When it comes to the renewable energy transition, all actors in the supply chain have different stakes, incentives and barriers. HEC Paris Professor Sam Aflaki aims to help organizations contribute to this renewable energy transition in the fields of supply chain management, sustainability and energy efficiency. In this interview, he discusses his ongoing research, exploring the dynamics of stakeholders' incentives, technological advancements, and the challenges shaping sustainable practices in today's world.
By Sam Aflaki
Wide-scale adoption of renewable energy is essential to ensure Europe decarbonizes its energy systems and meets its ambitious net-zero targets. But what motivates interested individuals to make the decision to invest? A recent study by Operations Management Professors Andrea Masini and Sam Aflaki (HEC Paris), Shadi Goodarzi (California State University and the University of Texas), and Behnam Fahimnia (University of Sydney Business School), sheds light on the influence of different communication sources on this process, with implications for policymakers, technology providers, and other sustainability stakeholders.
By Andrea Masini , Sam Aflaki
No business can relax for too long, but in our digital world, it's a matter of adapt or die. And as the boom of e-commerce has revolutionized supply chains and profoundly altered customer demands, data standards for retail products have needed to evolve. This has been a challenge for GS1, the original global provider of barcodes, which has had switch from providing “data-as-a-product” to “data-as-a-service”, totally rethinking its business model in the process.
By Shirish Srivastava
Online shoppers hunting for the perfect product may have pages and pages of search results to scroll through. An algorithm recently developed by a team of professors incorporates customers “click and search” behavior to help online retailers make important decisions about products’ price and ranking and thus potentially boost online sales.
By Sajjad Najafi
Increasingly firms are seeking new methods to stimulate creativity in a fast-moving business climate. Many turn to design thinking — but with mixed results. New research by HEC Paris Professor Sihem BenMahmoud-Jouini and RISE Senior Researcher Lisa Carlgren sought to find out why this practice is successful for some companies and less so for others. A culture clash may be at the heart of many difficulties.
By Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini
Though nations agree that they must speed the creation and use of renewable energy solutions in order to avert climate disaster, there is less consensus on what government policies would most effectively serve this end. New research by HEC Paris Professors Sam Aflaki and Andrea Masini, and East West University Professor Syed Abul Basher of Economics offers insight into the best use of public investment. Three ways to support Renewable Energy in a nutshell: Technology-push: Fiscal incentives for R&D stimulate radical innovation. Demand-pull: Downstream interventions like feed-in tariffs (subsidizing households) encourage the use of existing technologies like photovoltaic systems. Economic stimulus: Overall economic stimulation, such as lowering taxes, assuming wealthier countries are more likely to adopt renewables.
New evidence shows that drugmakers can protect profitability by making process improvements to cut costs and strengthen the resilience of critical supply chains in the face of political pressure to ‘reshore’ operations and shortages of key ingredients amid coronavirus.
By Dimitrios Andritsos
With online shopping, loyalty programs, smart devices and many other aspects of business and daily lives, companies collect vast amounts of our personal data. The risk is that they may be leaked or misused. A team of researchers designs measures that regulators and companies can undertake to preserve consumer privacy.
By Ruslan Momot
Feed-in tariffs (FITs) are crucial tools to increase the adoption of renewable energy technologies. But setting them at the right level (price) is a balancing act. If they are poorly designed, they can backfire, stunting the industry and wasting public money. A duo of HEC researchers, along with a colleague from the University of Texas at Austin, have shown that, to set optimal FIT levels, regulators must take into account the behaviours all players affected, including technology manufacturers.
By Sam Aflaki , Andrea Masini
Robots are increasingly being used in environments where they must interact closely with humans to perform tasks together. Sangseok You (Assistant Professor at HEC Paris) and colleagues have found surprisingly simple ways to get humans to bond with robots and thus work together more effectively.
By Sangseok You
