Diane H. Parente, Ph.D.

Diane H. Parente, Ph.D.
Chair, Functional Data Analytics, Interdisciplinary Business with Engineering Studies, and International Business programs
Co-Chair, Interdisciplinary Science and Business program
Co-Director, MMM program
Professor of Management, Business & Management, IBE, and International Business programs
Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene Professor of Business
254 Burke

Mailing Address:
PENN STATE BEHREND
242 BURKE CENTER
ERIE PA 16563

Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo (1997): Interdisciplinary research, business and engineering issues, functional and business-level strategy, business simulations, project management, and supply chain. 

Dr. Diane H. Parente is a Professor of Management at Penn State Behrend. She earned the BA in Physics from Wilson College and the MBA from Canisius College in Buffalo with concentrations in management and accounting. She earned her Ph.D. in Operations Strategy from the University at Buffalo in 1997. Dr. Parente is the Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene Professor of Management and developed the Interdisciplinary Business and Engineering program at Penn State Behrend. The program is jointly administered by the Black School of Business and the School of Engineering. She is lead faculty in the iMBA faculty and currently Program Chair for the IBE and International Business programs as well as Co-Director of the MMM graduate program.

She has received research awards including the Anbar Scientific Award and Best Paper in the Journal of Management Education. Dr. Parente has received numerous teaching awards at Penn State and the University at Buffalo for both online and residential teaching. She has worked in manufacturing, banking, and insurance, most recently as international business manager with Occidental Chemical (Oxychem).

Dr. Parente has been an active member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the Academy of Management - Operations Division, Midwest Decision Science Institute leadership, and the National Decision Science Institute. She is also a member of ABSEL and POMS.

Parente is a second career academic with experience in both development and application of multiple functions in business. 

Prior to employment at Behrend, Dr. Parente was Instructor in marketing and management at Fredonia State College 1992-96, Visiting Assistant Professor of strategic management 1995-96, and Assistant Professor of MIS at the University of Mississippi 1996-1998. She had a graduate teaching position at the University at Buffalo in strategy 1992-95 and was teaching assistant in quantitative methods 1993-96.

Dr. Parente's industry experience included a variety of positions at Occidental Chemical. She was International Business Manager responsible for strategic direction of 62 products from 12 manufacturing groups. During this period, she traveled extensively to countries in all regions of the world. She was the featured speaker at an international conference in Thailand on the "Worldwide Chrome Chemical Market" and at the International Trade Council in Buffalo on "International Shipping and Logistics." She was also Manager of Corporate Systems responsible for all business computer systems at Oxychem. She was Manager of Logistics and Sales Administration which included transportation systems and equipment, production planning, terminals, warehouses, packaging, exchanges and trades. Her duties included sales administration, forecasting, pricing evaluation, and interaction with production and purchasing, also for the entire Oxychem portfolio. Her early appointment to Oxychem was as a systems analyst and product line manager.

Prior to joining Oxychem, Dr. Parente was an analyst for M&T Bank, working on online computing systems and Prudential Insurance working also in systems analysis and technical programming on a management development program.

Teaching 

Teaching Philosophy

The overriding concept of my approach to teaching business administration is to take advantage of my industry experience and integrate it into the classroom theory. Providing hands-on experiences that allow students to learn by doing is another integral component.

In each of my courses, I design projects that simulate business situations. Students may be required to act as consultants for businesses and organizations on campus. They may also produce large-scale projects, such as an international dinner.

In a graduate setting, students enter with context. In both online programs in which I teach, the students have considerable work experience. They have developed their own frame of reference after some time in the workplace. Graduate students often lack the theory to anchor and build from their experience. One of the challenges of graduate business education is to prove the relevance of the theory to practice. This is true in online education also.

I continue to use a variety of teaching approaches in the classroom and select the approach based on the course and the objectives of the course. I have used simulation and large-scale simulation, problem-based learning, cases, active learning, cohesion cases, video enhanced instruction, and traditional lecture.

Courses Taught

  • B ADM 500: Business Enterprise
  • iMBA 521: Strategic Analysis
  • iMBA 531: Project Management
  • iMBA 573: Strategic Planning
  • INT B 597B: Special Topics
  • MANGT 470W: Strategic Management and Business Policy
  • MANGT 480: International Management
  • MANGT 496: Independent Studies
  • MANGT 497: Special Topics
  • MANGT 531: Strategic Planning and Business Policy - Web
  • MANGT 540: Strategy: Corporate, Business, and Project
  • MANGT 571: Strategic Planning and Business Policy
  • MANGT 575: Management of Projects
  • MANGT 596: Independent Studies
  • MANGT 597: Special Topics
  • MISBD 501: Information Systems in Organizations
  • MGMT 475W: Strategic Product Development
  • MGMT 476: Product Realization Capstone
  • PSU 007: Behrend First-Year Seminar

Teaching Awards

  • Nominated, University Advising Award, 2012
  • Nominated, Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award, 1996, 1997, and 2002.
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, iMBA Program, Penn State University, 2007; 2005; 2004.
  • Nominated for the Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award, Penn State Erie, Erie PA, 2001; 2000; 1999
  • School of Management Excellence in Teaching Commendation recipient, University of Buffalo, School of Management, Buffalo NY, May 1996

Teaching Activities

  • SimProject publication - links the application of my prior industry experience in programming and systems development to the application of cross-functional skills. SimProjectTM (Pinto & Parente) is in its second edition and is being used by approximately 100 institutions around the world. Version 3.0 will be published in 2012.
  • Provides pedagogical assistance for instructors all over the world on teaching project management as well as teaching with simulation.
  • Principal author in a research stream using simulation in the classroom that includes an article that was named best paper in the Journal of Management Education (Stephan, Parente, & Brown, 2002).
  • Frequent speaker at conferences on teaching with simulation.
  • Research in online pedagogical techniques (See, for example Parente, Duck, Zhao, & Fizel, 2007).
  • Conducted a well-attended workshop in August 2007 at the Academy of Management; presented a model for online teaching; Supplied examples of various courses and programs and where they resided in the online learning space (Parente, Lee, & Duck, 2007).
  • Invited to participate as an “expert” on a panel at the National Decision Sciences Institute on the “Do’s and Don’ts on Online Teaching” (Rungtusanatham, Arbaugh, Parente, & Ellram, 2007).
  • Recipient of Best Paper Award for 2003 in Journal of Management Education by Organizational Behavior Teaching Society.
  • Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Innovative Education, 2001 – present.
  • Invited to Eastern Washington University School of Business to present workshop on Mastery Learning and Innovative Teaching Methods in Business, 2001.

Research 

Dr. Parente’s research agenda falls into three distinct areas of research interest: cross-functional research based on the value chain, methodological research (both theoretical and research methods), and pedagogical research (both pedagogical studies and academic simulations).

Her research philosophy is interdisciplinary. Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is a product of how multiple functions work together. Organizations find that it is the internal capabilities that lead to SCA. Thus, it is just as important to work across academic specialties as within them if we are ever to understand how firms gain SCA.

The second main area of her research is methodological. In addition to the use of inferential statistics, she has used literature reviews and classifications to assist in setting a research agenda in various areas. She was co-editor of a special issue regarding the state of empirical research data collection in Operations Management. The Journal of Operations Management published (Parente & Gattiker, 2007) on Innovative Data Sources for Empirically Building and Validating Theories in Operations Management. This work is important as an introduction for many operations management researchers to help identify alternate methods of data collection in our field.

Finally, she has pursued the development of computer simulations with an extensive stream of both simulation and pedagogical research.

Honors and Awards for Scholarship or Professional Activity

  • Best Paper Award, Management Education Division, Academy of Management, annual meeting, 2006.
  • Research Fellow Award, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, University Park PA, 2006; 2005.
  • Appointment, Innovative Education Committee, Decision Sciences Institute, 2004.
  • World Campus Faculty Leadership Award, Penn State University, University Park PA, 2004.
  • Fritz Rothlisberger Award, Organizational Behavior Teaching Society Best Paper in 2002, Springfield MA, 2003.
  • Citation of Excellence for Research Implications (for International Journal of Operations and Production Management article), ANBAR Electronic Intelligence, MCB University Press, West Yorkshire UK, 1999
  • Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship, The Netherlands School of Business, Summer 1995
  • Alma Mater Society Award, State University of NY-Fredonia, Fredonia NY, May 1995

Service 

Dr. Parente has served in a variety of positions within Behrend. Among these are:

  • Faculty Council Chair (2006-07)
  • College Promotion & Tenure Committee (2005-07; 2008-10; 2012-14)
  • Chair, Chancellor’s Strategy Committee (2010-12)
  • Chair, Educational Equity Committee (2007-09)
  • Chair, Chancellor’s Search Committee (2009-10)
  • Chair, Business & Engineering Partnership (2004-present)

Service to the iMBA program

  • Lead faculty
  • Academic Steering Committee

Outreach-Based Instruction

Supervised graduate student projects with firms and community organizations:

  • St. Vincent's Medical Group
  • Elk County Savings Bank
  • Erie Insurance Credit Union
  • Brookville Glove Company
  • Knowledge Park
  • Continuing and Distance Education

Consulting

  • American Turned Products, Erie, PA 1999-2000
  • Erie City Memorials, Erie, PA, 1998-
  • Total Quality Management Center, Budapest, Hungary, 1995

Service to Public and Private Organizations

  • Member, P&T Full Professor External Review Committee, UCCS, 2010.
  • Presentations and consultation on the development and implementation of an online MBA program. With J. Fizel and J. Duck. Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR, October 2007.
  • Facilitator for new venture, Academic Success Center, Erie, PA, 2004.
  • Alumnae Director, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, 1997-2000

Conferences

  • Conference Chair and Organizer Midwest Decision Science Institute held in Erie, PA (2008)
  • Division Chair, Academy of Management, Operations Division
  • Program Chair, Academy of Management, Operations Division, Philadelphia, PA (2007)
  • Professional Development Workshop Chair, Academy of Management, Operations Division, (2006)
  • Best Practices Workshop Business & Engineering Collaboration, Erie, PA (2004)

Participation in Seminars and Workshops

  • Master of Project Management Plenary, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, August 2008:
    • Alumni Panel Presentation on Research Projects and Discussion of Research Ideas with Faculty and Students, Session Chair. 
    • MANGT 596 Workshop, Moderator (with J. Pinto).
  • Quality Assurance of Online Courses Workshop. Presenter, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, January 2008.
  • Innovative Education. Session chair, Midwest Decision Sciences Institute, annual meeting, Chicago, IL, April 2007.
  • Operations Management Professional Development Workshop. Chair, Academy of Management, annual meeting, Atlanta, GA, August 2006.
  • Computer Business Simulation Design. Session chair, Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, annual meeting, Atlanta, GA, June 2005.
  • What's It Like to Teach Online? Presenter with J. Fizel, faculty workshop, Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, May 2005.
  • Drivers for Management in the Engineering Curriculum. Session chair, Business & Engineering Conference, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, April 2004.
  • Quality Improvement in Health Care Delivery. Session chair, Production and Operations Management, Lake Buena Vista, FL, March 2001.
  • Decision Sciences Institute, annual meeting:
    • Various Perspectives of Supply Chain Management Curriculums. Session chair, San Francisco, CA, November 2005.
    • Being Online: Challenges and Advantages. Session facilitator, Boston, MA, November 2004.
    • Business in the Engineering Curriculum. Session chair, Washington, DC, November 2003.
    • Technology in Services. Discussant, San Diego, CA, November 2002.
  • Academy of Management, annual meeting:
    • Operations Management. Program chair, Philadelphia, PA, August 2007.
    • E-Media. Session panelist, Seattle, WA, August 2003.
    • Characterizing Inward Transfer of Operational Technology: A Conceptual Typology. Discussant, Operations Management Division, Toronto, ONT, Canada, August 2000.

Speaking Engagements

  • Business Skills for Competitive Advantage: Engineering Edition. Speaker, School of Engineering Speaker Series, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, March 2006.
  • Credit Card Solicitation on College Campuses. Co-presenter with P. Mansfield. Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Penn State University, University Park, PA, October 2004.
  • Credit card game show:
    • Co-presenter with P. M. Mansfield. Student Financial Aid administrators within the Penn State system, Penn State University, University Park, PA, June 2004.
    • Invited speaker, with M. B. Pinto, Professional Development Day, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, August 2001.
  • Mastery Learning. Invited speaker, Eastern Washington School of Business, Spokane, WA, May 2001.

Other Activites

  • Adviser, APICS Student Chapter, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, 2001-02.

Membership in Professional and Learned Societies

  • Southern Management Association, 2004-08.
  • American Production and Inventory Control Society, 1998-08.
  • Society of Human Resource Management, 1996-98.
  • Academy of Management, 1995-.
  • Association for Business Simulations and Experiential Learning, 1995-08.
  • Niagara Frontier Faculty Development Consortium, 1994-95.
  • Decision Sciences Institute, 1993-.
  • Production and Operations Management Society, 1993-08.
  • Business and Professional Women, 1992-97.

Participation in Professional Societies

  • Mid West Decision Sciences Institute:
    • Member, Nominating Committee, 2010.
    • Officer, 2009.
  • Beta Gamma Sigma:
    • President, 2001.
    • Vice President, 200.
  • American Production and Inventory Control Society:
    • Erie APICS Director and Board Member, 2000-.
    • Vice President of Marketing, 1999-2000.
    • Member, 1998-.
  • Academy of Management:
    • Chair, Professional Development, 2006.
    • Secretary, webmaster, outreach chair, Operations Management, 2000-05.
    • Strategic Planning Subcommittee Coordinator, Operations Management Leadership Committee, 1998-99.
  • Production and Operations Management Society:
    • Education Committee, 1998.
  • Decision Sciences Institute:
    • Innovative Education Committee, 2003-05.
    • Doctoral Seminar Research Advisor, 2004; 2002-03.
    • Nominating Committee, 1998-99.

Assistance to Student Organizations

  • Adviser, APICS Student Chapter, Penn State Erie, Erie PA, 2001-02.
  • Co-adviser, APICS Student Chapter, Penn State Symposium, Penn State Erie, Erie PA, February 2001; April 2000.

Interdisciplinary strategic topics, supply chain, project management, online pedagogy

Mediation Testing in Marketing Analytics: Replication and Extension of Germann et al (2013), Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness - 2020
Collaborator: Yohannes Haile, Co-Author

Workplace Empowerment Incorporating Stability Overtime: Replication & Extension, Journal of Organizational Psychology - 2020
Collaborator: Yohannes Haile, Co-Author

Simulation in Adult Learning: Across the Disciplines of Engineering, Business, and Healthcare - February 4, 2020
Collaborators: Yi Wu, Author; Daniel Eaton, Author

Aligning Supply Chain Logistics Costs via ERP Coordination, International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design - September, 2018
Collaborators: Matthew Swinarski, Co-Author; Joseph Muscatello, Co-Author

Kerr Had It Right: What is the Folly of the Reward? - April, 2017
Collaborators: James Fairbank, Co-Author; Randy Brown, Co-Author

Improving Logistic Costs through ERP Alignment - February, 2017
Collaborators: Joseph Muscatello, Author; Matthew` Swinarski, Author

The Impact of ERP Alignment on Logistics Costs: A Work System Theoretical Approach, International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems - July, 2016
Collaborators: Joseph Muscatello, Co-Author; Matthew Swinarski, Co-Author

Instructor Quickstart Manual V 2.8 - December 1, 2013

Instructor Quickstart Manual V 3.0 - December 1, 2013

Project Strategy and Strategic Portfolio Analysis: A Primer - July, 2013
Collaborator: William Johnson, Co-Author

2012

Instructor Quickstart Manual - 2012

Facilitating Acquisition of Strategic Skills: Traditional and Soft Managerial Skills, Management Research Review - 2012
Collaborators: J Stephan; Randy Brown

Do Small IT Firms Benefit from Higher Process Capability? , Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery (CACM) - July 01, 2012
Collaborators: Matthew Swinarski; R Kishore, Secondary Author

Learning Style Preferences in Cross-Functional Teams: Discipline-Specific or Personality Related, Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business - December, 2011
Collaborators: J Filbeck, Primary Author; J Roth, Secondary Author

A Study of Gender Differences with Respect to Internet Socialization of Adolescents, Journal of Business and Economics Research - 2010
Collaborators: Matthew Swinarski, Primary Author; Kathleen Noce, Secondary Author

Are All IT Professionals Created Equally?, Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business - 2010
Collaborators: Michael Filbeck; John Roth

Good to Great: Lessons for Managers, Management Research Review - 2010
Collaborators: Michael Filbeck; R Gorman; Xin Zhao

Socialization to the Internet: Who Is Teaching Our Children? , International Journal of Management and Information Systems - 2009
Collaborators: Matthew Swinarski; Kathleen Noce

Best Practices for Online Procurement Auctions - 2008

A Post-implementation Case Study and Review of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations: An Update - 2008
Collaborator: J Muscatello

SimProject Case - 2008

Marketing and Supply Chain Management: A Collaborative Research Agenda, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing - 2008
Collaborators: P Lee; M Ishman; A Roth

Competition and the Winner’s Curse in B2B Reverse Auctions - 2007
Collaborators: I Ghosh; John Fizel; Ido Millet

Free Trade - 2007

Online Auctions - 2007

A Model for International Benchmarking: When and How? , Benchmarking: An International Journal - 2007
Collaborators: P Southard, Primary Author; Array Array; Array Array

Collaboration: Leading and Learning by Example, Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching - 2007
Collaborators: J Duck; Xin Zhao; John Fizel

Introduction to the Special Issue on Innovative Data Sources for Empirically Building and Validating Theories in Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management - 2007
Collaborators: T Gattiker; Array Array; Array Array

SimProject Case - 2006

SimProject Instructor’s Manual - 2006
Collaborator: Jeffrey Pinto

An Assessment of Desired “Business Knowledge Attributes” for Engineering Technology Graduates, Journal of Engineering Technology - 2006
Collaborators: Kenneth Fisher, Primary Author; Michael Lobaugh, Secondary Author

C3: Cross Course Collaboration Guidelines for Success, International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education - 2006
Collaborator: Peggy Lee, Co-Author

Enterprise Resource Planning: A Postimplementation Cross-case Analysis, Information Resources Management Journal - 2006
Collaborator: J. Muscatello, Co-Author

SimProject Case - 2005

SimProject: A Project Management Simulation - 2005
Collaborator: Jeffrey Pinto

A Pre-post Comparison of Service Operational Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction under Open Access Scheduling, Health Care Management Review - 2005
Collaborators: Mary Pinto, Secondary Author; J. Barber, Secondary Author

Information Learned from Socialization Agents: Its Relationship to Credit Card Usage, Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Research - 2005
Collaborators: Mary Pinto; Phylis Mansfield

Review Sessions and Results: Competency Testing in the Capstone Business Class, Journal of Instructional Psychology - 2005
Collaborators: R. Brown, Co-Author; Alfred Warner, Co-Author

Selling Open Access Health Care Delivery to Patients and Administrators: What's the Hook? , Health Marketing Quarterly - 2005
Collaborators: Mary Pinto; J. Barber

SimProject Case - 2004

A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Online Auctions in a B2B Environment, Supply Chain Management - 2004
Collaborators: Ray Venkataraman; John Fizel; Ido Millet

College Students and Academic Performance: A Case of Taking Control, Journal of National Association of Student Personnel Administrators - 2004
Collaborators: Phylis Mansfield, Secondary Author; Mary Pinto, Primary Author; T. Wortman, Secondary Author

Metrics for Managing Online Procurement Auctions, Interfaces - 2004
Collaborators: Ido Millet; John Fizel; Ray Venkataraman

Relationship of Credit Attitude and Debt to Self-esteem and Locus of Control in College-age Consumers, Psychological Reports - 2004
Collaborators: Mary Pinto; Phylis Mansfield

2003
Collaborator: Jeffrey Pinto

SimProject Instructor’s Manual - 2003
Collaborator: Jeffrey Pinto

Self-control and Credit Card Use among College Students, Psychological Reports - 2003
Collaborators: Phylis Mansfield; Mary Pinto

SimProject Case - 2002

SimProject Case - 2002

Adaptation to Self-managing Work Teams, Small Group Research - 2002
Collaborators: P. Thoms; Jeffrey Pinto; V. Druskat

An Exploratory Study of the Sales-production Relationship and Customer Satisfaction, International Journal of Operations and Production Management - 2002
Collaborators: C. Pegels; N. Suresh

Redesigning a Square Peg: Total Quality Management Performance Appraisals, Total Quality Management - 2002
Collaborator: KJ. Aldakhilallah, Co-Author

Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Balancing Knowledge Using Large Scale Simulations in Capstone Business Strategy Classes, Journal of Management Education - 2002
Collaborators: J. Stephan; R. Brown

Student Performance on the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing ExaminationCUSA Level II Following a Clinical Evaluation, Feedback, and Intervention Program, Journal of the American Osteopathic Association - 2002
Collaborators: D. Agostini, Co-Author; A. Stano, Co-Author

B2B Online Reverse Auctions: What's New?, Decision Line - 2001
Collaborators: Ray Venkataraman; John Fizel; Ido Millet

College Student Performance and Credit Card Usage, Journal of College Student Development - 2001
Collaborators: Mary Pinto, Co-Author; Todd Palmer, Co-Author

College Students: Credit Card Debt and The Role of Parental Involvement: Implications for Public Policy, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing - 2001
Collaborators: Todd Palmer; Mary Pinto, Co-Author

Credit Card Solicitation Policies in Higher Education: Does AProtecting@ Our Students Make a Difference?, Journal of College Student Development - 2001
Collaborators: Mary Pinto, Co-Author; Todd Palmer, Co-Author

Card Talk, University Business - February 24, 2001
Collaborators: Mary Pinto; T Palmer

Materialism and Credit Card Use by College Students, Psychological Reports - 2000
Collaborators: Mary Pinto, Co-Author; Todd Palmer, Co-Author

Links and Levels: Minimizing Problems in Cross-functional Research Using the Principles of Data Modeling, Decision Line - 1999
Collaborator: Array Array

Across The Manufacturing C Marketing Interface: Classification of Significant Research, International Journal of Operations & Production Management - 1998

Evolution of an Integrated Health System: A Life Cycle Framework, Journal of Healthcare Management - 1998
Collaborators: J. Barber; K. Koch; J. Mack; K. Davis

A Large-scale Simulation for Teaching Business Strategy - 1995

Electroluminescence of Alumina and Related Alloys, Thin Solid Films - 1969
Collaborators: W. Ganley; P. Mooney

Ph D, Management Science and Systems, The State University of New York at Buffalo

MBA, Accounting and Management, Canisius College

BA, Physics, Wilson College