On July 17, Professor Wu Xiaole from the School of Management at Fudan University was invited to deliver the 224th lecture in the Yangtze River Forum series. Held in Classroom 216 of the Economics and Management School at Wuhan University, the forum featured Professor Wu’s presentation titled "SPOT: A Framework Inspiring Research for Resilient and Sustainable Global Supply Chains." The event was hosted by Wuhan University and organized by the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Economics and Management. Professor Wang Xianjia presided over the forum, while Vice Dean Huang Minxue delivered the opening address. Numerous faculty members and students attended the lecture.

Against the backdrop of frequent trade disputes and the profound restructuring of global supply chains, understanding and managing complex industrial and supply chain networks has become a critical challenge for both academia and industry. Professor Wu began by highlighting the central role of four key networks—Supply, Product, Ownership, and Technology—in supply chain research. She provided a systematic review of existing literature, discussing both advancements and limitations in the field. Building on this foundation, she elaborated on the SPOT framework developed by her research team. This innovative framework moves beyond traditional single-dimensional perspectives by integrating these four networks (Supply Chain, Product, Ownership, Technology), offering a new systematic and dynamic paradigm for supply chain analysis.

Professor Wu emphasized that constructing the SPOT framework relies on in-depth mining and analysis of diverse and heterogeneous data, including supply relationships, equity correlations, core product/equipment composition, and patent technology data. Through three highly representative case studies—assessing the resilience of mineral resource supply, examining green practices under China’s "TOP 1000 Plan," and analyzing GE Healthcare’s supply chain strategies in China—she vividly demonstrated how the SPOT framework inspires new research questions and guides systematic thinking experiments. Finally, Professor Wu outlined the broad research prospects of the SPOT framework in addressing core challenges, focusing on dynamic supply chain restructuring, resilience-driven risk assessment and network design optimization, and comprehensive analysis of technology blockade effects.

During the Q&A session, faculty and students engaged in lively discussions on topics such as data acquisition and integration methods for practical applications of the SPOT framework, how to identify valuable research topics based on the framework, and quantitative assessment of supply chain resilience and dynamic risk monitoring mechanisms. Drawing on her team’s in-depth research and extensive industry observations, Professor Wu provided detailed and insightful recommendations. The forum not only deepened participants’ multidimensional understanding of global supply chain complexity and resilience building but also showcased the power of multidimensional, networked, and data-integrated analysis in addressing major real-world challenges. It sparked enthusiasm and inspiration for further exploration of sustainable supply chain development using the SPOT framework, creating a vibrant and intellectually stimulating atmosphere.

Speaker Profile:

Wu Xiaole is currently a Professor and Doctoral Advisor at the School of Management, Fudan University, and Director of the Global Supply Chain Research Center at Fudan University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tsinghua University in 2006 and her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011. Her research focuses on supply chain management, risk management, and sustainable operations. Her work has been published in top-tier management journals such as Management Science, MSOM, and POM. She has led major projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and has been selected for national high-level talent programs. She is also a recipient of the Shanghai Women’s Achiever Award. Her accolades include the China Management Youth Award, the Best Paper Award from the Association of Chinese Scholars in Management Science and Engineering, and the Second Prize of the 13th Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award. She serves as a member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the NSFC Department of Management Science, Associate Editor for Management Science and NRL, Senior Editor for POM, and Department Editor for the Journal of Management Science.

Reporter: Han Linpu | Reviewer: Huang Minxue