This study explored experiential learning methods used to teach a supply chain management course at a university in Bahrain. Three pedagogical tools were used: case analysis, evaluative essays, and a game exercise. A survey was administered to students to assess their perceptions of how the tools impacted their cognitive, affective, and interactive learning skills. The results were inconclusive but showed significant differences in student perceptions between some of the tools. The game exercise was perceived to be the most useful for improving learning skills, followed by case analysis and evaluative essays. The study aimed to help design business courses that enhance student learning experiences through experiential approaches in emerging market contexts.

1. An exploratory study of
experiential learning in teaching a
supply chain management course
in an emerging market economy
Minwir M. Al-Shammari
Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business Administration,
University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain
Abstract
Purpose – The study is exploratory and aims to investigate students’ learning experience in a supply chain
management (SCM) course at a university in Bahrain. The selected learning skills were cognitive, affective
and interactive, whereas the adopted pedagogical tools were case analysis, evaluative essay and game
exercise.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was distributed to undergraduate students
enrolled in an SCM course at a university in Bahrain. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis
techniques were used. Inferential analysis tests were principal component analysis, Kruskal–Wallis analysis
of variance and Dunn’s post hoc pairwise comparison test.
Findings – Results are inconclusive but revealed significant differences in students’ perceptions of learning
skills among the adopted teaching methods. Significant differences in the perceived learning skills were found
between the evaluative essay and the case analysis and between the report and the game exercise. The game
exercise was the most useful technique in improving students’ interactive, cognitive and affective skills,
followed by case analysis and evaluative essay.
Research limitations/implications – As the sample of this study consisted of students enrolled in a
particular SCM course at a University in Bahrain, the small sample size may restrict the study’s conclusive
findings.
Practical implications – It is recommended to establish an experiential or problem-based learning
support unit to assist faculty in the planning, design and development of pedagogical and assessment tools.
Originality/value – The research findings are expected to help design, assess and enhance students’
learning experience in SCM and other business courses that adopt a process-based experiential learning
perspective.
Keywords Emerging economy, Experiential learning, Supply chain management, Bahrain,
Pedagogical tools
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A supply chain (SC) is a system of organizations involved in moving a product or service
from supplier to the end customer. In today’s globalized markets and turbulent
environments, competition is no longer among firms but among supply chains (Adida and
Demiguel, 2011). Decision-makers have recognized the importance of effective supply chain
management (SCM) to achieve superior performance (van Hoek and Wagner, 2011; Leon and
Uddin, 2016). To face turbulent business environments, firms need to work together to take
advantage of their distinctive core competencies and achieve a sustainable competitive
advantage (Fawcett et al., 2007; Mumtaz et al., 2018).
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course
Received 9 September 2020
Revised 22 November 2020
15 January 2021
18 January 2021
Accepted 25 January 2021
Journal of International Education
in Business
© EmeraldPublishingLimited
2046-469X
DOI 10.1108/JIEB-09-2020-0074
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2046-469X.htm

2. As the business world evolves, changes are required in business networks and people’s
skillsets to best deal with future uncertainties (Weenk, 2019). Working situations have
become more diverse and non-routine as the modern business world has been rapidly
changing (Vaatstra and Vries, 2007). The varying working situations require university
graduates to be flexible and adapt to dynamic work requirements (Bunney et al., 2015).
Employers want new college graduates to relate theory to practice when they begin their
careers. Experiential learning and internships provide opportunities to develop such skills
and address real problems in a business context (Brymer and Newman, 2016). More and
more business and education people speak about the World Economic Forum’s 21st-century
skills, e.g. problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management and
coordination with others (World Economic Forum, 2016).
The competencies needed to solve complex problems go beyond technical and specific
expertise. Today’s learners need to develop a set of adaptive capacities that require them to
be technically proficient and intellectually capable and emotionally grounded. Living and
working in diverse and dynamic settings require skills and competencies that stretch the
learner’s capacity to relate to individuals and communities (Frieden and Pawelski, 2003).
The demand for SCM education and the need for skilled SCM talents are increasing,
resulting in an inadequate workforce and competency among employees and new graduates
(Lancioni et al., 2001; Lutz and Birou, 2013; Onar et al., 2013). Therefore, the SCM courses
and programs need to be improved to enhance talents’ skills and competencies, particularly
new graduates, and remedy the mismatch between education and industry (Sun and Song,
2018).
The paper is organized as follows. It begins with explaining the study's motivation and
objectives, theoretical background, and contribution to existing literature. Then, it describes
the course structure and pedagogy, research methodology, and research findings. Finally,
the paper discusses the research results, the research limitations, and future
recommendations and ends with conclusions.
Motivation of the study
Bahrain is an emerging market economy with middle per capita income and is moving
toward becoming developed. It offers a wide range of logistics facilities for companies
looking to establish a cost-effective distribution and fulfillment base in the region and
opportunities for graduates looking for rewarding and challenging careers. Bahrain has
earned a reputation as a regional transport and logistics hub because of its renowned
transport and warehousing cost-effectiveness.
Despite the growing importance of SCM and logistics as a field, researchers have paid
limited attention to the study of teaching methods and the learning skills needed to succeed
in today’s competitive business environments in developing countries. The current research
aims to bridge this literature gap on the role of SCM teaching methods and learning skills in
an emerging economic setting from the student’s perspective.
Objectives of the study
This exploratory study’s primary purpose is to measure students’ perception of an SCM
course’s learning benefits at a university in Bahrain. Learning skills include three domains
that may be used to assess the degree of student engagement and learning, specifically
cognitive, affective (personal development) and interactive (Fratantuono, 1995; Bandura,
1997; Chapman, 2002; Al-Shammari, 2005; Caulfield, 2010).
More specifically, the study seeks to:
JIEB

3. measure construct validity of the instrument used to investigate students’
perceptions of the adopted teaching methods’ learning skills;
examine the variations in students’ perceptions toward the learning skills across the
adopted teaching methods;
investigate students’ perceptions toward the learning skills of the adopted teaching
methods; and
explore students’ feedback in a free-format style on the lessons learned from the
adopted teaching methods.
Theoretical background
Teaching supply chain management
Business programs need to meet the challenges of accelerating change and complexity in
today’s business world by graduating students who are well equipped with holistic business
management and ICT skills that meet the market needs and their employers’ expectations.
Traditional educational programs will no longer continue to help organizations meet
competition challenges and deliver value to customers.
Business education has been undergoing massive developments where new concepts,
models or issues are emerging, while many have become obsolete. Business courses and
programs that integrate management with business functions and ICT skills need to be
introduced to meet business challenges and satisfy the market needs (Al-Shammari, 2005).
Many business programs have taught cross-disciplinary subjects, such as the SCM, to
enable students and graduates to integrate across business functions and geographic
borders and face complex and turbulent business environments (Winter, 2002).
A clear trend for SCM education is the enthusiasm for the digitalization of teaching and
introducing different blended learning education approaches (Pekkanen et al., 2020). A right
SCM course or program blends multiple pedagogical tools and experiences, theory and
practice, best practices, trends for designing, planning and executing SCs (Ozelkan and
Rajamani, 2006; Kodzi, 2019).
Effective teaching of SCM requires an end-to-end process-oriented approach and usually
covers three levels of decisions: operational, tactical, design and strategic (Huan et al., 2004;
Weenk, 2019). The process-oriented view of SCM allows students to practice the impact of
life-alike situations on their decisions, not just in their own “silo” but also across others.
Experiential learning. Experiential learning is a non-traditional approach that helps
students be engaged and develop knowledge and skills (Piercy, 2010). Many students learn
best when they actively do things, studying ideas in the abstract, ask questions, discover
new ideas and feel for themselves the excitement of disciplines (Robinson and Aronica,
2015).
Experiential learning focuses on going through the first-hand experience and reflecting
on what happened and why it happened, which leads to forming a conceptual view on one
situation and an application in another (Weenk, 2019). Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning
theory maintains that knowledge is created through a four-stage cycle: concrete experience,
reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.
The ability of experiential learning to bridge the gap with 21st-century skills becomes
stronger if students’ experiences are based on problems or situations. Effective methods for
experiential learning include case analysis, projects, simulation games and business videos.
Such approaches enable students to grasp relevant experience, reflect effectively and
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

4. transform knowledge, supplemented by conceptual frameworks (Ozelkan and Rajamani,
2006; Weenk, 2019).
Different experiential learning stages are associated with distinct learning styles, as students
differ in their preferred learning styles. This difference raises students’ awareness of various
tools that may help them be more flexible in meeting diverse learning situations (Gibbs, 1988).
Chapman (2002) developed the Learning Task Engagement model and identified three domains
associated with students’ learning engagement: affective, behavioral and cognitive. Caulfield
(2010) developed an instrument that used affective, behavioral and knowledge attributes to
measure the most and least engaging learning tasks to graduate students. The study found that
attributes evaluated in each domain positively related to students’ engagement.
Experiential learning in teaching supply chain management. Earlier studies have
identified a variety of experiential learning tools for teaching SCM. Most notably were
games and simulation exercises, such as the Beer Game developed at the MIT Sloan School
of Management (Senge, 1990) and the TANGOS to Teaching Structural Decision tangible
areas in operations strategy (Wilson, 2020). Other tools have also been used such as projects
(Kopczak and Fransoo, 2000), guest lectures (van Hoek and Wagner, 2011), experimental
field study (Brymer and Newman, 2016) and blended tools and theories such as reflection,
self-direction and experiential learning (Kodzi, 2019).
Mehring (2009) described two learning exercises implemented using the simulator game
for small undergraduate and graduate SC courses of less than 20 students. The exercise
provided students with a concrete SC example to explore transportation, warehousing,
inventory management and customer service concepts for undergraduate students. For
graduate students, the SC exercise provided them with a setting to discover what creates a
need for coordination, what activities require coordination and what methods work well.
Gravier and Farris (2013) discussed the challenges of developing undergraduate SCM
curricula grounded in experiential learning. Two universities’ experiences illustrated the
possible outcomes at different stages of developing new SCM academic programs. An SCM
program that teaches students to view problems through dynamic complexity can produce
graduates and prepare them for successful lifelong careers. It also makes experiential
learning a natural fit for the SC and other international business programs.
Brymer and Newman (2016) explored an experiential field study that addresses the gap
between classroom and practice in an SCM course. They described the course’s
development, its execution, its learning outcomes, the advantages of the brewing industry
approach and suggestions to replicate it at other schools and with other industries.
Experiential learning, especially experiences that use a cross section of business strategies
and operations, offered a set of contrasts and perspectives to students that make them very
valuable to employers upon graduation.
Curkovic and Fernandez (2016) described how an SCM undergraduate program is
successfully bridging the gaps between graduates’ abilities and employer expectations by
partnering with local businesses on live experiential learning class projects. The class
projects set graduates up for success by challenging them in competencies that universities
often focus on to meet the competitive and global job market needs. Students gain hands-on
experience by working within a team in solving real supply-chain problems. As a result,
graduates can adapt quickly to their new positions and see a tangible increase in job benefits
and the number of potential employers.
Liu (2017) applied a video game that supports in-depth experiential learning to evaluate
undergraduate students’ SCM learning using experimental and control groups. The results
suggested that students had more positive attitudes toward video game-based learning from
the post-test questionnaires than toward traditional education. Moreover, video game-based
JIEB

5. learning yielded more positive learning experiences and effects on SCM teaching than
conventional instruction.
Theoretical contribution to existing literature
The SCM literature review indicated a focus on curriculum content, desirable business skills
and teaching methods separately. Many of the SCM literature deals with the “what”
question, i.e. What is taught at universities?, What skills are considered necessary by
employers?, etc. However, how students should acquire these skills or how they should be
taught is scarcely acknowledged (Gravier and Farris, 2008; Oskarsson, 2014).
As teaching activities are tightly connected to what is supposed to be learned, various
SCM-teaching methods appear to offer students various learning benefits. Nonetheless, the
literature review highlights little or no research that explores the connection between
teaching methods and learning benefits from students’ perspectives. As the number of SCM
programs continues to increase in response to industry demand for qualified graduates with
proper employability skills, more detailed research about teaching methods and learning
skills may facilitate global SCM educational evolution, and emerging market economies, in
particular.
The vast majority of experiential learning studies in teaching SCM have focused on
experiential learning approaches in a developed country context. The study contributes to
the existing literature by investigating students’ perceived learning benefits across SCM-
teaching methods in a developing country, such as Bahrain. It also compares the research
results with the ones of previous literature.
Course structure and pedagogy
Course objectives
The SCM course (MGT 340) is a 300-level undergraduate required course for Business
Management students at a university in Bahrain. The course is designed to explore the
fundamental principles, systems, techniques and issues used to assure effective SCM in a
fiercely competitive, turbulent and globalized business world. It seeks to explain SCM’s
principles and role in organizations and the nature and importance of partnerships within
the SC. The topics covered in the course and the course-intended learning outcomes are
documented in the Appendix.
Pedagogical tools
The course applied blended team-based experiential and traditional pedagogical tools. The
case analyses, evaluative essays and game exercises have been combined with conventional
means such as lectures and classroom discussions. The instructor would serve here as a
mentor or a discussion guide.
In team-based activities, each team was divided into four members: leader, recorder,
timekeeper and facilitator. The leader oversees the team dynamics process and coordinates
activities. The minutes-taker records the answers of team members and present them on
behalf of the team. The timekeeper observes the time used or left to come up with
recommended solutions. The facilitator (moderator) summarizes the key points made and
the principles applied.
Case analysis. Two case studies have been assigned to students for in-class group
analysis: the first was a case of customer fulfillment strategies; and the second was to
conduct value-added process flow analysis for pizza development.
Evaluative essay. Students were asked to write an in-class group essay on global
companies that build their competitive strategies based on SCs.
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

6. Game exercise. The role-play exercise outlines the importance of systems thinking,
information sharing and collaboration to balance SC capacity with load and keep inventory
cumulative cost as low as possible.
Methodology
Participants
The study used a purposive convenience sampling method. The sample consisted of 18
students enrolled in the optional undergraduate SCM course at a university in Bahrain.
Students were instructed to complete the survey in one of the class sessions.
Procedure
Students were asked to assign the appropriate value that best describes their feeling on a
questionnaire composed of 18 items. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and
inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics included ranks, mean scores and standard
deviations, whereas the inferential statistics tools included the Kruskal–Wallis analysis of
variance (ANOVA) and Dunn’s multiple pairwise comparison tests. The XLSTAT
Statistical Software add-on for MS Excel was used for the statistical data analysis.
Instrument
The instrument intended to measure the extent to which the adopted course teaching
methods – case analysis, evaluative essay and game exercise – helped students acquire three
skills – cognitive, affective and interactive, on a scale that ranges from 1 “somewhat useful”
to 5 “extremely useful,” and one free-format general assessment question.
The learning skills assessed by the instrument were based on the work of Boehrer and
Linsky (1990), Fratantuono (1995), Bandura (1997), Chapman (2002) and Caulfield (2010).
The three domains of learning skills were as follows:
(1) Cognitive skills (assessed by six items from 1 to 6) are concerned with
understanding and understanding the subject field’s basic topics.
(2) Affective and personal development skills (assessed by six items from 7 to 12) are
concerned with self-efficacy that refers to an individual’s feeling or belief in his/her
capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance
attainments in a particular situation (Bandura, 1997).
(3) Interactive skills (assessed by six items from 13 to 18) are concerned with
improving group collaboration and teamwork dynamics among students in the
class.
Findings
Construct validity of the instrument
Validity is the instrument’s ability to measure what it is intended to measure and take
different forms, but construct validity is the most important. Confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) was used to assess the extent to which a measuring instrument accurately measures a
theoretical construct validity that is designed to measure. CFA is concerned with analyzing
the relationships among a set of variables (items) in terms of their loadings (the correlation
between an original variable and its respective factor) under components (factors). As this
study is based on a theory about how the items should load on certain factors and confirm a
specific data structure, the CFA is appropriate.
JIEB

7. Table 1 shows the CFA test results that identified three clusters of items, named
Component A (Interactive), Component B (Affective) and Component C (Cognitive), that
share sufficient variation to justify their existence as components to be measured by the
instrument. The extraction of factors used the principal components analysis method,
whereas the adopted rotation method was the varimax rotation. It was suggested that factor
loadings of at least 60.30 are considered significant. Variables with higher loadings (in
absolute value) are considered important, and they influence the name or label selected to
represent a factor mostly (Hair et al., 1979).
Most of the items loaded up under Factor A (Interactive Skills) explain the importance of
students’ interactive benefits from experiential learning. The items loaded up under the first
factor were 13, 7, 4, 15, 17, 9, 8 and 16. The items loaded up under the second factor were 5, 6,
18 and the last factor. The items loaded up under the second factor, cognitive skills, were 5,
6, 18, 14, 12 and 2, whereas the items loaded up under the third factor, affective skills, were
10, 11, 3 and 1.
The CFA test results showed various related items gathered into a common factor
(group) based on each item’s relationship with its underlying factor, while unrelated items
were eliminated. However, the test results loaded some items under a different factor than
was initially proposed in previous studies. For example, Item 3, “Learning the cross-
functionality of business and a few others,” was supposed to be included for cognitive skills,
but it is fit for interactive skills. This unexpected statistical loading could happen because of
the wording of items, which may not be appropriate and easy to understand by non-native
speakers, or because students have understood the content of items differently. In other
words, learning the cross-functionality of business could have been perceived as a benefit of
interaction among team members more than an interactive skill.
Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance of learning skills among teaching methods
This study’s first objective was to examine variations in students’ perceived learning skills
across the adopted teaching methods. The students’ perceptions of the learning skills were
Table 1.
Construct validity
statistics: rotated
component matrix
loadings
Item
no. Variable
Component A
(Interactive)
Component B
(Cognitive)
Component C
(Affective)
13. Improving team-building and interpersonal skills 0.875
7. Enjoying the learning of the course material 0.751
4. Learning the cross-functionality of business 0.737
15. Listening carefully to the statements of colleagues 0.685
17. Sharing ideas with colleagues 0.659
9. Being emotionally engaged in learning 0.636
8. Easing the learning of the course material 0.533
16. Arriving at decisions based on the majority of views 0.310
5. Making connections from one part of the course to another 0.803
6. Sorting relevant from irrelevant material 0.634
18. Enhancing interactions with other colleagues 0.632
14. Enhancing the development of ideas among colleagues 0.626
12. Achieving a sense of accomplishment in learning 0.531
2. Understanding new concepts 0.361
10 Increasing self-confidence 0.894
11. Assuming greater responsibility for personal learning 0.688
3. Using course material to solve business problems 0.589
1. Absorbing abstract material 0.397
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

8. measured on an ordinal level scale. Therefore, the nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis one-way
ANOVA test was deemed appropriate for the test for differences among three or more
groups, i.e. teaching methods.
The Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA test does not require the fulfillment of assumptions of the
normal distribution, interval or ratio scale data and group variance homogeneity. It tests
whether samples have been drawn from the same distribution. It compares the mean of
ranks for each group versus the mean of rank for all observations.
The sampling distribution of the Kruskal–Wallis H statistic approximates the chi-square
distribution. A larger H-value indicates a more considerable difference between groups
under comparison. Suppose the observed (calculated) H statistic is greater than the H
critical, and the p-value is less than or equal to 0.05. In that case, we usually conclude that
differences are not statistically significant, and the decision is to reject the null hypothesis
and accept the alternate one (Ostertagova et al., 2014).
Table 2 presents the one-way Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA test results on the teaching
methods’ perceived learning skills (with a significance level of 0.05). The table shows the
Kruskal–Wallis H statistic, H critical, degree of freedom and the corresponding p-value. As
the computed p-value is less than or equal to the significance level alpha of 0.05, one should
accept that perceived learning skills are significantly different among the teaching methods.
The Kruskal–Wallis test allowed us to confirm that the groups’ distributions were
dissimilar from one another.
Post hoc Dunn’s multiple pairwise comparisons test
The Kruskal–Wallis test results showed significant and non-significant differences in the
teaching methods’ perceived learning skills. If the Kruskal–Wallis test is significant, a post
hoc analysis can be performed to determine which groups were different from each other
group and which were not. To determine which groups were significantly dissimilar from
another and which were not, Dunn’s nonparametric post hoc pairwise comparison test of
means of ranks was used (Dunn, 1961; Dinno, 2015).
Meanwhile, as multiple tests frequently produce multiple p-values, adjustments to the
p-values can be made to avoid inflating the possibility of making a Type I error, thus
increasing the likelihood of coming about a significant result by chance. A Bonferroni
correction is conducted to protect from inflated Type I error to reject the null hypothesis
when it should not. To get the Bonferroni corrected (adjusted) p-value, divide the original
a-value by the number of tests minus one (Dunn, 1961; Armstrong, 2014).
Table 3 presents all Dunn’s pairwise comparison test results of Z and p-values, assuming
a two-tailed statistical significance level of 0.05 with a Bonferroni correction. The upper
number for each comparison is Dunn’s pairwise Z test statistic, whereas the lower number is
the raw p-value associated with the test. The table also documents the ranks and mean of the
perceived learning skills across the teaching methods.
Table 2.
One-way Kruskal–
Wallis ANOVA test
on differences in
means of ranks of
learning skills among
teaching methods
(one-tailed a = 0.05)*
Kruskal–Wallit results
H (observed value) 10.462
H (critical value) 5.991
DF 2
p-value 0.05
Note: *An approximation has been used to compute the p-value
JIEB

9. The Z score represents the standard deviation above or below the mean of rank. It reflects
differences in ranks or spread for the values of perceived learning skills among the teaching
methods. A positive Z score indicates that it is above the mean of ranks, whereas a negative
value indicates below the ranks’ mean. A Z score of 0 indicates that the data point’s score is
identical to the mean score. Dunn’s pairwise comparison test is based on the difference in
rank sums and means of perceived learning skills among the three teaching methods (Case,
Essay and Game).
The post hoc analysis demonstrated significant differences in the learning skills
between the teaching Methods A and B (Essay and Case) as estimated by the Z
statistic = 12.706 and p = 0.013, and significant difference between Methods B and C
(Essay and Game) as evaluated by the Z statistic = 15.441 and p = 0.002. Therefore,
one can conclude that data are drawn from populations with almost identical
distributions. All differences in perceived learning skills between the teaching methods
are because of random sampling. On the other hand, pairwise post hoc Dunn’s test for
perceived learning skills between Case versus Game, with Bonferroni adjustments, was
not significant (p = 0.591).
Students’ perceptions of interactive skills
The students’ responses for each statement identify the direction of differences in
perceptions of learning skills among teaching methods. Table 4 presents the mean scores,
ranks of item means and standard deviations associated with the survey’s interactive
benefit statements. From students’ responses, one can conclude that the game exercise (C)
with a mean of 4.23 was the most useful method for developing all six interactive skills,
followed by the evaluative essay (B) and case analysis (A) with mean scores of 3.46 and 3.00,
respectively.
Several favorable affective skills acquired by the game exercise (C) have been reported:
improving team-building and interpersonal skills;
enjoying the learning of the course material;
learning the cross-functionality of business;
listening carefully to the statements of colleagues;
sharing ideas with colleagues;
being emotionally engaged in learning;
easing the learning of the course material; and
arriving at decisions based on the majority of views.
Table 3.
Dunn’s multiple
pairwise comparison
test results*
Z and p values
Frequency Sum of ranks Mean of ranks
A. Case B. Essay C. Game
A. Case 0 17 339 19.941
1
B. Essay 12.706 0 17 385.5 22.676
0.013 1
C. Game 2.735 15.441 0 17 601.5 35.382
0.591 0.002 1
Note: *Bonferroni p-value corrected for a significance level of 0.0167
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

10. Students’ perceptions of cognitive skills
The perceptions toward cognitive skills across teaching methods are compiled in Table 5.
Results demonstrated that students’ overall rating of the game exercise (C) was the highest,
with a mean score of 3.81, followed by the evaluative essay (B) with a mean score of 3.37,
and the case (A), with a mean score of 3.11.
Results showed that game (C) is the most favorable method for learning by enhancing
interactions with other colleagues, achieving a sense of accomplishment in learning, and
enhancing ideas among colleagues. However, it was the least useful tool in terms of sorting
relevant from the irrelevant course material. Essay (B) ranked first in sorting appropriate
from inappropriate material and second in achieving a sense of accomplishment in learning
and understanding new concepts. Case (A) was the least favorable tool with 13th and 14th
ranks in sorting relevant from irrelevant material and making connections from one part of
the course to another.
Table 5.
Perceptions toward
cognitive skills
across teaching
methods
Item
no. Cognitive skills
A. Case B. Essay C. Game
Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD
1. Making connections from one
part of the course to another
14 2.55 0.98 8 3.27 0.89 9 3.23 1.39
2. Sorting relevant from
irrelevant material
13 2.88 1.05 6 3.35 0.99 12 3.00 1.21
3. Enhancing interactions with
other colleagues
10 3.22 1.47 8 3.27 1.48 1 4.52 0.71
4. Enhancing the development of
ideas among colleagues
11 3.05 1.51 7 3.33 1.41 3 4.0 1.00
5. Achieving a sense of
accomplishment in learning.
8 3.27 0.82 5 3.50 1.09 2 4.23 0.83
6. Understanding new concepts 8 3.72 0.89 5 3.50 1.09 4 3.88 0.99
Average 10.66 3.11 1.12 6.5 3.37 1.15 5.16 3.81 1.02
Table 4.
Perceptions of
interactive skills
across teaching
methods
Item
no. Interactive skills
A. Case B. Essay C. Game
Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD
1. Improving team-building and
interpersonal skills
13 3.22 1.55 7 3.72 1.17 1 4.52 0.62
2. Enjoying the learning of the
course material
15 2.83 1.09 8 3.66 1.18 3 4.29 0.98
3. Learning the cross-
functionality of business
14 3.05 1.16 10 3.38 1.19 5 4.17 0.88
4. Listening carefully to the
statements of colleagues
14 3.05 1.39 12 3.27 1.22 5 4.17 0.81
5. Sharing ideas with colleagues 13 3.22 1.51 9 3.50 1.42 2 4.47 0.71
6. Being emotionally engaged in
learning
15 3.00 1.02 11 3.33 1.02 4 4.23 0.90
7. Easing the learning of the
course material
16 2.83 0.98 10 3.38 1.092 6 3.76 1.09
8. Arriving at decisions based on
the majority of views
16 2.83 1.46 9 3.50 1.33 4 4.23 0.83
Average 14.5 3.00 1.27 9.5 3.46 1.20 3.75 4.23 0.85
JIEB

11. Students’ perceptions of affective skills
Table 6 documents the mean scores, item ranks of mean scores and standard deviations
associated with the survey’s affective benefit statements. The overall students’ responses
rated the game (C) as the highest, with a mean score of 3.76, followed by the essay (B) and
case analysis (A), with mean scores of 3.59 and 3.09, respectively.
Results also showed that the game exercise (C) was the most favorable for increasing self-
confidence, assuming greater responsibility for personal learning and absorbing abstract
material. Essay (B) was the most advantageous method for using course material to solve
business problems, whereas case (A) was the least favorable in easing course material to
solve business problems and absorb abstract material.
Students’ feedback on lessons learned from the pedagogical tools
Students were asked to express their opinions in a free-format style on the lessons learned
from an effective teaching method and students’ responses to the closed-ended questions.
The following were their views centered on the Game exercise. No comments were received
on the other two methods. The obvious pattern in the students’ qualitative feedback was the
game exercise’s continuous popularity as the most useful technique for improving
interactive, affective and cognitive skills. The lessons learned by students from the game
exercise were as follows:
Cognitive (Knowledge):
learned to decide on the right number of orders;
enhanced the body of knowledge through experiential exercise;
understood system dynamics of SCM;
experienced accurate information sharing between the SC members;
learned how to meet demand at the lowest possible total cost while avoiding
stocking out;
demonstrated the impact of system structure on human performance;
learned to forecast demand and replenishment of out-of-stock SC members;
understood the nature of collaboration among different SC members; and
understood the skills of increased communication within the SC network.
Interactive (Group):
Working in a team under the pressure of limited time and inventory helped me
finish the task on time and make the right decision.
Table 6.
Perceptions toward
affective skills across
teaching methods
Item
no. Affective skills
A. Case B. Essay C. Game
Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD
1. Increasing self-confidence 8 3.05 1.4 7 3.27 1.22 2 3.82 1.26
2. Assuming greater responsibility
for personal learning
6 3.5 1.04 5 3.66 0.97 3 3.76 1.09
3. Using course material to solve
business problems
10 2.88 1.23 1 3.94 0.99 4 3.70 1.10
4. Absorbing abstract material 9 2.94 1.16 6 3.50 1.09 3 3.76 1.14
Average 8.25 3.09 1.20 4.75 3.59 1.06 3 3.76 1.14
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

12. Discussion of a task in a group to have a better understanding of it.
The collaboration allowed us to improve SC performance at a lower total cost.
Learned to deal with a very erratic customer demand pattern, as backlogs mount
and/or massive inventories accumulate, and avoid the “bullwhip effect.”
Learned how the sequence of interdependent process decisions across SCs (retailer,
wholesaler, distributor and factory) affect the subsequent ones.
Sharing accurate, relevant and timely resources and information throughout the SC
is the core of streamlining SC process flow and performance.
Lack of appreciation of the impact of one group’s decisions on others, or the system
as a whole, such as the impact of multiple feedback loops.
Feelings of some frustration and helplessness during the game.
Feelings of some transposition errors in processing simple orders for just one
product.
Affective (Individual):
(1) learned to work under pressure and to finish on time;
(2) learned to be more careful in ordering the best quantity;
(3) enabled me to think individually;
(4) enabled me to think on a holistic level;
(5) learned to formulate a decision;
(6) learned to react to various scenarios that required different ways of thinking;
(7) enabled me to understand concepts through experiential learning;
(8) enabled me to experience the consequences of a particular decision; and
Additional skills learned by students are as follows:
negotiation skills;
analytical skills;
conflict management;
problem-solving; and
system thinking.
Discussion
This study aimed to assess the role of teaching methods of the SCM course at a university in
Bahrain in providing students with the experiential learning skills that satisfy their
employers’ market needs and expectations. The learning skills were divided into three types,
i.e. interactive, cognitive and affective. The interactive abilities are concerned with
improving group collaboration and teamwork dynamics among students in the class. In
contrast, affective skills are related to students’ personal development regarding their
feelings, beliefs and values. Cognitive skills are concerned with knowledge and
understanding of the subject field’s essential topics.
The Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA results demonstrated that the computed p-value for
students’ learning skills is less than or equal to the significance level (alpha = 0.05).
Therefore, one can accept the notion that there are significant differences in perceptions of
the learning skills across the teaching methods. Then, Dunn’s pairwise comparison test was
JIEB

13. conducted to determine which groups were dissimilar from another and which were not.
Dunn’s test results revealed significant differences in students’ perceptions of the learning
skills among the adopted teaching methods.
The general pattern of students’ responses showed the game exercise as the most useful
technique for improving interactive, affective and cognitive skills, followed by the case
analysis and the evaluative essay. In addition to the closed-ended survey results, students’
responses to the open-ended question showed a game exercise as the most favorable tool for
acquiring knowledge, individual and group skills. These findings are consistent with
previous studies of Fratantuono (1995), Bandura (1997), Chapman (2002), Al-Shammari
(2005) and Caulfield (2010).
The simulation or game exercise has been cited as the most powerful tool to introduce
students to SC knowledge, systems thinking or the bullwhip effect (Sparling, 2002; Wu and
Katok, 2006; Macdonald et al., 2013; Lau, 2015). Lack of information shared among suppliers,
manufacturers, salespeople and customers often create an incomplete understanding of the
real demand, leading to the “bullwhip effect” of stockpiling or stocking-out (Macdonald et al.,
2013).
The game exercise is well suited to study SCM because it enables students to learn from
experience so that concepts and theories become embedded in practice. It helps students
develop a systemic view of SC, develop problem-solving skills and integrate and synthesize
SC concepts. It allows students to learn from observation, active experimentation, concrete
experience and abstract conceptualization (Agogino and Wood, 1994; Kayes et al., 2005).
Moreover, it makes students enthusiastic about learning SCM and its complexity (Mehring,
2009).
Several studies have reported that game exercise is a powerful tool to introduce students
to SC knowledge, systems thinking or the bullwhip effect (Sparling, 2002; Wu and Katok,
2006; Macdonald et al., 2013; Lau, 2015). The game exercise appeared to be a very successful
teaching tool for developing students’ interactive, cognitive and affective learning outcomes
of teaching an SCM course at the undergraduate level. These results can provide useful
feedback on successful experiential or problem-based learning that may be beneficial when
used again by SCM instructors or other business courses.
The paper compares three teaching methods related to three skills, which provides new
information to the SCM field’s teaching and learning. It reinforces the need for new SC
teaching methods, as two of the methods analyzed have been used extensively, viz., Case
and Essay.
It also provides insights into experiential learning for teaching an SCM course in an
emerging market economy. However, the critical issue that may face the shift from
traditional toward experiential learning is changing faculty habits in their attitude to new
delivery techniques. Altering and managing faculty members’ teaching practice is difficult
and painful unless course designers are blessed with a favorable faculty–student ratio and
senior standing students. With rigorous academic preparation, there often exists an acute
problem for the effectiveness of pedagogical tools.
Limitations of the study
The research findings are expected to benefit the design, assessment and enhancement of
students’ learning experience in other business courses that adopt an experiential learning
perspective. However, caution should be applied when generalizing the results of a single
course’s study in an available country to larger populations. Generalization of the findings
of this study to students located in other developing countries may not be applicable.
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

14. As the sample of this study consisted of students enrolled in a particular SCM course at a
university in Bahrain, the small sample size may restrict the study’s conclusive findings.
The small sample size was because of the limited number of students enrolled in the course
and the study’s exploratory nature. Many similar studies have also been conducted using a
small sample size. Examples are Fratantuono (1995), whose sample size consisted of 15
students; Brymer and Newman (2016), whose sample comprised 25 students; and Wilson
(2020), whose exercise setup included between 4 and 6 students.
Recommendations for future studies
Future research can be conducted on other developing countries using larger samples and
adopting additional teaching methods such as stochastic simulation and project-based
experiential learning. In particular, project-based experiential learning involves academic
institutions collaborating with industry practitioners to enhance the teaching of real-world
issues and challenges. These partnerships often come with active mentorship from industry
partners, which could significantly prepare students for dynamic and competitive business
environments.
As content- or face-validity issues may arise in designing and developing instruments and
lead the respondent to provide theoretically contradictory or inconsistent responses, it is
recommended for future studies to conduct a qualitative judgment and a quantitative
measurement of the validity of the instrument using a pre-test pilot survey or a panel of experts.
Future research could apply an experimental research design that contains pre-test/post-
test for the experimental groups and control groups to determine the difference in students’
learning benefits according to the adopted teaching methods.
Conclusions
As globalization, technological proliferation and business dynamics move fast, the SCM
field becomes an integral part of business education. SCM education prepares students to
effectively design and manage SCs, especially as their role involves cross-functional (intra-
organizational) and cross-border (inter-organizational) business processes. SC design,
strategy, network and management are among the tools that firms need to use to compete in
turbulent business and technology environments and create a sustainable competitive
advantage.
Despite the growing importance of the SCM field, researchers have paid inadequate
attention to studying SCM teaching methods’ effectiveness in providing students with
learning skills needed in today’s competitive business environments. The current study
aims to bridge this literature gap on the strategic aspect of SC and focuses on investigating
SCM courses’ role in graduating students who are well equipped with holistic skills that
satisfy their employers’ market needs and expectations in an emerging market economy.
The paper compares three SC teaching methods related to three types of skills, which
provides new information to this study. This study’s contribution is in demonstrating the
effectiveness of pedagogical tools in developing students’ experiential learning skills in an
SCM course. Traditional pedagogical tools need to be blended with experiential-based ones
to accomplish successful learning outcomes in a developing country’s context.
The student-centered experiential learning approach should be encouraged in the teaching
of undergraduate courses in business schools. Faculty members need to take gradual steps to
promote student engagement and face students’ resistance to leave their comfort zone.
Campaigns could be launched to make students aware of the impact of the long-term value of
experiential learning on their skills and employability and prepare them as prospective global
managers. It is recommended to establish an experiential or problem-based learning support
JIEB

15. unit to assist faculty members in the planning, designing and developing pedagogical and
assessment tools.
References
Adida, E. and Demiguel, V. (2011), “Supply chain competition with multiple manufacturers and
retailers”, Operations Research, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 156-172.
Agogino, A. and Wood, W. (1994), “The synthesis coalition: information technologies enabling a
paradigm shift in engineering education”, in M. Linna and P. Routsala (Eds), Proceedings of the
Conference on Computers and Hypermedia in Engineering Education, Vaasa Institute of
Technology, Finland, pp. 3-10.
Al-Shammari, M. (2005), “Assessing the learning experience in a business process re-engineering (BPR)
course at the university of Bahrain”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 47-62.
Armstrong, R.A. (2014), Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 502-508.
Bandura, A. (1997), Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, New York, NY, W. H. Freeman.
Boehrer, J. and Linsky, M. (1990), “Teaching with cases: Learning to question”, in Svinicki, M. (Ed.), The
Changing Face of College Teaching. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Jossey-Bass
Publishing, San Francisco, Vol. 42 No. Summer, pp. 41-57.
Brymer, R. and Newman, W. (2016), “An experiential supply chain management field study: effectively
bridging the gap between classroom and practice”, Journal of Higher Education Theory and
Practice, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 48-56.
Bunney, D., Sharplin, E. and Howitt, C. (2015), “Generic skills for graduate accountants: the bigger
picture, a social and economic imperative in the new knowledge economy”, Higher Education
Research and Development, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 256-269.
Caulfield, J. (2010), “Applying graduate student perceptions of task engagement to enhance learning
conditions”, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 4 No. 1,
Article 8.
Chapman, E. (2002), “Alternative approaches to assessing student engagement rates”, Practical
Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, Vol. 8, Article 13.
Curkovic, S. and Fernandez, N. (2016), “Closing the gap in undergraduate supply chain education
through live experiential learning”, American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol. 6 No. 6, pp. 697-708.
Dinno, A. (2015), “Nonparametric pairwise multiple comparisons in independent groups using Dunn’s
test”, The Stata Journal: Promoting Communications on Statistics and Stata, Vol. 15 No. 1,
pp. 292-300.
Dunn, O.J. (1961), “Multiple comparisons among means”, Journal of the American Statistical Association,
Vol. 56 No. 293, pp. 52-64.
Fawcett, S., Ellarm, L. and Ogden, J. (2007), Supply Chain Management: From Vision to Implementation,
Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson/Prentice-Hall.
Fratantuono, M., et al. (1995), “Students’ assessment of the effectiveness of the various activities in a
non-Traditional course”, in Gijselaers, W. (Ed.), Educational Innovation in Economics and
Business Administration: The Case of Problem-Based Learning, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Netherlands, Vol. 30, pp. 268-276.
Frieden, G. and Pawelski, J. (2003), “Affective development in college students: strategies that promote
ethical decision-making and compassionate choice”, Journal of College and Character, Vol. 4
No. 5, p. 2, doi: 10.2202/1940-1639.1355.
Gibbs, G. (1988), Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, Further Education
Unit, London.
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

16. Gravier, M. and Farris, M. (2008), “An analysis of logistics pedagogical literature: past and future
trends in curriculum, content, and pedagogy”, The International Journal of Logistics
Management, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 233-253.
Gravier, M. and Farris, M. (2013), “Experiential learning based curricula in logistics/supply chain
management”, CSCMP Supply Chain Management Educator’s Conference, Denver, CO.
Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Grablowsky, B.J. (1979), Multivariate Data Analysis with
Readings, Tulsa, OK: Petroleum Publishing Company.
Huan, S., Sheoran, S. and Wang, G. (2004), “A review and analysis of the supply chain operations reference
(SCOR) model”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 23-29.
Kayes, A.B., Kayes, D.C. and Kolb, D.A. (2005), “Experiential learning in teams”, Simulation and
Gaming, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 330-354.
Kodzi, E. (2019), “From design to delivery: teaching supply chain management to IB majors”, Journal of
Teaching in International Business, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 342-372.
Kolb, D.A. (1984), Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development,
Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, NJ.
Kopczak, L.R. and Fransoo, J.C. (2000), “Teaching supply chain management through global projects
with global project teams”, Production and Operations Management, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 91-104.
Lancioni, R., Forman, H. and Smith, M.F. (2001), “Logistics and supply chain education roadblocks and
challenges”, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 10
No. 31, pp. 733-745.
Lau, A.K. (2015), “Teaching supply chain management using a modified beer game: an action learning
approach”, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 62-81.
Leon, S. and Uddin, N. (2016), “Finding supply chain talent: an outreach strategy”, Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 20-44.
Liu, C. (2017), “Using a video game to teach supply chain and logistics management”, Interactive
Learning Environments, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 1009-1024.
Lutz, H. and Birou, L. (2013), “Logistics education: a look at the current state of the art and science,
supply chain management”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4,
pp. 455-467.
Macdonald, J.R., Frommer, I.D. and Karaesmen, I.Z. (2013), “Decision making in the beer game and
supply chain performance”, Operations Management Research, Vol. 6 Nos 3/4, pp. 119-126.
Mehring, J. (2009), “A practical setting for experiential learning about supply chains: Siemens brief case
game supply chain simulator”, Production and Operations Management, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 56-65.
Mumtaz, U., Ali, Y. and Petrillo, A. (2018), “A linear regression approach to evaluate the green supply
chain management impacts industrial-organizational performance”, Science of the Total
Environment, Vol. 624, pp. 162-169.
Onar, S., Aktas, E., Topcu, Y. and Doran, D. (2013), “An analysis of supply chain-related graduate
programmes in Europe”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4,
pp. 398-412.
Oskarsson, B. (2014), “Towards pedagogical content knowledge in logistics”, PhD Thesis, Linköping
University, Department of Management and Engineering, No. 1685.
Ostertagova, E., Ostertag, O. and Kovac, J. (2014), “Methodology and application of the Kruskal-Wallis
test”, Applied Mechanics and Materials, Vol. 611, pp. 115-120.
Ozelkan, E. and Rajamani, D. (2006), “An effective framework for teaching supply chain management”,
The 2006 Annual Conference and Exposition, Chicago, IL, available at: https://peer.asee.org/1435
Pekkanen, P., Niemi, P., Puolakka, T., PirttileA, T. and Huiskonen, J. (2020), “Building integration skills
in supply chain and operations management study programs”, International Journal of
Production Economics, Vol. 225 No. 107593.
JIEB

17. Piercy, N. (2010), “Experiential learning: the case of the production game”, Decision Sciences Journal of
Innovative Education, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 275-280.
Robinson, K. and Aronica, L. (2015), Creative Schools: Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up,
Penguin Random House, London.
Senge, P.M. (1990), The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday, New York, NY.
Sparling, D. (2002), “Simulations and supply chains: strategies for teaching supply chain management”,
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 7 No. 5, pp. 334-342.
Sun, L. and Song, G. (2018), “Current state and future potential of logistics and supply chain education:
a literature review”, Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 124-143.
Vaatstra, R. and De Vries, R. (2007), “The effect of the learning environment on competences and
training for the workplace according to graduates”, Higher Education, Vol. 53 No. 3, pp. 335-357.
Van Hoek, R. and Wagner, B. (2011), “Supply chain management: current education provision and
practitioner future needs, supply chain management”, An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4,
pp. 355-357.
Weenk, E. (2019), Mastering the Supply Chain: Principles, Practice, and Real-Life Applications, Kogan
Page, London.
Wilson, S. (2020), “An experiential approach to teaching structural decision areas in operations strategy –
the TANGOS exercise”, Informs Transactions on Education, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 113-123.
Winter, P. (2002), “An executive MBA program in business engineering: a curriculum focusing on
change”, Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 279-288.
World Economic Forum (2016), “What are the 21st century skills every student needs?”, available at:
www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/21st-century-skills-future-jobs-students/ (accessed 22
August 2020).
Wu, D.Y. and Katok, E. (2006), “Learning, communication, and the bullwhip effect”, Journal of
Operations Management, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 839-850.
Further reading
Bloom, B. (1982), Human Characteristics and School Learning, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Goodwin, J.S. and Franklin, S. (1994), “The beer distribution game: using simulation to teach systems
thinking”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 13 No. 8, pp. 7-15.
Hollander, M., Wolfe, D.A. and Chicken, E. (2014), Nonparametric Statistical Methods, 3rd ed., John
Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY.
Van Hoek, R., Godsell, J. and Harrison, A. (2011), “Embedding ‘insights from industry’ in supply chain
programmes: the role of guest lecturers”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal,
Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 142-147.
Appendix. Topics covered and course-intended learning outcomes
Topics covered
The end-to-end process-oriented SCM approach adopted in the course covered the following topics
(Fawcett et al., 2007) in directed lecturing and class discussion:
SC Management and (SCM) Competitive Strategy.
Customer Fulfilment Strategies.
Process Thinking: SCM’s Foundations.
The Order Fulfillment Process.
SC Mapping.
Teaching a
supply chain
management
course

18. Core Competencies and Outsourcing.
Information Sharing.
Performance Management.
Intended learning outcomes
The student will be able to accomplish the following learning outcomes:
1A. Knowledge and understanding skills (cognitive):
Explain the role of supply, operations and logistics in SCM.
Explain SC performance measurement approaches.
Discuss the role of SCM in adding value to customers.
Discuss the management of SC processes such as order fulfillment and outsourcing.
Discuss the role of IT in enabling SC design, integration and supplier/customer
relationships.
Discuss the value of SCM and its role in alignment with corporate strategy.
Identify global SCM and e-commerce issues and challenges.
1B. Subject-specific skills:
Demonstrate an awareness of systems thinking and process integration.
Explain the role of core competencies of SC members in creating sustainable competitive
advantage.
Describe the role of customer fulfilment and relationships in SCM.
2. Thinking skills:
Recall the cross-functional competencies leveraged in the end-to-end SCM.
Demonstrate critical and reflective thinking in analyzing SCs.
Apply process flow and mapping concepts to real-life situations.
3. General and transferable skills (affective and interactive): professional and personal development:
Use problem-solving skills and arrive at decisions based on the majority of views.
Demonstrate team-building and interpersonal skills.
Use of effective self and time management skills to meet deadlines.
Demonstrate the development and sharing of new ideas among colleagues.
Use IT systems, i.e. spreadsheet modeling, for downstream demand forecasting.
Prepare and present clearly expressed work of a professional standard.
About the author
Minwir M. Al-Shammari is a Professor and former Dean of the College of Business Administration at
the University of Bahrain. He has received his PhD in Business Administration (Industrial
Management) from the University of Glasgow, UK, and MS in Industrial Management from the
University of Central Missouri in the USA. His publications have appeared in numerous international
refereed journals. He has published 7 books and over 60 research papers. Minwir M.
Al-Shammari can be contacted at: minwir@gmail.com
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
JIEB