Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer wins research award at EurOMA 2024 conference

Dr Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer, Reader in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) has been awarded the prestigious Chris Voss Best Paper Award at the EurOMA 2024 annual conference in Barcelona.

Dr Kocabasoglu-Hillmer’s research paper ‘The Silver Lining of a Strategic Asymmetry: Does Power Asymmetry Strengthen Supply Chain Network Resilience Amid Catastrophic Disruptions’ is co-authored with Mohammad Rishehchi Fayyaz and Evelyne Vanpoucke from Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles.

The paper examines various drivers of power that organisations derive from their position in the supply network. In an empirical study of 88 worldwide supply networks, the researchers found that asymmetries of power held by different organisations in the same network enhance their resilience to disruptions. However, the study also suggests that these benefits of asymmetry do not hold true during periods of high stability.

EurOMA is an international network of global academics and practitioners with a common interest in the field and continuous development of operations management. Each year it hosts a week-long conference that brings together experts to discuss the latest topical research insights. The Chris Voss Best Paper Award, established in 2002, is granted to the best paper presented each year.

Dr Kocabasoglu-Hillmer said it was a great honour to be recognised by her peers.

“I am really happy to have won this award, particularly among a very strong field of papers,” she said.

“The pandemic provided challenges across all sectors, but particularly within operations management. So many aspects of both the virus and subsequent global lockdowns provided unprecedented supply chain shocks – from illness and absences from work to social distancing measures, and even panic buying of consumer goods and food that led to empty shelves in supermarkets and prompted emergency measures.

“As experts in this area, it provided us with a fascinating case study with which to examine how power differentials among organisations – that ultimately rely on one another to operate effectively – affect their resilience in difficult times.

“Power asymmetry in supply chains is often thought of as being detrimental to their success, and while both our research and prior literature shows that this is the case in stable conditions, major shocks actually bring about greater efficiencies and robustness of these networks. Our findings can inform global governments and industries for future events that may severely threaten to test the strength of supply chain networks.”