Partnership will strengthen influence of Rutgers in decision sciences field

Rutgers Business School is forging a deeper strategic partnership with Decision Sciences Institute, a prominent multidisciplinary association of professors, graduate students and practitioners interested in decision sciences, that will include hosting the organization's home offices in Newark. 

The business school’s supply chain management department already has strong, long-standing ties to the institute. Professors Arash Azadegan and Xin “David” Ding serve on the organization’s board, and Ding also chaired the annual conference in 2025. 

“Establishing Rutgers Business School as the institutional home of the Decision Sciences Institute significantly strengthens the school’s national and global visibility in analytics, operations and decision sciences,” said professor Lian Qi, chairman of the school's supply chain management department.

The area of decision sciences is the study of managerial decision making that uses data-driven and behavioral approaches to solve real-world problems. As part of its work to create and disseminate knowledge, the Decision Sciences Institute publishes three academic journals, Decision Sciences Journal, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education and Decision Sciences Insights.

Several Rutgers supply chain professors – Ding, Azadegan and David Dreyfus – are currently serving on the editorial board of Decision Sciences Journal, the institute’s flagship research publication.

Professor Qi said being the new home of DSI will benefit Rutgers Business School in a variety of ways. The partnership reinforces the school’s stature in the field of data sciences, he said, and hosting the institute’s board and the editorial board meetings of its journals creates frequent opportunities for faculty to interact with key leaders in the field.

“By securing this relationship,” Qi said, “RBS differentiates itself from its peer institutions and establishes itself as the long-term academic home of one of the discipline’s most influential scholarly organizations, strengthening its ability to attract outstanding faculty, doctoral students and research collaborations.”

Rutgers Business School Dean Lei Lei expressed similar sentiments in an email announcing the partnership. “Hosting the home office of DSI’” Lei noted, “will further strengthen our impact and position in the academic community.”

The institute’s home office, currently located in Texas, will officially move its operations at Rutgers Business School’s Newark Campus in January, 2027.

As part of New Jersey's flagship university, Rutgers Business School is continuously working on new ideas to influence industry by fostering academic expertise that leads to innovation and more efficient real world business practices.