Research Interest

• Retail operations, focusing on consumer behavior, labor incentives, and product variety.
• Healthcare and pharmaceutical operations, emphasizing supply chain resilience, capacity design, and equity of access.
• Causal inference: field experiments, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables (two-stage least squares, two-stage residual inclusion), matching (propensity score matching, coarsened exact matching)

Publications (forthcoming, accepted)

1. Lee, H., Kesavan, S., and Deshpande V. (2021) “Managing the Impact of Fitting-Room Traffic on Retail Sales: Using Labor to Reduce Phantom Stockouts” [Link: SSRN, INFORMS]

• Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM) 23(6): 1580-1596.
• Media
  • “The cost of self service: Higher staff levels can boost profits” ROI Magazine, Research insights from UNC Kenan-Flagler, Fall 2015
  • “Sometimes self-service costs more” Forbes India, September 23, 2015
  • “Research roundup - Retail realities” The Times of India, July 20, 2015
  • “When your company’s ‘self-service’ policy hurts sales” Triangle Business Journal, June 23, 2015
  • “Sometimes self-service costs more” UNC KENAN-FLAGLER NEWS, June 8, 2015
  • “Black Friday: Behind the scenes” UNC KENAN-FLAGLER NEWS, November 24, 2014

2. Lee, J., Lee, H., Shin, H., and Krishnan, V. (2021) “Alleviating Drug Shortages: The Role of Mandated Reporting-Induced Operational Transparency” [Link: SSRN, INFORMS]

• Management Science (MS) 67(4): 2326-2339.
• The first two authors contributed equally to this paper.

3. Lu, G., Lee, H., and Son, J. (2022) “Product Variety in Grocery Stores: Its Differential Effects on Stock-Keeping Unit Level Sales” [Link: Wiley]

• Journal of Operations Management (JOM) 68(1): 33-54.
• The first two authors contributed equally to this paper.

4. Lee, H., Kesavan, S., and Kuhnen, C. (2022) “When Do Group Incentives for Retail Store Managers Work?” [Link: Wiley]

• Production and Operations Management (POM) 31(8): 3077-3095.
• Best Interdisciplinary Paper Award at DSI 2018 Annual Conference, Chicago
• Lead article

5. Lee, H., Lee, J., Noh, I., and Staats, B. (2026) “Learning in Recovery from Disruption: Empirical Evidence from the U.S. Drug Shortages“

• Accepted at Management Science (MS)

Working Papers (under review or revision)

6. Lee, H., Kim, Y., and Son, J. (2025) “Fulfillment-By-Platform in B2C E-tailing: Overall Positive Customer Responses, yet Diminishing End Effect“

• Under revision at Journal of Operations Management (JOM)
• MK Emerging Scholar Paper Award at KASBA 2022 Convergence Conference, Yeosu, Korea
• Media
  • “온라인 고객 만족은 ‘배송’에 달렸다” Maeil Business Newspaper, August 25, 2022

7. Lee, H., Park, E., and Rainer, T. (2025) “Heterogeneous Patient Response to Uniform Increase in Emergency Department Attendance Fees: A Territory-Wide Study.“

• Under revision (Major Revision) at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM)

8. Kim, J., Kwon, H., Lee, D., Lee, H., and Lee, K. (2026) “An Empirical Analysis of Technology-Driven Service Automation: The Impact of Self-Service Kiosks on Sales, Labor and Customers.“

• Under review at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM)

Book Chapters

9. Lee, H. and Kesavan, S. (2019) “Determinants of Excess Inventory Announcement and Stock Market Reaction in the Retail Sector“

• Book Chapter, in Operations in an Omnichannel World, Gallino S, Moreno A edt., Springer Series on Supply Chain Management, vol. 8, Springer, Cham.