Borja
Apaolaza

Borja Apaolaza is an Assistant Professor in the Operations, Information and Technology Department. He joined IESE Business School in 2026 after earning a Ph.D. in Operations, Information and Decisions from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Navarra. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked as a research fellow at the MIT Media Lab and at IESE Business School.

His research focuses on retail and platform operations, spanning topics such as the circular economy, pricing, store layout design, omnichannel strategies, and labor scheduling. He has explored buyout pricing in fashion rental, the role of online interactions in store execution, free-shipping policies in online retail, and responsible labor scheduling practices across retail organizations. He collaborates closely with companies, combining large-scale data with analytical models to generate insights that improve operational performance while also benefiting employees and consumers. His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner outlets, including Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Harvard Business Review, and received second prize in the 2025 M&SOM Student Paper Competition.