Awards of the
EURO Working Group in Retail Operations

European Lifetime Award in Retail Operations
The second European Lifetime Award in Retail Operations was awarded to Heinrich Kuhn (Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt) during the conference dinner on October 2. The award and laudation were presented by Alexander Hübner (TU München).
Professor Heinrich Kuhn received the Lifetime Award of the EURO Working Group on Retail Operations in recognition of his visionary force and foundational role in creating and establishing the group in 2015. Heinrich organized the inaugural conference at Beilngries Castle in Bavaria, setting the tone for all subsequent meetings. His groundbreaking research in retail operations — including omnichannel retailing, in-store fulfillment, network design, delivery, and assortment planning — has shaped both academia and industry, with over 50 peer-reviewed papers and more than 100 publications in total. Through mentoring more than 15 PhD students and leading the retail stream at EURO conferences since 2009, Heinrich has left an enduring mark on the field and the broader EURO community.
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PhD Award at the EWG Retail Operations Annual Meeting 2025
>> Laudation for the Runner-up – Mert Çetin
The jury is delighted to recognize Dr. Mert Çetin as the runner-up for this year’s Retail Operations Doctoral Dissertation Prize for his dissertation “Anatomy of Omnichannel Retail: Stores, Products, and Returns.”His research creatively frames omnichannel retail through the metaphor of a living system and delivers rigorous, data-driven insights with both theoretical and managerial value. One study shows how the structure of a store network shapes customer behavior across online, offline, and hybrid channels, underscoring the continued importance of physical presence in the digital age. Another introduces a novel optimization model for tailoring assortments to individual stores, demonstrating how better product-store alignment can significantly raise revenues. A third study explores how encouraging greater product variety in online baskets can reduce returns, offering retailers a new lever to improve profitability. With this blend of empirical analysis and advanced optimization, Dr. Çetin’s dissertation enriches our understanding of omnichannel retail and exemplifies the promise of combining analytical depth with real-world relevance.
>> Laudation for the Winner – Ayşe Çetinel
This year’s Retail Operations Doctoral Dissertation Prize is awarded to Dr. Ayşe Çetinel for her dissertation“Stores in an Omnichannel World: Understanding Their Role and Improving Their Performance.” Her work stands out for its originality, breadth, and practical impact. In one study, she demonstrates that new experience-oriented stores do not always generate the expected online “halo effect,” but instead create value in more nuanced, category-specific ways. In another, she shows that while store openings can raise revenue, they also encourage product returns—offering managers a clear framework to weigh these opposing forces. Finally, through a field experiment, she shows that allowing managers to adjust staffing dynamically can unlock significant productivity gains without increasing costs. Taken together, these insights provide retailers with both strategic guidance and operational tools, and they establish Dr. Çetinel’s work as a landmark contribution to the study of omnichannel retail.
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Best Presentation Award at the EWG Retail Operations Annual Meeting 2025
We are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Best Presentation Award, selected through anonymous voting by all participants at the workshop hosted at IESE Business School:
>> Paige Tsai and Ryan Buell – The Impact of Scheduling Fairness on Employee Turnover
Paige Tsai, a PhD candidate in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School, combined her research with her previous experience working in a restaurant to highlight current issues in scheduling fairness. Her work examines the effects of job design on employees — both on and off the clock — including the financial and well-being implications of holding multiple jobs and how peer-to-peer scheduling fairness influences employee turnover.
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Best Poster Award at the EWG Retail Operations Annual Meeting 2025
The poster sessions at the EWG Retail Operations workshop have a rich tradition of presenting recent research in a concise format, while fostering highly interactive discussions among participants. This year’s session was no exception, sparking insightful exchanges on pressing topics in retail operations.
We are delighted to announce the winners of the Best Poster Award, determined by anonymous voting among all participants at the conference:
>> Mariana Sousa, Dorothee Honhon, Pedro Amorim, Maria João Santos, Sara Martins – Integrating perishables’ shelf life into assortment optimization
>> Karel van Donselaar, Rob Broekmeulen – Fill rate and discrete ready rate approximations for perishable items
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