply Chain Academics Ought to Know and Should Do Journal of Supply Chain Management 49:2, 27-33
• Anand, G., J.V. Gray, E. Siemsen. 2012. Decay, Shock, and Renewal: Operational Routines and Process Entropy in the Pharmaceutical Industry Organization Science 23:6, 1700-1716
• Gray, J.V., A.V. Roth, M.J. Leiblein. 2011. Quality Risk in Offshore Manufacturing: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry. Journal of Operations Management 29: 7-8, 737-752
• Gray, J.V., S.M. Handley. 2011. Managing Quality in Outsourced Production: Construct Development and Measurement Validation Quality Management Journal 18:2, 26-45
• Gray, J.V., A.V. Roth, B. Tomlin. 2009. The Influence of Cost and Quality Priorities on the Propensity to Outsource Production. Decision Sciences 40:4, 697-726
• Gray, J.V., B. Tomlin, A.V. Roth. 2009. Outsourcing to a Powerful Contract Manufacturer: The Effect of Learning-by-Doing. Production and Operations Management 18:5, 487-505
• Roth, A.V., M. Pullman, A.A. Tsay, J.V. Gray. 2008. Unraveling the Food Supply Chain: Strategic Insights from China and the 2007 Recalls Journal of Supply Chain Management 44:1, 22-39