RESEARCH PROFILE

Professor Fransoo’s research studies operations, logistics, and supply chain management decision making in the retail, chemical, food, pharmaceutical and transport industries. His current research focuses in particular on retail distribution and channel management in developing markets, on intermodal container transport, and on sustainability and social responsibility in supply chains. His recent books include "Reaching 50 Million Nanostores: Retail Distribution in Emerging Megacities" and "Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-Based Textbook on Operations and Strategy".

Fransoo has published over 130 academic journal articles and book chapters in journals such as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Operations Research, Transportation Science, and European Journal of Operational Research. He currently serves as Associate Editor of Production and Operations Management, Operations Research, and Decision Sciences Journal, and on the Editorial Board of several other academic journals.

During his tenure at Eindhoven, Fransoo was Founding Program Director of the MSc program in Operations Management & Logistics, and subsequently served as Dean of the University’s Graduate School and Director of the 4TU Institute of Technological Design. Fransoo co-founded Dinalog (Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics), a Netherlands center of excellence in the area of supply chain management, and served as the academic member in the Strategic Platform for Logistics, setting the national research and innovation agenda in logistics, mandated by the Dutch government. As part from his academic activities, he has conducted dozens of projects with industry, mainly through and with his PhD, PDEng and MSc students, and has consulted with the World Bank and various national governments in developed and developing countries. Fransoo held visiting appointments at various universities, including Clemson University, Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). He is a regular visitor to Tsinghua University (China) and MIT (USA).

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Jan C. Fransoo is Professor of Operations and Logistics Management at Tilburg Univesity's School of Economics and Management. Prior to joining Tilburg, he was a professor and dean of research at Kuehne Logistics University in Hamburg. Germany. He holds visiting positions at EIndhoven University of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fransoo holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and a PhD in Operations Management & Logistics from TU/e. Following his PhD, he was awarded a 3-year fellowship by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, partly spent as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He has held a honorary visiting professorship at the University of Ljubljana and visiting appointments at Clemson University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and MIT. 

Ancillary Activities

  • Lid, Advisory Council, Smart Freight Centre
  • Public speaking, strategic consultancy, training, JCF Consultancy
  • Research Affiliate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Docent, TIAS School for Business and Society
  • Lid, Begeleidingscommissie, Experiment gesloten Marihuanaketen, Wetenschappelijk Onderzoeks- en Documentatiecentrum (WODC), Ministerie van Justitite en Veiligheid
  • Professor of Operations and Logistics Management, Tilburg University
  • Member of the Advisory Board, U-TURN