Maria Besiou

Maria Besiou is Dean of Research and Professor of Humanitarian Logistics at Kühne Logistics University. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Operations Management from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) in Greece. She holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from AUTH. Before joining KLU she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Social Innovation Centre at INSEAD, France.

Besiou’s specialization is on the field of sustainable supply chain management. Her main research interests are in humanitarian logistics, closed-loop supply chains and stakeholder media. She studies dynamic complex systems, characterized by multiple actors and feedbacks, in a strategic level rendering system dynamics methodology an appropriate tool. Her research focuses on the decision-making of commercial companies and humanitarian organizations, while managing their supply chains. It has been motivated by real problems that these supply chains face such as regulations, limitation of resources, stochasticity, decentralization and monitoring by online communities. Hence, the insights that arise from her research can be transferred to policy-makers and decision-makers dealing with supply chain issues.

As a researcher, she is currently involved in the Research Institute on Leadership and Operations in Humanitarian Aid (RILOHA), which seeks to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian aid via psychological insights, and the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre, which is an inclusive platform for cross-disciplinary research, education, projects and engagement in the area of Business in Society.

Her research appears in several case studies and peer-review international journals like Production and Operations Management (POM), Journal of Business Ethics (JBE), California Management Review (CMR), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR) and the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM). She has also presented her work at major international academic and practitioner conferences and workshops.

Besiou serves as an Associate Editor in Decision Sciences Journal and the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM), as a Senior Editor of the Disaster Management Department (DMD) of Production and Operations Management (POM), and on the editorial review boards of Journal of Operations Management (JOM) and Production and Operations Management (POM).

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed) * Besiou, Maria, Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (In press): Humanitarian Operations and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Production & Operations Management. * Urrea, Gloria, Alfonso J. Pedraza‐Martinez and Maria Besiou (2020): Volunteer Management in Charity Storehouses: Experience, Congestion and Operational Performance, Production and Operations Management, 28(10): 2653-2671. * Besiou, Maria and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2020): Humanitarian Operations: A World of Opportunity for Relevant and Impactful Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(1): 135-145. * Turrini, Laura, Maria Besiou, Dominik Papies and Joern Meissner (2020): The role of operational expenditures and misalignments in fundraising for international humanitarian aid, Journal of Operations Management, 66: 379-417. * Prakash, Chandra, Maria Besiou, Charan Parikshit and Gupta S. Sumeet (2020): Organization theory in humanitarian operations: a review and suggested research agenda, Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 10 (2): 261-284. * Salem, Mojtaba, Niels Van Quaquebeke, Maria Besiou and Louisa Meyer (2019): Intergroup leadership: How leaders can enhance performance of humanitarian operations, Production and Operations Management, 28 (11): 2877-2897. * Salem, Mojtaba, Niels Van Quaquebeke and Maria Besiou (2018): How field office leaders drive learning and creativity in humanitarian aid: Exploring the role of boundary-spanning leadership for expatriate and local aid worker collaboration, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39 (5): 594-611. * Besiou, Maria, Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2018): OR applied to humanitarian operations, European Journal of Operational Research, 269 (2): 397-405. * Dolinskaya, Irina, Maria Besiou and Sara Guerrero-Garcia (2018): Humanitarian medical supply chain in disaster response, Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 8 (2): 199-226. * Lewin, Rebecca, Maria Besiou, Jean-Baptiste Lamarche, Stephen Cahill and Sara Guerrero-Garcia (2018): Delivering in a moving world…looking to our supply chains to meet the increasing scale, cost and complexity of humanitarian needs, Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 8 (4): 518-532. * Kunz, Nathan, Luk N. Van Wassenhove, Maria Besiou, Christophe Hambye and Gyöngyi Kovács (2017): Relevance of humanitarian logistics research: best practices and way forward, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37 (11): 1585-1599. * Besiou, Maria and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2016): Closed-Loop Supply Chains for Photovoltaic Panels: A Case-Based Approach, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 20 (4): 929-937. * Burkart, Christian, Maria Besiou and Tina Wakolbinger (2016): The funding—Humanitarian supply chain interface, Surveys in Operations Research and Management Science, 21 (2): 31-45. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2016): The New Rules For Crisis Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, 57 (4): 71-78. * Besiou, Maria and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2015): Addressing the Challenge of Modeling for Decision-Making in Socially Responsible Operations, Production and Operations Management, 24 (9): 1390-1401. * Besiou, Maria, Alfonso J. Pedraza-Martinez and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2014): Vehicle Supply Chains in Humanitarian Operations: Decentralization, Operational Mix, and Earmarked Funding, Production and Operations Management, 23 (11): 1950-1965. * O'Connell, Maurice, Stewart Hickey, Maria Besiou, Colin Fitzpatrick and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2013): Feasibility of Using Radio Frequency Identification to Facilitate Individual Producer Responsibility for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 17 (2): 213-223. * Tischer, André, Maria Besiou and Carl-Alexander Graubner (2013): Efficient waste management in construction logistics: a refurbishment case study, Logistics Research. * Van Wassenhove, Luk N. and Maria Besiou (2013): Complex problems with multiple stakeholders: how to bridge the gap between reality and OR/MS?, Journal of Business Economics, 83 (1): 87-97. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove, Maria Besiou and Mignon van Halderen (2013): The Agenda-setting Power of Stakeholder Media, California Management Review, 56 (1): 24-49. * Besiou, Maria, Mark Lee Hunter and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2013): A Web of Watchdogs: Stakeholder Media Networks and Agenda-Setting in Response to Corporate Initiatives, Journal of Business Ethics, 118 (4): 709-729. * Besiou, Maria, Patroklos Georgiadis and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2012): Official recycling and scavengers: Symbiotic or conflicting?, European Journal of Operational Research, 218 (2): 563-576. * Besiou, Maria, Orla Stapleton and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (2011): System dynamics for humanitarian operations, Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 1 (1): 78-103. * Georgiadis, Patroklos and Maria Besiou (2010): Environmental and economical sustainability of WEEE closed-loop supply chains with recycling: a system dynamics analysis, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 47 (5-8): 475-493. * Georgiadis, Patroklos and Maria Besiou (2009): Environmental strategies for electrical and electronic equipment supply chains: which to choose?, Sustainability, 1 (3): 722-733. * Georgiadis, Patroklos and Maria Besiou (2008): Sustainability in electrical and electronic equipment closed-loop supply chains: a system dynamics approach, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (15): 1665-1678. * Patroklos, Georgiadis, Lakovou Eleftherios, Vlachos Dimitrios and Maria Besiou (2006): A system dynamics modeling approach of ecological motivation in sustainable supply chains, WSEAS Transactions on Systems, 5 (1): 48-55. * Georgiadis, Patroklos, Maria Besiou, Dimitrios Vlachos and Eleftherios Iakovou (2005): A Comprehensive Methodological Framework for Sustainable Supply Chains, IASME Transactions, 2 (4): 569-574.

Journal Articles (Professional) * Besiou, Maria, André Tischer and Carl-Alexander Graubner (2014): Nachhaltigkeit am Bau, Logistik heute, 3. Books * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2017): Power is Everywhere: How Stakeholder-Driven Media Build the Future of Watchdog News, The Stakeholder Media Project: Paris, France, 979 10 958 70 036. ** Book Chapters** * Balaisyte, Jurgita, Maria Besiou and Luk N. Van Wassenhove (In press): Cross-sector partnerships for sustainable supply chains, in: Bouchery, Yann, Charles J. Corbett, Jan C. Fransoo and Tarkan Tan (ed.): Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-Based Textbook on Operations and Strategy, Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 485-505.

Case Studies * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2014): Lawnsite.com vs dupont (B): The crisis widens, INSEAD: Fontainebleau. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2014): Lawnsite.com vs dupont (A): the game changer, INSEAD: Fontainebleau. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2014): Lawnsite.com vs dupont (C): After the crisis, INSEAD: Fontainebleau. * Van Wassenhove, Luk N., Jurgita Balaisyte and Maria Besiou (2011): TIBOTEC: Partnership with HIV/AIDS alliance in Uganda: Working together for development, INSEAD: Fontainebleau. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2011): BP PLC (B): The Long Tail of 'Beyond Petroleum', INSEAD: Fontainebleau. * Hunter, Mark Lee, Luk N. Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou (2011): BP PLC (A): Going 'Beyond Petroleum'?, INSEAD: Fontainebleau.