MIT-Zaragoza Speaker Series: Gyöngyi Kovács & Karen Spens

Gyöngyi Kovács & Karen Spens
Hanken School of Economics
Helsinki, Finland

“Research Seminar on Humanitarian Logistics ”

Humanitarian logistics keeps on making the headlines due to large natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods. The frequency and impact of such natural disasters is increasing, and so is the need for humanitarian logistics practice and research. Yet it is not rapid-onset natural disasters but slow-onset, and man-made ones that dominate disaster statistics. This calls for a stronger emphasis on the long-term effects of aid, and the development aspects of humanitarian logistics.

Prior research in the field has focused on a variety of topics such as inter-agency co-ordination, performance measurement, and various logistics functions in humanitarian logistics. Practice as well as research is though moving on to more strategic topics of supply chain collaboration, the development and management of latent relationships, and the sustainability of aid. This seminar highlights some of the current research areas, and research needs, of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. In the seminar the work done at the HUMLOG institute at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki is also presented as well as the newly established Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Gyöngyi Kovács is the Director of the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute (HUMLOG Institute) and an acting Professor in Supply Chain Management and Corporate Geography at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. She serves as a co-editor in chief of the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management and as one of the European editors of the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management. Her research interests include humanitarian logistics, sustainable supply chain management, supply chain collaboration, and the abductive research approach in logistics.

Karen Spens is Professor of Supply Chain Management and Corporate Geography and the Dean of Education at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. She has edited several special issues for different journals, is an editorial board member of many logistics and supply chain journals and is also currently one of the regional editors for IJPDLM as well as co-editor in chief of the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Her publications include topics such as humanitarian logistics, health care related research and methodological issues in logistics and supply chain management.