Rick Hardcopf
Assistant Professor
Department(s):- Management

Contact Information
  Eccles Business Building 318E  435.797.0223
  rick.hardcopf@usu.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Education
PhD, University of Minnesota
MBA, University of Wisconsin, 1989
BS, Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University, 1984
Biography
Rick Hardcopf is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Rick received his PhD from the University of Minnesota, MBA from the University of Wisconsin, and BS from Iowa State University. Before joining academia, Rick had an extensive industry and consulting career, working for firms such as 3M, Accenture, KPMG, Deloitte and the George Group. Most recently, Rick ran his own consulting practice focused on the implementation of Lean and Six Sigma. His clients have come from a broad spectrum of manufacturing and service industries.
Rick’s research interests include environmental management, sustainability, operations improvement, and operational excellence. His current research examines what constitutes environmental activity, why some firms are more environmentally proactive than others, how implementing environmental management practices impacts environmental performance, and what secondary impacts result from implementing environmental management practices. The objective of the research is to provide environmental stakeholders with information useful for developing new or revised methods to incent firms to be more environmentally responsible.
Rick has taught courses on Operations Management, Managerial Statistics, Project Management, Business Process Management, and Process Improvement through Lean and Six Sigma. His hobbies include international travel, coaching youth baseball and hockey, and running.
Research Interests
Environmental management, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, lean, Six Sigma, process improvement, and operational excellence.
Journal Articles
Academic Journal
- Hardcopf, R., Kannan, V., Ebbeler, J., (2024). Brawny Brackets: Connecting the Dots from Layout Design to Pull Flow . Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education
- Hardcopf, R., Dhanorkar, S., (2024). How Environmental Accidents Influence Consumer ‘Green’ Behavior: An Econometric Analysis. Business Strategy and the Environment
- Hardcopf, R., Linderman, K., Shah, R., (2024). Do Firms Follow through on Environmental Commitments? An Empirical Examination. Sustainability
- Hardcopf, R., Shah, R., Ball, G., (2023). Hiding operational problems that need to be revealed - a study linking environmental accidents and product recalls. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 0144-3577.
- Hardcopf, R.A, Shah, R., Dhanorkar, S., (2021). The impact of a spill or pollution accident on firm environmental activity. Production and Operations Management, 30:8, 2467–2491.
- Hardcopf, R.A, Liu, G., Shah, R., (2021). Lean Production and Operational Performance: The Influence of Organizational Culture. International Journal of Production Economics, 235
- Hardcopf, R.A, Shah, R., Mukherjee, U., (2019). Explaining Heterogeneity in Environmental Management Practice Adoption across Firms. Production and Operations Management, 28:11, 2898-2918.
- Hardcopf, R., Gonçalves, P., Linderman, K., Bendoly, E., (2017). Short-term bias and strategic misalignment in operational solutions: Perceptions, tendencies, and traps. European Journal of Operational Research, 258:3, 1004-1021.
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.