Institute of Management and Decision Making of the Shanxi University (which is also called Research Center of Management and Decision of the Shanxi University), which preexistence is Environmental Systems Engineering Laboratory of Systems Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, founded in 1988, is an academic research institution of Shanxi University and a major research base of humanities and social sciences in Shanxi province.

 It is supported by Doctor Degree of Management Science and Engineering First-Level discipline of the Shanxi University. As an established earlier management discipline in Shanxi University, the Management Science and Engineering discipline of the Shanxi University is the key subject in Shanxi province, which preexistence is Systems Engineering. In 1993, it obtained right of master degree-conferring and began to recruit and train graduate students in 1995; then its name was changed from "Systems Engineering" to "Management Science and Engineering" for national graduate professional names were made standard adjustment in 1997. In 2003, it obtained right of doctor degree-conferring and began to recruit and train doctor students in 2004 and also be approved as the key subject in Shanxi province in the same year. By the year of 2011, the subject became a characteristic key discipline in Shanxi province. After more than 20 years of construction and development, its characteristics have been basically taken shape as well as the domestic influence has been gradually expanded, so that its competitive ability ranks in national top 50 percent. In 2003, supported by Doctor Degree of Management Science and Engineering First-Level discipline and based on the Research Laboratory of Environmental System Engineering, Institute of Management Science and Engineering were founded. The Institute was renamed Institute of Management and Decision Making owing to reorganization in 2013. By the year of 2004, it became the first major research base of humanities and social sciences in Shanxi province. Then it was approved as management science and engineering post doctoral research station in 2009.

 In the Institute, there are 15 full-time researchers at present, including 6 professors, 7 associate professors and 14 researchers among them have PhD. There are also "Hundred Talents Program" 2 people, 3 postdoctoral fellows, and 11 part-time researchers.

 Based on academic frontiers of modern management science, Institute of Management and Decision formed five stable research directions: "Financial Engineering and Risk Control", "Modern Management Theory and Methods", "Supply Chain Management", "Queuing and Operation Management" and "Prediction, Decision-Making and Assessment". As a result, it formed a vibrant research team and output a group of research results with academic values, which has strong service ability for Shanxi Province’s economic transition and social development. The pace-setters of the Discipline are Professor Liu Weiqi, Professor Li Changhong, Professor Li Jingfeng, Professor Li Jihong and Associate Professor Fan Jianping.

  In recent years, Institute of Management and Decision had attained six items of National Natural Science Fund Projects, three items of Natural Social Fund Project, one item of talent supportive project of Ministry of Education, seven items of Humanities and Social Sciences Fund Project of Ministry of Education, three items of Post-Doctoral Foundation of China, two items of National Soft Science Research Project, two items of National Statistical Sciences Research Project, and one item of international cooperation project and hosted more than seventy provincial-level research projects and enterprises-and-institutions-trusted project, all of which amounted to 1, 300, 000 RMB. Besides, it also published more than 150 academic papers, among which 7 papers have been quoted by SSCI, 7 papers have been quoted by SCI, 25 papers had been recognized by National Natural Science Fund Committee, 120 papers have been quoted by CSSCI and also 10 monographs and 22 provincial-level awards. Plenty of results of research had been adopted by many institutions and enterprises such as Shanxi Science and Technology Department, Shanxi Development and Reform Commission, Shanxi Finance Department, Shanxi Securities Supervision Commission, Shanxi Federation of Humanities & Social Sciences and Shanxi Coal Industry Administration Bureau, Fen Jiu Ltd Corporation and Taiyuan Rheumatoid Hospital.

 Closely linked with local economy, the Institute of Management and Decision have launched fruitful researches with regard to coal industrial chain in the transition of economy in Shanxi and made breakthrough on the perspective of debt financing decision & risk control and the optimization techniques of industrial chain respectively. It also take the lead in the construction of one of the collaborative innovation platforms in Shanxi University, the transition platform of resource-based economy and focus on two fields, financial innovation & investment and financial decisions and technological & managerial innovation.

 The Institute of Management and Decision attaches attention on both domestic and international academic communication. It had built up sustainable long-term cooperation with many well-known universities and institutions including the University of Nottingham (UK), the University of Durham(UK), the University of Sheffield(UK), the Yokohama National University(Japan), California State University( US), University of Massachusetts (US), Peking University, Tianjin University, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Zhejiang University, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and had yielded heartening fruits