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• Supply chain management (SCM) and sustainable SCM
• Digitalization in logistics and supply chains
• Complex supply networks
• Social sustainability in supply chains
• Supply chain risk and disruptions
• Behavioral experiments in supply chain management
• Public procurement and contracting out of public services
• Management of service networks
• The role of technologies in innovative pedagogies -Technology enabled service operations
• Digital Transport and Logistics Eco-System
• Supply Chain Efficiency

• Technology-Enabled Service Operations

Assistant Professor Max Finne: I currently research ways in which modern technologies can be used to improve the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of service operations. For example, the finance industry has faced increasing automation of their core processes through technologies. I am fascinated of how parallel developments in a number of industries blur the boundary of service and manufacturing, which can dramatically change the ways service operations and organizations ought to be managed.

• Alternative Causes to Agency Problems in Inter-Organizational Relationships – Hidden Expectations vs. Hidden Action

Associate Professor Katri Kauppi, Academy of Finland funded 4-year research project: Principal-agent situations are cases where work is delegated, e.g. from a buyer to supplier. This research focuses on the problems that can arise in such situations, focusing on buyer-supplier relationships. An underlying assumption in agency research is opportunism: if the principal cannot monitor how the work is completed (hidden action exists), the agent will put in less effort and the principal will be unsatisfied with the results. This research challenges this assumption, arguing that unsatisfactory results in buyer-supplier relationships could instead be caused by hidden expectations: the principal has not explained in sufficient detail what they want the agent to do, thus the agent is unable to complete the task well, despite no opportunism. The goal is to investigate whether problems in buyer-supplier relationships are due to hidden expectations, rather than hidden action and find the correct governance mechanisms to these situations.