Dr. Diane Parente

Chair, Interdisciplinary Business and Engineering Studies

Office Location:

Burke 254

Phone:

(814) 898 6436

Email:

dhp3@psu.edu

Profile

Biography

Dr. Diane H Parente is a professor of management at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. 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 Sam and Irene Black School of Business and the School of Engineering.

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.

Dr. Parente has been an active member of 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.

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 Ùs 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

Courses for Spring 2012

MGMT 476: Product Realization Capstone

iMBA 521: Strategic Analysis (online)

Courses taught

B ADM 500: Business Enterprise

iMBA 521: Strategic Analysis (online)

iMBA 531: Project Management (online)

iMBA 573: Strategic Planning (online)

INT B 597B: Special Topics - International Business

MANGT 531: Project Organizations (online)

MANGT 540: Strategy: Corporate, Business, and Project (online)

MANGT 573: Strategic Planning and Business Policy (online)

MANGT 575: Management of Projects (online)

MANGT 596: Independent Studies

MANGT 597: Special Topics

MISBD 501: Information Systems in Organizations

MANGT 470W: Strategic Management and Business Policy

MGMT 475W: Strategic Product Development

MGMT 476: Product Realization Capstone

MANGT 480: International Management

MANGT 496: Independent Studies

MANGT 497: Special Topics

PSU 007: Behrend First-Year Seminar

Recipient of 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 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 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.

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 or off campus. They may also produce large-scale projects, such as an international dinner.

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, outreach projects, and traditional lecture.

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

Nominated, Council of Fellows Faculty Outreach Award, 2011, 2010, 2008.

Academy of Management Service award for Division Leadership, 2009.

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

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

Swinarski, M. E., D. H. Parente, and R. Koshore. Do Small IT Firms Benefit from Higher Process Capability? Communications of the ACM, July 2012. (forthcoming)

Parente, D. H., J. Stephan, and R. C. Brown. Facilitating Acquisition of Strategic Skills: Traditional and Soft Managerial Skills, Management Research Review, 2012. (forthcoming)

Parente, D. H., G. Filbeck, and J.T. Roth. Learning style preferences in cross-functional teams: Discipline specific or personality-related? Journal of behavioral Studies in Business. 4:1-20 (December 2011).

Filbeck, G., R. Gorman, D. Parente, X. Zhao. Good to Great: Lessons for Managers. Management Research Review 33(12):1187-1208, www.emeraldinsight.com/ 10.1108/01409171011092220 (2010).

Swinarski, M., D. Parente, K. Noce. A Study of Gender Differences with Respect to Internet Socialization of Adolescents. Journal of Business and Economics Research 8(6):23-30 (2010).

Swinarski, M., D. Parente, K. Noce. Are All IT Professionals Created Equally? Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business 2:27-37 (2010).

Filbeck, G., D. Parente, J. Roth. Teaming: Collaboration Efforts between Courses in Corporate Finance and Manufacturing Engineering. Advances in Financial Education 7:34-55 (2009).

Parente, D., M. Swinarski, K. Noce. Socialization to the Internet: Who Is Teaching Our Children? International Journal of Management and Information Systems 13(2):11-19 (2009).

Swinarski, M., D. Parente, K. Noce. Are All IT Professionals Created Equally? Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 2:1-11, http://www.aabri.com/ manuscripts/09287.pdf (2009).

Parente, D. H., P. D. Lee, M. D. Ishman, A. V. Roth. Marketing and Supply Chain Management: A Collaborative Research Agenda. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing 23(8):520-528 (2008).

Gattiker, T., D. H. Parente. Introduction to the Special Issue on Innovative Data Sources for Empirically Building and Validating Theories in Operations Management. Journal of Operations Management 25(5):957-961 (2007).

Parente, D. H., J. Duck, X. Zhao, J. L. Fizel. Collaboration: Leading and Learning by Example. Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 3(2), June 2007. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/parente.htm (2007).

Southard, P., D. H. Parente. A Model for International Benchmarking: When and How? Benchmarking: An International Journal 14(2):161-171 (2007).

Lee, P. D., D. H. Parente. C3: Cross Course Collaboration Guidelines for Success. International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education 1(2):117-124 (2006).

Muscatello, J. R., D. H. Parente. Enterprise Resource Planning: A Postimplementation Cross-case Analysis. Information Resources Management Journal 19(3):61-80 (2006).

Fisher, K. J., M. Lobaugh, D. H. Parente. An Assessment of Desired “Business Knowledge Attributes” for Engineering Technology Graduates. Journal of Engineering Technology 23(2):10-15 (2006).

Parente, D. H., R. C. Brown, A. G. Warner. Review Sessions and Results: Competency Testing in the Capstone Business Class. Journal of Instructional Psychology 32(3):233-243 (2005) .

Parente, D. H., M. B. Pinto, J. C. Barber. A Pre-post Comparison of Service Operational Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction under Open Access Scheduling. Health Care Management Review 30(3):1-9 (2005).

Pinto, M. B., D. H. Parente, P. M. Mansfield. Information Learned from Socialization Agents: Its Relationship to Credit Card Usage. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Research , 33(4):357-367 (2005).

Millet, I., D. Parente, J. Fizel, R. Venkataraman. Metrics for Managing Online Procurement Auctions. Interfaces 34(3):171-179 (2004).

Parente, D. H., R. Venkataraman, J. K. Fizel, I. Millet. A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Online Auctions in a B2B Environment. Supply Chain Management 9(4):287-294 (2004).

Pinto, M. B., P. M. Mansfield, D. H. Parente, T. Wortman. College Students and Academic Performance: A Case of Taking Control. NASPA 41(3):551-567 (2004).

Agostini, D. E., A. S. Stano, D. H. Parente. Student Performance on the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination C USA Level II Following a Clinical Evaluation, Feedback, and Intervention Program. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 102(9):477-480 (2002).

Parente, D. H., C. C. Pegels, N. Suresh. An Exploratory Study of the Sales-production Relationship and Customer Satisfaction. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 22(9):997-1013 (2002).

Pinto, M. B., D. H. Parente, J. C. Barber. Selling Open Access Health Care Delivery to Patients and Administrators: What's the Hook? Health Marketing Quarterly 19(3):57-69 (2002).

Stephan, J. D., D. H. Parente, R. C. Brown. Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Balancing Knowledge Using Large Scale Simulations in Capstone Business Strategy Classes. Journal of Management Education 26(2):164-193 (2002).

Aldakhilallah, K. A., D. H. Parente. Redesigning a Square Peg: Total Quality Management Performance Appraisals. Total Quality Management 13(1):39-51 (2002).

Thoms, P., J. K. Pinto, D. H. Parente, V. U. Druskat. Adaptation to Self-managing Work Teams. Small Group Research 33(1):3-31 (2002).

Palmer, T. S., M. B. Pinto, D. H. Parente. College Students' Credit Card Debt and The Role of Parental Involvement: Implications for Public Policy. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 20(1):105-113 (2001).

Pinto, M. B., D. H. Parente, T. S. Palmer. College Student Performance and Credit Card Usage. Journal of College Student Development 42(1):49-58 (2001).

Credit Card Solicitation Policies in Higher Education: Does "Protecting" Our Students Make a Difference? Journal of College Student Development 42(2):169-172 (2001).

Materialism and Credit Card Use by College Students. Psychological Reports 86:643-652 (2000).

Parente, D. H. Across The Manufacturing—Marketing Interface: Classification of Significant Research. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 18(12):1205-1222 (1998).

Books

D. H. Parente (Ed.). Best Practices for Online Procurement Auctions, 1.0 ed., 378 pages. Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA (2007).

D. H. Parente, J. K. Pinto. SimProject Instructor's Manual , 1.2 ed., 143 pages. McGraw-Hill, Chicago, IL (2006).

D. H. Parente, J. K. Pinto. SimProject: A Project Management Simulation , 87 pages. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY (2003). Revised, 1.2 ed., 94 pages, McGraw-Hill, Chicago IL (2005).

Pinto, J. K., D. H. Parente. SimProject Instructor's Manual , 1.0 ed., 130 pages. McGraw-Hill, Chicago, IL (2003).

Parts of Books

Muscatello, J., D. H. Parente. A Post-implementation Case Study and Review of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations: An Update. Chapter in Innovative Technologies for Information Resources Management (Advances in Information Resources Management Book Series), pp. 1-20. M. Khosrow-Pour, Ed. Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA (2007).

Ghosh, I., J. Fizel, I. Millet, D. H. Parente. Competition and the Winner's Curse in B2B Reverse Auctions. Chapter in Best Practices for Online Procurement Auctions, pp. 150-165. D. H. Parente, Ed. Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA (2007).

Parente, D. H. Online Auctions. Chapter in Battleground: Business, pp. 374-383. M. Walden and P. Thoms, Eds. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT (2007).

Free Trade. Chapter in Battleground: Business, pp. 195-202. M. Walden and P. Thoms, Eds. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT (2007).

SimProject Case. Appendix C in Introduction to Information Systems Project Management , 2nd ed., pp. 293-302. D. Olson, Ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY (2002). Revised: 4 th ed. (2007); 3 rd ed. (2005).

SimProject Case. Appendix in Project Management: The Managerial Process, 2nd ed., pp. 555-565. C. Gray and E. Larson, Eds. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY (2002). Revised: 4th ed. (2006); 3rd ed. (2004).

A Large-scale Simulation for Teaching Business Strategy. Chapter in Simulation and Gaming Across Disciplines and Cultures: ISAGA at a Watershed , pp. 75-82. D. Crookall and K. Arai, Eds. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA (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

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

Service and 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

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)

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 Activities

Adviser, APICS Student Chapter, Penn State Erie, Erie, PA, 2001-08.

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

Midwest Decision Sciences Institute:

Member, Nominating Committee, 2011, 2010.
Officer, 2009.
Beta Gamma Sigma:
President, 2001.
Vice President, 2000.

American Production and Inventory Control Society:

Erie APICS Director and Board Member, 2000-.
Vice President of Marketing, 1999-2000.
Member, 1998-2008.

Academy of Management:

Chair, Professional Development, Operations Division, 2006.
Program Chair, Operations Division, 2007
Pre- Division Chair, Operations Division, 2008
Division Chair, Operations Division, 2009
Past Division Chair, Operations Division, 2010
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.

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