Research Overview

My current research interests are (i) omnichannel retailing; (ii) marketplaces; and (iii) healthcare operations. I work on practice-driven research problems in these areas, and I complement my work with data-driven insights. 

The tools and techniques I primarily use are stochastic analysis, game theory, optimization, empirical analysis, and queueing theory.

 Research Papers

Journal publications and accepted papers: 

1. Consumer Return Policies in Omnichannel Operations (2020) Leela Nageswaran, Soo-Haeng Cho, Alan Scheller-Wolf. Management Science, 66(12), 5558-5575 

   • Media coverage (PYMNTS): Returns Come Back To Haunt eCommerce Amid Pandemic

   • Media coverage (CMU/Tepper): Study on Firms’ Return Policies Offers Guidance on Pricing, Returns, Refunds

2. Queues with Redundancy: Is Waiting in Multiple Lines Fair? (2022) Leela Nageswaran, Alan Scheller-Wolf. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(4), 1959-1976 

   • Second place, 2016 IBM Service Science Best Student Paper Award 

3. Value of Online-Offline Return Partnership to Offline Retailers (2022) Elina Hwang, Leela Nageswaran, Soo-Haeng Cho. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(3), 1630-1649 

   • Media coverage (Happy Returns): Paper Source increased store and online sales with Happy Returns’ Return Bars

   • Media coverage (GLOBEST.com): In-Person Returns Increase Retail Sales

4. Implications of Vaccine Shopping during Pandemic (2023) Leela Nageswaran. Production and Operations Management, 32(4), 1133-1149

   • Media coverage (UW News): UW study investigates how ‘vaccine shopping’ impacts rollout during pandemic

   • Media coverage (POMS): YouTube Link

5. Offline Returns for Online Retailers via Partnership (2023) Leela Nageswaran, Elina Hwang, Soo-Haeng Cho. Management Science forthcoming. 

   • Media coverage (CMU): https://www.cmu.edu/tepper/news/stories/2023/september/online-returns.html 

Working papers & work-in-progress: 

1. The Role of Product Quality in Marketplaces. Leela Nageswaran, Aditya Jain, Haresh Gurnani. 

2. Who Should Set Consumer Returns Policies in Online Marketplaces: Supplier or Platform? Leela Nageswaran, Narendra Agrawal.

3. “Be the Buyer”–Leveraging the Wisdom of the Crowd in E-Commerce Operations. Leela Nageswaran*, Rain Kan*, Uttara Ananthakrishnan*.  

   • Finalist, 2023 INFORMS JFIG Paper Competition 

4. Information Sharing in Omnichannel Operations: Impact of Information Errors. Jizhou Lu, Leela Nageswaran, Jinpeng Xu, Jin Kyung Kwak, Nagesh Gavirneni.  

5. Capacity Flexibility via On-Demand Warehousing. Soraya Fatehi, Leela Nageswaran, Michael Wagner. 

6. Impact of COVID-19 on Omnichannel Retail: Drivers of Online Sales during Pandemic. Elina Hwang, Leela Nageswaran, Soo-Haeng Cho. 

Cases: 

Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion (2022) Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie BiIlaud, Federica Gabrieli. Harvard Business School Case 622-070. 

• The case showcases how logistics can be a source of competitive advantage. It can be used to discuss the challenges of moving to a platform/marketplace model from a wholesale model; highlight the role of reverse logistics in an industry with high return rates; and show how decentralization in reverse logistics can save costs (in sharp contrast to the pooling benefits of forward logistics). (Please email us for a draft of the teaching note!) 

*Indicates equal authorship. Italic font indicates PhD student author. 

Invited Seminars & Consortium Talks

• Xavier School of Management (XLRI) (India) 

• COER 2023 (Consortium for Operational Excellence in Retailing), the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania 

• Simon Business School, University of Rochester

• Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

• SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

• Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York 

• Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Washington

• Foster School of Business, University of Washington

• Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas

• Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

• Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University