Korea University Business School
Hyun Seok ("Huck") Lee 이현석
KUBS Research Fellow · Associate Professor, LSOM & Business Analytics · Area Chair, LSOM
Empirical operations and supply chain management scholar studying healthcare and pharmaceutical supply chains, retail and service operations, platform operations, and causal inference.
헬스케어·제약 공급망, 리테일·서비스 운영, 플랫폼 운영, 인과추론을 연구하는 실증 운영관리 및 공급망관리 연구자입니다.
Research Areas
Empirical operations research for healthcare, retail, platforms, and policy-relevant decisions.
Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Supply Chains
Disruption recovery, resilience, capacity design, drug shortages, operational transparency, and equitable access.
Retail & Service Operations
Store labor, incentives, customer congestion, fitting-room traffic, product variety, and service productivity.
Platforms & Digital Operations
E-commerce fulfillment, platform-provided logistics, technology-enabled services, kiosks, and digital customer responses.
Empirical OM & Causal Inference
Field experiments, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, matching designs, and quasi-experimental methods.
Featured Research
Selected peer-reviewed publications.
Management Science, Articles in Advance · 2026
Drug Shortage Recovery
- Question
- How does prior recovery experience affect how quickly pharmaceutical plants resolve current drug shortages?
- Finding
- Each additional shortage previously resolved by a plant reduces recovery time for a current shortage. Learning is concentrated in internally caused shortages, benefits from broader experience, and transfers only weakly across plants within the same firm.
- Impact
- The results identify plant-level recovery experience as a measurable source of pharmaceutical supply-chain resilience and point to limits in firm-wide knowledge transfer.
- Publication links
- INFORMS
Lee, H., Lee, J., Noh, I., and Staats, B. (2026) Learning in Recovery from Disruption: Empirical Evidence from the U.S. Drug Shortages. Management Science (UTD & FT), Published Online Articles in Advance.
Management Science, 67(4): 2326-2339 · 2021
Drug Shortage Transparency
- Question
- When does mandatory interruption reporting alleviate drug shortages?
- Finding
- Mandatory interruption reporting alleviates shortages, but its effectiveness depends on product-market competition: the effect is strongest under duopoly, weaker under monopoly, and declines as competition intensifies.
- Impact
- The findings show that operational-transparency policy can reduce shortages, while market structure shapes where the policy is most effective.
- Publication links
- SSRNINFORMS
Lee, J., Lee, H., Shin, H., and Krishnan, V. (2021) Alleviating Drug Shortages: The Role of Mandated Reporting-Induced Operational Transparency. Management Science, 67(4): 2326-2339.
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 23(6): 1580-1596 · 2021
Fitting-Room Traffic
- Question
- How does fitting-room congestion affect apparel sales, and can dedicated labor mitigate the operational loss?
- Finding
- Fitting-room traffic and sales have an inverted-U relationship. High traffic increases phantom stockouts, and dedicated fitting-room associates reduce phantom stockouts and increase sales by approximately 22.4%-22.7%.
- Impact
- The paper quantifies how service congestion creates hidden inventory-availability problems and how targeted labor can improve sales.
- Publication links
- SSRNINFORMS
Lee, H., Kesavan, S., and Deshpande, V. (2021) Managing the Impact of Fitting-Room Traffic on Retail Sales: Using Labor to Reduce Phantom Stockouts. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 23(6): 1580-1596.
Production and Operations Management, 31(8): 3077-3095 · 2022
Group Incentives
- Question
- Do corporate-goal-based group incentives improve retail store-manager performance, and when do their effects vary?
- Finding
- Making store manager bonuses depend on corporate goals worsened overall store performance; the effect varied with geographical proximity among stores and focal-store past performance.
- Impact
- The results caution that group incentives in multi-unit retail organizations can backfire unless incentive design accounts for local store conditions.
- Publication links
- Wiley
Lee, H., Kesavan, S., and Kuhnen, C. (2022) When Do Group Incentives for Retail Store Managers Work? Production and Operations Management, 31(8): 3077-3095.
Journal of Operations Management, 68(1): 33-54 · 2022
Product Variety
- Question
- How do within-brand and competing-brand product variety affect SKU-level grocery sales?
- Finding
- Within-brand variety increases same-brand SKU sales, while average within-brand variety of other brands reduces those sales. Variety effects differ across profitability levels and product categories, with the strongest positive effect for high-margin products and category effects ranging from about 11% to negligible.
- Impact
- The paper helps retailers evaluate assortment changes at the SKU and brand level rather than treating variety as a single aggregate count.
- Publication links
- Wiley
Lu, G., Lee, H., and Son, J. (2022) Product Variety in Local Grocery Stores: Differential Effects on Stock-Keeping Unit Level Sales. Journal of Operations Management, 68(1): 33-54.
Industry Collaboration · 산학협력
기업 데이터와 운영 의사결정을 연결하는 연구 기반 산학협력
국내 기업과 함께 데이터 기반 운영진단, A/B 테스트 및 현장실험, 인과추론 기반 효과 평가, 수요예측·추천·재고 의사결정 프로젝트를 진행합니다.
데이터 기반 운영진단
판매, 재고, 고객, 물류, 노동, 서비스 데이터를 활용해 운영 병목과 개선 기회를 찾습니다.
A/B 테스트 및 인과추론
정책, 프로모션, 추천, 서비스 변화가 실제 성과에 미친 영향을 엄밀하게 평가합니다.
MSBA 캡스톤·산학 프로젝트
기업 현안을 학생 프로젝트와 연결해 예측, 추천, 군집분석, 효과 평가 결과물을 만듭니다.
Media & Impact
Research in the media and public-facing outlets
Korean media coverage of Management Science article on drug-shortage recovery
Korean media coverage of the online publication and implications of the Management Science article on learning in recovery from U.S. drug shortages.
Related research Learning in Recovery from Disruption
식별고객이 어떻게 움직이는지 체크: 변동현황표 속에 기업의 미래가 보여
Dong-A Business Review
Expert article for Dong-A Business Review.
[탁류세평] 값싼 대학 체계로는 서울대 10개는커녕 하나도 없다
Korea University Newspaper
Column.
People
Student mentoring, alumni placements, and MSBA capstone outcomes.
Research mentoring emphasizes empirical operations and supply chain management, careful causal identification, institutional knowledge of operational settings, and student-led projects that connect rigorous methods with consequential operations problems.
Current students
- Saeyoung Yoon — MS/PhD in LSOM
- Sangyong Park — MS in LSOM
Selected alumni
- Gyumin Kim — PhD student at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
- Cheng Wang — TCL China Star Optoelectronic Technology
Research opportunities
Students interested in empirical operations management, healthcare and pharmaceutical supply chains, retail and service operations, platform operations, business analytics, and causal inference are welcome to get in touch.
Recent News
Recent updates
- M&SOM 2025 Meritorious Service Award, INFORMS.
- Excellence in Teaching Award for Business Statistics (2 sessions), Korea University.
- SK Distinguished Research Award, Korea University Business School.
- Learning in Recovery from Disruption published online in Management Science Articles in Advance.
Awards & Service
Selected recognition and service
Award
KUBS Research Fellow
Korea University Business School
09/2025-present
Award
M&SOM 2025 Meritorious Service Award
INFORMS
05/2026
Award
Young Scholar Prize
Korean Production and Operations Management Society
05/2023
Service
Editorial Review Board
Journal of Operations Management
2023-present
Service
Editorial Review Board
Decision Sciences
2023-present
Service
Leadership in the Korean Production and Operations Management Society (KOPOMS)
Director and Editorial Board Member
Teaching
Courses across research graduate programs, MSBA, MBA, and undergraduate education.
PhD & Research MS
Empirical Research in OM, Special Topics in OM, and Service Operations Management.
MS in Business Analytics
Operations Analytics I/II and Empirical Approach for BA I/II.
MBA
Operations Management for Korea MBA and Global MBA audiences.
Undergraduate
Operations Management, Service Operations Management, Business Statistics, and Business Analytics.
Contact
Get in touch
Hyun Seok ("Huck") Lee 이현석
KUBS Research Fellow; Associate Professor of Logistics, Service and Operations Management and Business Analytics; Area Chair of Logistics, Service and Operations Management
Korea University Business School
고려대학교 경영대학 KUBS Research Fellow; LSOM 및 Business Analytics 부교수; LSOM Area Chair
고려대학교 경영대학
- hyunseoklee@korea.ac.kr
- Phone
- +82-2-3290-1915
- Office
- LG-POSCO 604
- Address
- LG-POSCO 604, 145 Anam-ro, Seoul, Korea 02841
서울특별시 성북구 안암로 145, 고려대학교 경영대학 엘지 포스코관 604호 - Profile links
- CVOfficial KUBS ProfileLinkedInGoogle ScholarORCID