Zachary Wright

I am a rising fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Operations and Business Analytics at Fisher College of Business. I study how changes to monitoring approaches (e.g., inspections, technology, etc.) influences compliance outcomes such as production quality and safety. My dissertation explores monitoring in three different contexts that span a range of monitoring frequencies: 1) infrequent human inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2) continuous human inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 3) continuous technology-enabled monitoring in warehousing. These projects use novel datasets and advanced econometric techniques to explore the ways in which compliance is affected by designed adjustments or external impacts to monitoring practices. The varying contexts in my dissertation harmonize in their perspectives on monitoring by including elements that speak to public policy, navigating exogenous disruptions, and improving internal business decisions.

Before joining the Ph.D. program, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Global Supply Chain Management from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. After my undergraduate studies, I joined Whirlpool Corporation as part of their their Global Supply Chain Leadership Development Program. During my time there, I held positions in manufacturing, procurement, and forecasting.

Education

• Ph.D., Operations and Business Analytics, The Ohio State University (2020-2025 expected)
• B.S., Global Supply Chain Management, Brigham Young University (2011-2017)

Papers Under Review

• Wright, Z., Gray, J., Ball, G., Anand, G., Ruttenberg, D. Production Quality Under Exogenous Shock: Food Production After COVID-19. Reject and resubmit at Journal of Operations Management.
• Noh, I, Gray, J., Ball, G., Wright, Z., Park, H. Are All Generic Drugs Created Equal? An Empirical Analysis of Generic Drug Manufacturing Location and Serious Drug Adverse Events. Major Revision at Production and Operations Management.
• Hall, T., Gardner, J., Wright, Z. Does Artificial Intelligence Stimulate or Diminish Human Interactions? An Affordance Perspective on AI, Relational Coordination, and Performance. Major Revision at Production and Operations Management.

Working Papers

• Wright, Z., Gray, J., Ball, G., Noh, I. Surprise! The Relative Effectiveness of Preannounced and Unannounced Inspections in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Preparing manuscript to be submitted to Journal of Operations Management.
• Wright, Z., Boyer, K., Craig, N. Big Brother Is Watching: An Empirical Analysis of Monitoring Intensity and the Safety-Productivity Tradeoff. Analyzing Data.
• Hall, T., Gardner, J., Wright, Z. AI Interaction Types: How Does Your Type Influence Relational Coordination? Preparing manuscript to be submitted to Academy of Management.
• Wright, Z., Gray, J., Massimino, B. How Secure is WFH? The Influence of Hybrid Working Arrangements on Cyber Security Compliance. In Progress.

Teaching

BUSOBA 3230 - Introduction to Operations Management: Improving Competitiveness in Organizations

Topics include quality management, scheduling, capacity management, forecasting, inventory, supply chain management, logistics, etc.

Full-time instructor summer 2024 semester

Awards

• 2024 Fisher College of Business PhD Student Excellence in Research Award