Contact Professor Michael Bourlakis

Background

Professor Michael Bourlakis holds the Chair in Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management. He is the Director of Research for Cranfield School of Management and the Director of the Centre of Logistics, Procurement and Supply Chain Management. He was appointed at Cranfield School of Management in 2013. Previously, he worked at Brunel University Business School (Leadership Roles: Director of Postgraduate Studies for 7 MSc programmes, 'Impact' Champion for REF2014, Director of OASIS Research Centre), Kent University Business School (Leadership Roles: Head of Marketing and Supply Chain Management Group, Director of Enterprise), Newcastle University (Leadership Roles: Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes), Oxford University Templeton College (Oxford Institute of Retail Management), Leicester University Management Centre.

Current activities

Michael is an internationally renowned and established authority in logistics and supply chain management especially in food, retail and sustainable supply chains. He has been very successful in winning substantial external funding. Specifically, he has won more than 25 research and consulting projects (as PI or Co-I) totalling more than £27.5 million (total allocated project funding) from various bodies (EPSRC, Food Standards Agency, Technology Strategy Board, EU [FPVI, FPVII], Horizon 2020, Marie Sklodowska-Curie), local Regional Development Agencies and private companies.

Professor Michael Bourlakis has generated more than 250 publications including 63 journal papers and 3 edited books. He sits on the Editorial Board of 15 journals including most leading logistics, supply chain and operations management journals (e.g. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Production, Planning and Control: The Management of Operations, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, International Journal of Logistics Management etc.). Michael has been a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Logistics: Research & Applications. He has also acted 11 times as the Guest Editor for journal special issues (European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Production Planning & Control, Technological Forecasting & Social Change etc.). Based on this extensive expertise, Professor Bourlakis acted as an Expert Advisor for the CABS / ABS Journal Ranking List (2015).

Professor Bourlakis has been involved with pre- and post-project evaluations for the European Commission and he has acted as an Expert Reviewer and / or Panel Member for various funding bodies (Academy of Finland, AXA Research Fund, Flanders Research Foundation (Belgium, FWO), Czech Science Foundation, French National Research Agency, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NOW), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong etc.) In the UK, he has been a Reviewer for the British Academy, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust and he is currently a Member of the EPSRC Associate Peer Review College. Professor Bourlakis has been a Chair, Keynote Speaker and a Committee Member for numerous, leading logistics and supply chain management academic and industry conferences worldwide. Michael has been an External Examiner for Undergraduate (7 times) and MSc programmes (6 times) as well as PhD viva voce (20 times) involving leading universities in the UK and in Europe (Cardiff University, Imperial College, Leeds University, Lund University, Manchester University, Newcastle University, Nottingham University).

He has been a successful PhD / DBA supervisor 8 times and he has led Doctoral Workshops for numerous bodies including the European Logistics Association, BVL (Germany) and the U.K. Logistics Research Network. Professor Bourlakis has been involved as an External Member and / or External Referee of University Panels for Chair appointments (e.g. Aston University, Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Derby University, Norwich University, Surrey University, Wageningen University [Netherlands] etc.) He is / has been a Visiting Professor at various universities including, for example: Grenoble Ecole de Management (France), Krems University (Austria), University of Lorraine (IAE Ecole Business School, Metz, France), University of Modena and Reggio Emillia (Italy).

Michael is a recognised thought leader in logistics and supply chain management. His multidisciplinary research work and impactful thought leadership has received considerable attention by media (BBC News, ITV News, BBC Radio 4 Today, The Guardian, The Scotsman, Wall Street Journal etc.) In the past he had been a member of the European Technology Platform (Food for Life, European Commission). This is a leading industry-led, public/private partnership supported by the European Commission aiming to unite various stakeholders (food industry, academics, policy makers etc.), to strengthen the European innovation process, to improve knowledge transfer and to stimulate European competitiveness across the food supply chain. He has also been a Member of an Expert Panel for the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation) working with leading retailers (Tesco, Carrefour, Metro, Sonae etc.) on "Retail Innovation". He has also acted as an Expert Contributor providing written evidence for an Inquiry for the 'All-Party UK Parliamentary Group on Retail' into the 'Impact of Technology on Retail'. Michael is currently a member of the Academic Committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT - Logistics Research Network) and an active Forum Member of CILT's Retail and Food Logistics Forums. He has worked with / consulted most leading retailers in the world as well as numerous multinational organisations. For example, he finalised recently a thought leadership report for Knight Frank (international real estate company) and, since 2017, he has been an Expert Panel Member for TESCO on a 'Future of Food Advisory Panel' - this Panel is chaired by TESCO's CEO Dave Lewis.

Overall, Michael has an applied, industry-led research perspective examining logistics and supply chain management issues via multi- and inter-disciplinary lenses. His current research interests lie in e-commerce / technology issues and supply chain management, sustainability and supply chain management and the marketing and supply chain management interface.

Publications

Articles In Journals