Lijo John

Biography

Dr Lijo John is an Assistant Professor in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Before joining HWU, he worked with BITS Pilani Dubai Campus and S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. He completed his postdoctoral research at the HUMLOG Institute, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical (Production) Engineering and Industrial Engineering and Management, and a PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, specialising in mathematical modelling for humanitarian supply chain contracts. He has also been a Visiting Researcher at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, and is a lifetime Fellow of the Shastri Indo‑Canadian Institute.

His research focuses on various aspects of humanitarian and disaster supply chain management, including coordination between humanitarian agencies, vaccine pricing, aid material procurement, and pricing mechanisms. His earlier work explored vaccine pricing models in epidemic contexts, motivated by the Yellow Fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Angola. He developed pricing models to address supply chain challenges between agencies such as UNICEF and vaccine manufacturers. He has collaborated with organisations such as Malaria Consortium and World Vision (India) to design portfolio‑based procurement processes for aid materials, building analytical models to streamline procurement and contract design. His additional research interests include enforcement theory in sustainability and the role of blockchain technologies, where he has worked with practitioners to develop models examining digital transformation in sustainable operations.

During his postdoctoral research, he contributed to two major projects. The first, Science & Human factor for Resilient society (CORE), is a multidisciplinary consortium under Horizon 2020 examining metrics for natural and man‑made disaster scenarios, with emphasis on vulnerable populations. His work focused on cascading supply chain disruptions across sectors such as health, energy, food, and water, and the timing of supply‑security decisions. The second project, Responsible Use of Digital Cash‑Based Assistance in Refugee Crises (DigCBA), funded by NordForsk, examined digital technology adoption in refugee settlements across Sudan. His contribution involved analysing behavioural patterns in the adoption of digital cash‑based assistance, helping align technological solutions with user needs.

Academic leadership and affiliations

• Visiting Scholar – Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
• Fellow – Shastri Indo‑Canadian Institute
• Research Associate – HUMLOG Institute, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki
• Research Associate – Bhavan’s S P Jain Institute of Management and Research

Qualifications

• PhD – Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (2019)
• MTech (Industrial Engineering and Management) – National Institute of Technology Calicut (2012)
• BTech (Mechanical Production Engineering) – University of Kerala (2010)

Publications

• Ruggiero, A., Piotrowicz, W. D., & John, L. (2024). Enhancing societal resilience through the whole‑of‑society approach to crisis preparedness: Complex adaptive systems perspective – The case of Finland. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 114, 104944.
• John, L., Piotrowicz, W. D., & Ruggiero, A. (2024). Supply Chain Disruptions and Their Impact on Energy Sector During COVID‑19. In Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain (Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management, Vol. 12). Emerald Publishing.
• John, L. (2023). Can MSMEs in tourism survive the COVID‑19 storm? Benchmarking: An International Journal, 30(6), 2166–2188.
• John, L., & Gurumurthy, A. (2022). Are quantity flexibility contracts with discounts relevant for the humanitarian supply chain? Annals of Operations Research, 315(2), 1775–1802.
• John, L., Gurumurthy, A., Mateen, A., & Narayanamurthy, G. (2022). Improving coordination in humanitarian supply chains: Exploring the role of option contracts. Annals of Operations Research, 319(1), 15–40.
• John, L., Gurumurthy, A., Soni, G., & Jain, V. (2019). Modelling inter‑relationships between factors affecting coordination in a humanitarian supply chain: Case of Chennai flood relief. Annals of Operations Research, 283(1), 1227–1258.
• John, L., & Gurumurthy, A. Impact‑based disaster classification: A prerequisite for humanitarian supply chain planning. International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 40(4), 478–501.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=svW9mQgAAAAJ&hl=en