The Open University

Professional biography

Björn is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management and is currently the Teaching Director for the Masters Programmes in The Open University Business School. He joined the faculty in January 2012 from Cranfield School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. and an International MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

Björn's research interests are in the human factors in Operations and Supply Chain Management and business processes in general. Beyond this, he researches social evaluations underlying legitimacy judgment formation processes. His work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Prometheus, and Supply Chain Forum, among others.

In his teaching Björn maintains a pragmatic approach to supply chain management issues, emphasizing the need for a cross-functional approach to optimizing companies’ supply chains. He is keen advocate of experiential learning through the use of simulations. His industry experience, acquired in supply chain management, international sales and marketing, and over a period of nearly a decade, allows him to illustrate the cases and examples discussed in class from different perspectives.

Currently living in the UK, Björn is originally from The Netherlands but has also lived and worked in Spain, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. He speaks Dutch, English, Spanish, and German.

Research interests

Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Behavior, Legitimacy, Social Evaluations, Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Teaching interests

Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Simulations & Experiental Learning

External collaborations

Björn regularly teaches Operations and Supply Chain Management at IE Business School in Madrid in Spain, and at the Kedge Business School in Bordeaux and Marseille in France

Publications

Journal articles

What is the quack about? Legitimation strategies and their perceived appropriateness in the foie gras industry (2024)
Claes, Björn; Siraz, Sonia S.; De Castro, Julio and Lapeyre, Eléanor M.
European Management Review ((Early Access))

Community Socioemotional Wealth as the Glue that Binds Distinct Communities in Enterprising: A Tale of Success from Colombia (2024)
Siraz, Sonia S.; Claes, Björn; Sanchez Preciado, Deycy J. and Theodorakopoulos, Nicholas
Journal of Management Inquiry ((Early access))

Theorizing the Grey Area between Legitimacy and Illegitimacy (2023-06)
Siraz, Sonia; Claes, Björn; De Castro, Julio and Vaara, Eero
Journal of Management Studies, 60(4) (pp. 942-962)

Developing PSS business ecosystems in the digital era (2023-02)
Li, Ai Qiang; Lahy, Andrew; Found, Pauline; Kumar, Maneesh and Claes, Björn
Industrial Marketing Management, 109 (pp. 121-134)

Exploring the governance mechanisms for value co-creation in PSS business ecosystems (2022-05)
Li, Ai Qiang; Claes, Björn; Kumar, Maneesh and Found, Pauline
Industrial Marketing Management, 104 (pp. 289-303)

The state-of-the-art of the theory on Product-Service Systems (2020-04)
Li, Ai Qiang; Kumar, Maneesh; Claes, Björn and Found, Pauline
International Journal of Production Economics, 222, Article 107491 (pp. 1-15)

Getting Up After Falling Down: A Tale of Three Communities (2017-10-30)
Siraz, Sonia; Sanchez Preciado, Deycy and Claes, Björn Paul
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2017(1) (p 17040)

Integration through orchestration: the interplay between enterprise systems & inventory management capabilities (2017-01-01)
Lorenzo, Oswaldo; Claes, Björn; Oksana, Koryak and Angel, Diaz
Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 30(4) (pp. 555-583)

Transferring intermediate technologies to rural enterprises in developing economies: a conceptual framework (2016)
Sánchez Preciado, Deycy Janeth; Claes, Björn and Theodorakopoulos, Nicholas
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation, 34(2) (pp. 153-170)

Rigor in qualitative supply chain management research: lessons from applying repertory grid technique (2012)
Goffin, Keith; Raja, Jawwad; Claes, Björn; Szwejczewski, Marek and Martinez, Veronica
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 42(8/9) (pp. 804-827)

Benchmarking logistics and supply chain practices in Spain (2011)
Díaz, Angel; Lorenzo, Oswaldo; Solís, Luis and Claes, Björn
Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal, 12(2)

Improving logistics and supply chain management practices in Spain: an analysis of current practises and future requirements (2011)
Diaz, Angel; Claes, Bjorn and Solis, Luis
International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 9(2) (pp. 150-169)

CEOs with a functional background in operations: reviewing their performance and prevalence in the top post (2010-09)
Koyuncu, Burak; Firfiray, Shainaz; Claes, Björn and Hamori, Monika
Human Resource Management Journal, 49(5) (pp. 869-882)

Book chapters

ERP implementation strategies: the importance of process modelling and analysis (2010)
Díaz, Angel; Lorenzo, Oswaldo and Claes, Björn
In: Barjis, Joseph ed. Enterprise and Organizational Modeling and Simulation. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (63) (pp. 95-112)
ISBN : 978-3-642-15722-6 | Publisher : Springer | Published : Heidelberg, Germany

Contracting for success in the era of globalisation: aligning the supply chain manager’s compensation contract with the company’s supply chain strategy (2008-08-06)
Claes, Bjorn
In: Gomez-Mejia, Luis and Werner, Steve eds. Global Compensation: Foundations and Perspectives. Global HRM (pp. 57-71)
ISBN : 978 0 415 77503 8, | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Conference items

All Entrepreneurs are Equal but Some are More Equal than Others (2022-07-06)
Siraz, Sonia and Claes, Björn Paul
In : Academy of Management Annual Conference (5-9 Aug 2022, Seattle, Washington, USA)

“Let's Do The Fracking Talk: An Experimental Approach To Understanding Legitimacy Perceptions” (2019-08)
Claes, Björn; Siraz, Sonia and De Castro, Julio
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (09/08/2019-13/08/2019, Boston MA, USA)

The Two Faces of Janus A Mixed-Method Study of Legitimacy Struggles (2019)
Siraz, Sonia; Claes, Björn and De Castro, Julio
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (09/08/2019-13/08/2019, Boston MA, USA)

What’s the Quack About? Legitimacy Struggles in the French Foie Gras Industry (2018)
Claes, Björn; Siraz, Sonia and De Castro, Julio
In : European Academy of Management (EURAM) (19-22 Jun 2018, Reykjavik, Iceland)

Legitimate or Illegitimate: Insights into validity cues, core values and legitimacy assessments (2018)
Siraz, Sonia; Claes, Björn and De Castro, Julio
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (9-14 Aug 2018, Chicago, USA)

Getting Up After Falling Down: A Tale of Three Communities (2017-08)
Siraz, Sonia; Sanchez-Preciado, Deycy and Claes, Björn
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (4-9 Aug 2017, Atlanta, USA)

The Rise of The Phoenix: Apropesca, A Case Study of Community Based Venture (2016-01-01)
Siraz, Sonia; Sanchez-Preciado, Deycy and Claes, Björn
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (5-9 Aug 2016, Anaheim, USA)

So you messed up...now what? Making sense of post-scandal lack of legitimacy (2016)
Siraz, Sonia and Claes, Björn
In : European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Annual Cologuium (7-9 Jul 2016, Naples, Italy)

Neither Dr. Jekyll Nor Mr. Hyde; Further Understanding Legitimacy: Dealing with Indecision and Divergence (BEST CONFERENCE PAPER AWARD) (2015-12)
Siraz, Sonia; Claes, Björn and De Castro, Julio
In : Iberoamerican Academy of Management Conference (3-5 Dec 2015, Santiago, Chile)

Resource Orchestration at Banesco: Riding the Volatility Wave (2015-12)
Lorenzo, Oswaldo; Koryak, Oksana and Claes, Björn
In : Iberoamerican Academy of Managent Conference (3-5 Dec 2015, Santiago, Chile)

Towards a Typology of Legitimacy States (2015-08-11)
Claes, Björn; Siraz, Sonia and De Castro, Julio
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (7-11 Aug 2015, Vancouver, Canada)

University–Industry–Government Collaboration Facilitating Technology Transfer to Rural Enterprises in Developing Economies (2014-11)
Sanchez-Preciado, Deycy; Claes, Björn and Rundquist, Jonas
In : Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Annual Conference (Nov 2014, Manchester)

IT business value creation in the supply chain through resource orchestration (2014-08)
Diaz, Angel; Lorenzo, Oswaldo; Claes, Björn and Koryak, Oksana
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (9-13 Aug 2014, Lake Buena Vista, Orlando, USA)

Antecedents to successful delivery of integrated product-services: what have we discovered so far? (2012-04)
Claes, Bjorn and Raffoni, Anna
In : POMS Annual Conference (20-23 Apr 2012, Chicago, IL, USA)

The role of trust and control in co-exploitation and co-exploration buyer-supplier relationships (2012)
Claes, Bjorn; Koryak, Oksana; Diaz, Angel and Lorenzo, Oswaldo
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (3-7 Aug 2012, Boston, MA, USA)

A theoretical and empirical investigation of inventory practices (2011-06)
Diaz, Angel; Claes, Bjorn and Lorenzo, Oswaldo
In : EurOMA 2012 (3-6 Jul 2011, Cambridge, UK)

Benchmarking logistics and supply chain practices in Spain (2010-09)
Diaz, Angel; Claes, Björn; Solis, Luis and Lorenzo, Oswaldo
In : The 8th International Conference on Logistics and SCM Research (RIRL 2010) (29 Sep - 1 Oct 2010, Bordeaux, France)

Servitization ecology: changing product-centric manufacturers to become product-service providers (2010-08)
Claes, Bjorn and Martinez, Veronica
In : Dare to Care: Passion and Compassion in Management Practice and Research (6-10 Aug 2010, Montreal, Canada)

Challenges in transforming manufacturers into product-service providers (2010-05)
Claes, Björn and Martinez, Veronica
In : POMS Annual conference (7-10 May 2010, Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Supply chain work organizations: can structuration theory offer new solutions? (2008-09)
Butcher, Tim; Claes, Björn and Grand, David
In : Logistics Research Network Annual Conference (10-12 Sep 2008, Liverpool, UK)

Logistics and supply chain practices in Spain; a methodological approach (2008-09)
Diaz, Angel; Claes, Björn and Revilla, Elena
In : 7th International Meeting for Research in Logistics (24-26 Sep 2008, Avignon, France)

Contracting for success: aligning managers’ compensation contracts with the supply chain strategy (2008-08)
Claes, Björn
In : Academy of Management Annual Meeting (8-13 Aug 2008, Anaheim, CA, US)

A descriptive analysis of the antecedents of ERP implementation (2008-06)
Lorenzo, O.; Diaz, A. and Claes, B.
In : 15th International Annual EurOMA Conference (15-18 Jun 2008, Groningen, The Netherlands)

A test of the moderated relation between trust and control mechanisms and alliance success (2008-05)
Claes, Björn; Koryak, Oksana and Diaz, Angel
In : POM 2008 19th Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society (9-12 May 2008, La Jolla, CA, USA)

Control as a key success factor in supply chain alliances (2007-08)
Claes, Björn; Koryak, Oksana and Diaz, Angel
In : 2007 Academy of Management Annual Meeting (3-8 Aug 2007, Philadelphia, PA, USA)

Streamlining humanitarian relief operations: the case of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations (2007-05)
Diaz, Angel; Claes, Björn and Borla, Gabriele
In : 18th Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society (4-7 May 2007, Dallas, TX, USA)

Effectiveness of the product configuration task: theory formalization and test (2007-05)
Salvador, Fabrizio; Forza, Cipriano and Claes, Björn
In : 18th Annual Conference of the Production and Operations Management Society (4-7 May 2007, Dallas, TX, USA)