Stephan Wagner

As a Professor of Supply Chain Management, Stephan Wagner holds the Chair of Logistics Management and is Faculty Director of the HumOSCM Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). He is the Head of Department, leading the Executive Board of the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics (D-MTEC). From 2008 to 2019 he was Director of the Executive MBA in Supply Chain Management (MBA ETH SCM). Prior he served on the faculty of WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany, and worked for 10 years as head of supply chain management for a Swiss-based technology group and as senior manager for an international top-management consulting firm. He obtained a MBA from Washington State University and a Ph.D. and Habilitation degree from the University of St. Gallen.

He has been a lecturer on the undergraduate, graduate and executive level at several schools, among others, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Bundeswehr University Munich, University of St. Gallen, Hamburg University of Technology, and Krasnoyarsk State University. In addition, he has conducted executive training programs for and consulted with numerous companies and business associations. He received recognition for his teaching with the MBA Program Best Teacher Award at the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management (2006) or the “Golden Owl” Teaching Award at the ETH Zurich (2009 and 2013).

Professor Wagner has served on various boards and committees, such as the Academy of Management (AOM) Distinguished OM Scholar Award Committee, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Educational Resources Committee, the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) Marketing Committee and Publications Committee, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bundesvereinigung Logistik (German Logistics Association), the Board of procure.ch – Fachverband für Einkauf und Supply Management, or the Board of Trustees at the Kühne Logistics University. Furthermore, he is Department Editor for Decision Sciences, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, the Journal of Business Logistics and the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, and serves as Editorial Board Member for other leading journals, such as Production and Operations Management or IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. His service has been recognized with the Academy of Management Annual Meeting Best Reviewer Award (2009), the International Annual IPSERA Conference Best Reviewer Award (2019), the Omega Best Reviewer Award (2010), the Business Research Reviewer of the Year Award (2014), the International Journal of Production Economics Editors’ Award for Excellence in Reviewing (2017), the Journal of Operations Management Best Associate Editor Award (2013) and Associate Editor Service Award (2016), and the Journal of Supply Chain Management Best Associate Editor Award (2008 and 2013) and Associate Editor Appreciation Award (2012).

He is an active researcher and has received several research awards, such as the Hans Ovelgönne Research Award for outstanding scholarly research from the German Association of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (2001), the Overall Best Paper Award at the Annual North American Research Symposium on Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (2008), the Deutsche Post DHL sponsored ProLog Award for cutting-edge research in purchasing and supply chain management (2009), the Best Application Research Paper Award at the Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting (2009), the Best Paper Award at the European Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting (2011), the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (2012), the Overall Best Paper Award at the European Operations Management Association Conference (2015), the Best Theory‐Driven Empirical Research Paper Award at the Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting (2015), the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management Outstanding Paper Award (2017 and 2018), the Journal of Supply Chain Management Best Paper Award (2020), the Journal of Business Logistics Best Paper Award (2022), and was finalist for a number of conference and journal best paper awards. Furthermore, Professor Wagner was ranked among the top 10 most productive researchers in the 2009 as well as the 2012 “Handelsblatt Ranking” consisting of over 2,000 researchers in business and management at universities in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The annual “F.A.Z.-Ökonomenranking” included Prof. Wagner in the category “research” among the top 50 economists in the years 2015 to 2020.

In 2023, the OSCM Division of the Academy of Management awarded him one of the highest recognitions that empirical researchers in the field of operations and supply chain management can receive, the Academy of Management OSCM Distinguished Scholar Award. In addition, he received the Dandelion Entrepreneurship Award (2023) for his scholarly research on startups in the supply chain ecosystem and for his support of students and partners in making their entrepreneurial ventures successful.

His research interests lie in the areas of supply chain management, purchasing and supply management, and logistics and transportation management - with a particular emphasis on strategy, networks and relationships, risk, innovation, digitalization, entrepreneurship, sustainability and humanitarian operations. He is author and editor of 13 books and over 150 book chapters and articles. His research has been published in management journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal or Journal of Management, operations management journals, such as Production and Operations Management or Journal of Operations Management, methods journals, such as Organizational Research Methods or Sociological Methods and Research, as well as managerial journals such Interfaces or California Management Review.