Elena KatokView profile
Professor
Elena Katok is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Management. She serves as Co-Director of the Center and Laboratory for Behavioral Operations and Economics (LBOE) and holds editorial positions as Department Editor for Management Science (Operations Department) and Associate Editor for Manufacturing and Service Operations Management. Her research focuses on Behavioral Operations Management (BOM), Behavioral Market Design, and Auctions, with particular emphasis on using laboratory experiments to understand human behavior in operational contexts. Her work bridges the gap between traditional analytical operations models and actual human decision-making in supply chain and procurement settings. The analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent research trajectory examining how psychological and behavioral factors influence operational decisions. Her work spans auction design, contract theory, trust mechanisms, and behavioral aspects of supply chain coordination. A notable pattern is her focus on the intersection of behavioral economics and traditional operations management problems, particularly how fairness concerns, risk perception, and trust impact procurement and supply chain decisions. Professor Katok has developed and implemented numerous classroom games to teach supply chain management concepts, demonstrating her commitment to translating research into practical pedagogy. She has created simulation tools through the SoPHIE platform to enhance experiential learning in operations management courses. Her teaching portfolio includes OPRE 6371: Purchasing, Sourcing and Contract Management for SCM MS and MBA students, OPRE 7309: Behavioral Operations Management at the PhD level, and OPRE/MECO 6355: Deal Making Strategies. She has also authored several case studies including eBay sniping, Winter Gear, Sears Logistics, Spectrum, and General Hospital to facilitate hands-on learning. As co-editor of The Handbook of Behavioral Operations published by Wiley, she has helped establish Behavioral Operations Management as a significant subfield that incorporates insights from psychology and behavioral economics to study how individuals make decisions in operational contexts.











