Stockholm’s operations researchers start a forum of their own
On September 11, the House of Innovation hosted the first Stockholm Research Day on Operations & Supply Chain Management Research, bringing together researchers it from across Stockholm.
Researchers working on operations and supply chain management are spread across several institutions in Stockholm, but there are relatively few opportunities to meet across university boundaries.
The new Research Day was set up to provide one: a small forum where researchers can discuss work in progress, challenge each other’s ideas and identify opportunities to collaborate.
The first meeting was organised by Professor Constantin Blome from the House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics and Professor Fredrik Eng-Larsson from Stockholm Business School at Stockholm University.
Rather than filling the day with conventional conference presentations, the programme set aside substantial time for discussion.
Photograph: Majlin Skjetne, House of Innovation/Stockholm School of Economics.
Research in progress
The paper sessions covered:
- Melika Khandan (Stockholm University), Too Many Ways to Get It Delivered: Choice Overload in Omnichannel Last-Mile Delivery
- Lima Zhao (Stockholm University), Artificial Intelligence in Operations Management: Evolution, Paradigms, and Frontiers
- Iman Parsa (Stockholm School of Economics): Delegation vs. Diversion: When Does Grantmaking Benefit Charities?
- Morteza Ghobakloo & Simon Okwir (Uppsala University): Response Pathways to Resilience and Antifragility in Manufacturing Operations and Supply Chains
- Mandar Dhabilkar (Stockholm University): Operations and entrepreneurship: understanding the rise and fall of Northvolt through an OM-lens
The day also included a guest presentation by Professor Rohit Verma from the University of South Carolina. Verma is a professor of management science whose research focuses on operations and service management, including service quality, healthcare, hospitality, process improvement and technology.
He previously served as dean of the Darla Moore School of Business and has held senior academic positions at Cornell University and VinUniversity in Vietnam.
Photograph: Majlin Skjetne, House of Innovation/Stockholm School of Economics.
Building a Stockholm research community
The programme made room to discuss a broader question: how researchers in operations and supply chain management in Stockholm can work more closely together. Possible areas include joint research projects, funding opportunities and stronger links between researchers and doctoral students at the different universities.
That matters at a time when supply chains are being reshaped by developments including AI, geopolitical uncertainty and the transition towards more sustainable economies.
Bringing together researchers with different methods and areas of expertise could make it easier to study these changes from several perspectives.
The plan is for the Stockholm Research Day on Operations and Supply Chain Management to become a recurring event rather than an SSE initiative. Future meetings are intended to rotate between the participating institutions, including Stockholm University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
