Exemplifying DePaul University’s commitment to excellent scholarship and community service, three DePaul business professors who won the Journal of Operations Management’s Best Paper Award have donated their prize—$2,500—to aid earthquake victims in China.

The research paper, “Outsourcing Impact on Manufacturing Firms’ Value: Evidence from Japan,” authored by Bin Jiang, James A. Belohlav and Scott T. Young, management professors at DePaul’s College of Commerce, was chosen as the best paper of 2007 published by the journal.  The award was announced at the Academy of Management’s annual conference held in Anaheim, Calif. in August. 

The professors decided to donate their prize money after being moved by reports of the massive suffering and devastation in China’s Sichuan Province after an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck the region May 12.  Another quake, measuring 6.1-magnitude, shook the area Aug. 30.

“While no amount of money will ever replace the lives that have been lost, we are trying to do something to help China’s earthquake survivors build hope from ruins,” said Jiang.

The research paper examined the relationship between market value and outsourcing decisions at Japanese manufacturing firms, using data from 1994 to 2002.  It found that core business-related outsourcing, off-shore outsourcing and short-term outsourcing have a positive effect on firms’ market value, while non-core business-related outsourcing, domestic outsourcing and longer-term outsourcing did not enhance value.