James Abbey

Biography

Dr. Abbey is the Bob ’85 and Kelly Jordan ’86 Associate Professor in Business at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He is also the Department Editor (Sustainability) for Journal of Operations Management; Faculty Senator; CTE Teaching Fellow for Innovative Learning Classroom Building Faculty Fellow and on the CHSD Faculty Senate Legislative Affairs Committee.

Professor Abbey has worked in the domain of remanufacturing and Closed-Loop Supply Chains for the better part of a decade. Professor Abbey’s research focuses on consumer perceptions and reactions toward multiple lifecycle products, designing products for multiple lifecycles, and remanufacturing processes. In addition, Professor Abbey continues to work in the domain of healthcare supply chains with a particular focus on reimbursement systems and processes. A particular focus of his recent work is the state of the Recovery Audit Contractor system, which continues to experience significant operational challenges. His research has been published in Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, The Oxford Handbook Series, The Springer Science & Business Series, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering, International Journal of Production Research (forthcoming), California Management Review, and more.

Professor Abbey also serves on the Journal of Operations Management Editorial Review Board (and as an Associate Editor), the Production and Operations Management Editorial Review Board, and the Remanufacturing Industry Council’s Consensus Body for Establishing an ANSI Standard for Remanufacturing. In addition, he reviews for multiple premier journals, including Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Industrial Ecology, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and more. In fall of 2017, he received an appointment as a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Health Systems & Design (CHSD) three year term from fall of 2017 to fall of 2020. He also serves as a Faculty Senator, Caucus Leader, Legislative Affairs representative, Center for Teaching Excellence Fellow for the ILCB, and more.

In Fall of 2015, Dr. Abbey co-chaired an international conference on Closed-Loop Supply Chains. The conference brought together academics and industry experts from around the world to the Mays Business School City Centre facility in Houston for a two-day event focused on recycling, consumer returns, remanufacturing, and reclamation systems. Executives and academics put in a collective effort to address current issues in circular economies and closed-loop supply chains. Dr. Abbey once again co-organized (conference lead by Dr. Gil Souza) the Closed-Loop Supply Chain conference for the latest iteration to be held at the Indiana University on the topic of servicizing systems in large equipment OEMs.

Between the prior two events, Dr. Abbey co-chaired (with Dr. Brian Jacobs of Michigan State University) the Sustainable Operations conference as part of the the Production and Operations Management Society’s 2017 meeting. The event occurred at the Boeing Renton plant with both a plant site visit as well as discussions from senior Boeing management in the sustainability domain. He again assisted as a co-chair (with Dr. Neil Geismar) for the Sustainable Operations mini-conference in Houston, Texas for the Production and Operations Management Society’s 2018 meeting. Recently, his Mays Grand Challenge: Healthcare discussion appeared in the @Mays Magazine (summer 2017). The @Mays article discussed the major challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system in terms of both care provision and the business side of payment systems (https://mays.tamu.edu/mays/). His research on Recovery Audit Contractors and personal stories with healthcare also appeared in the Fall 2018 @Mays Magazine.

Recent recognitions of his service and teaching include an award for Best Reviewer in 2016 for his service to the field’s flagship Production and Operations Management Journal. He also received the Outstanding Reviewer Service Award for 2014-2017 at Journal of Operations Management. In fall of 2017, he received the Texas A&M University’s distinguished Montague Award for Teaching Excellence from the Center For Teaching Excellence. More recently, Dr. Abbey was recognized as the Best Associate Editor at Journal of Operations Management for 2018. In 2019, he was promoted to Senior Editor at Production and Operations Management Journal. In 2020, he was promoted to Departmental Editor at Journal of Operations Management. He was also awarded an endowed professorship with the title, “Bob ’85 and Kelly Jordan ’86 Associate Professor in Business.”

Dr. Abbey has also earned two grants, one for research and one for teaching. On the research side, his team was selected for a $30,000 Texas A&M Triads for Transformation President’s Research Fund Grant. This grant is part of a multidisciplinary seed-grant program that is part of the President’s Excellence Fund designed to further Texas A&M University’s commitments to the three pillars of advancing transformational learning; enhancing discovery and innovation and expanding impact on our community, state, nation, and world. Dr. Abbey also received a teaching grant in the amount of $6500. This grant stems from the Montague Teaching Innovations initiative run by the Center for Teaching Excellence.