INSEAD Hoffmann Institute
Overseeing grants, research strategy, and stakeholder engagement at INSEAD’s flagship sustainability research institute.
Institute websiteProfessor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD. Research spanning circular economy, extended producer responsibility, carbon management, and sustainable supply chains.
Atalay Atasu (PhD INSEAD, 2007) is Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD, where he holds the Bianca and James Pitt Endowed Chair in Environmental Sustainability. He currently serves as Academic Director of the INSEAD Hoffmann Institute.
Before returning to INSEAD, he was the Dunn Family Endowed Professor and Full Professor at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business (2007–2021). His research focuses on sustainable operations management — including circular economy design, extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation, carbon management, and sustainable supply chains.
His publications have appeared in Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Journal of Industrial Ecology.
He served as President of the MSOM Society (2020–21) and has held Department Editor and Associate Editor roles at POM, MSOM, and Management Science. He is fluent in Turkish (native), English, French, and has working knowledge of German.
Overseeing grants, research strategy, and stakeholder engagement at INSEAD’s flagship sustainability research institute.
Institute websiteTranslates faculty sustainability research into practitioner-facing insights on the INSEAD Knowledge platform.
INSEAD KnowledgeINSEAD Executive Education open programme equipping senior executives with sustainability strategy tools.
Programme detailsFounded in 2018 through a gift from André and Rosalie Hoffmann, the Institute supports INSEAD’s practical research on business sustainability and brings together faculty, students, alumni and partners. Academic Director since 2026.
A formal way for INSEAD faculty to come together on emerging sustainability research and new opportunities, building on the school’s long record in the field.
Gulserliler, Atasu, Van Wassenhove · Under revision for MSOM (first round major revision) · Runner-up, POMS Sustainable Operations 2023 Student Paper Competition
Carrera, Duran, Atasu, Van Wassenhove · Under revision for MSOM (first round major revision)
Uzunlar, Nadar, Atasu · Under revision
Ertekin, Atasu, Chattopadhyay, Van Wassenhove · Under review
Steele, Kesavan, Atasu · Under review
Lei, Atasu, Van Wassenhove · Under review
Gui, Atasu, Sarvary · Under review
Aflaki, Atasu, Van Wassenhove · Under revision
Pinçe, Atasu
Urlu, Désir, Atasu, Van Wassenhove
Atasu, A. (Editor) · Springer-Verlag US · 2016
Production and Operations Management Society
"Product Reuse Economics in Closed-Loop Supply-Chain Research" · voted by POMS members
Finalist — "The Circular Business Model" · Harvard Business Review
"Truthful Mechanism Design for Medical Surplus Product Allocation" · MSOM Society
"Truthful Mechanism Design for Medical Surplus Product Allocation" · Winner
"Efficient Implementation of Collective EPR Legislation" · Finalist
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business
Georgia Tech Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems · 2015–
"Remanufacturing, Third Party Competition, and the Perceived Value of New Products"
"Stakeholder Perspectives under E-Waste Take-Back Legislation" · POM Society
Production & Operations Management Society
Production & Operations Management Society
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business
"Efficient Take-Back Legislation" · Production & Operations Management Society
INSEAD · 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
INSEAD · 2022, 2023, 2024
INSEAD · 2023, 2024, 2025
INSEAD
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business
Production and Operations Management Society
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business
Georgia Tech · also Class of 1934 Award (2012)
When is sustainability a central business problem, and how do firms build the capabilities to act on it while the rules keep shifting?
Practical course linking sustainability to business model redesign and circular economy strategy.
Doctoral seminar on research methods and frontiers in operations management.
Open programme equipping senior leaders with sustainability strategy frameworks, co-directed with Karel Cool. Participants work on their own company’s challenge.
What the sustainability transition demands of business leaders: short instructor-led videos, embedded live case simulations, knowledge checks and AI-coached reflection.
Online and live virtual programme, delivered with Emeritus, for senior leaders turning sustainability into a source of competitive advantage.
Web-based tools developed to support in-class and executive education sessions on business sustainability strategy.
Participants manage competing open-sea fishing businesses amid shifting markets and rival strategies, and feel the tension between short-term profit and long-run sustainability.
Maps a firm’s sustainability challenges across societal, economic, regulatory and investor-driven dimensions and identifies the most appropriate strategic response.
Five producer groups lobby a regulator on how to share the cost of recycling e-waste: they take positions, form pacts and place lobbying points; the instructor decides.
AI-assisted circularity assessment of a firm’s product portfolio, built on the Value–Access–Process framework of “The Circular Business Model” (HBR): how much value remains in used products, how easily they come back, and how hard they are to reprocess.
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
Harvard Business Publishing
Harvard Business Publishing
INSEAD Publishing
INSEAD Case Study · 2026 (with Antonio Cavallin Toscani)
INSEAD Case Study · 2026 (with Ludo Van der Heyden)
INSEAD Case Study · 2026 (with Ludo Van der Heyden)
INSEAD Case Study · 2026
INSEAD Case Study · 2026
INSEAD Case Study · 2026
2020/21 (President-Elect 2019/20)
2018–2019
Atlanta, GA
Steering Committee 2015–2022
Chair 2020 · Committee Member 2022
Mini Conferences 2010, 2011 · Georgia Tech CLSC Workshop 2008
POMS 2009 Sustainable Operations · INFORMS 2011 MSOM Sustainable Operations
Now Chaired Full Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown
Now Tenured Associate Professor, Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
Now Associate Professor of the Practice, Carroll School of Business, Boston College
Assistant Professor, Carlson School of Business, University of Minnesota
Now tenured at Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Assistant Professor, University of North Texas
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Dearborn
Assistant Professor, Tilburg University
Assistant Professor, IESE
Ongoing
Climate change is the ultimate disruption to business — not just an environmental challenge but a fundamental transformation of the competitive landscape. In this book, Atalay Atasu and Luk Van Wassenhove draw on decades of research in sustainable operations, circular economy, and environmental regulation to offer a rigorous, practice-grounded framework for how companies can respond.
Rather than treating sustainability as a compliance obligation or a cost to minimise, The Ultimate Disruption argues that the businesses that will thrive are those that treat the transition as a strategic opportunity — redesigning their operations, supply chains, and business models for a world in which carbon, waste, and resource constraints are permanent features of competition.
Written for business leaders, executives, and students of strategy, the book combines analytical rigour with real-world cases drawn from INSEAD's global research network.
BCG–INSEAD collaboration · Contributor: Atasu · 2026
BCG–INSEAD collaboration · Contributor: Atasu · 2026 · Summary
Atasu, Van Wassenhove · INSEAD Knowledge · May 2026
Forbes · December 2025
Cool, Atasu · INSEAD Knowledge · March 2026
Cool, Atasu, Furr · MIT Sloan Management Review · Fall 2024
Aflaki, Atasu, Van Wassenhove · Harvard Business Review digital · February 2024
Atasu, Van Wassenhove · INSEAD Knowledge · July 2024 · Reprinted in Business Times Singapore, La Tribune, France24
Atasu, Van Wassenhove · MIT Sloan Management Review · June 2024
Atasu, Dumas, Van Wassenhove · Harvard Business Review · July–August 2021 · HBR's 10 Must Reads 2023 · McKinsey Best Article Finalist 2022 · Translated into Italian, Korean, Taiwanese, Turkish, French
Atasu, Duran, Van Wassenhove · Harvard Business Review digital · July 2021
Reuters Magazine · July 2023
Atasu, Ramachandran, Zhang · Harvard Business Review digital · August 2021
Atasu, Agrawal, Rinaldi, Herb, Ulku · Harvard Business Review · July 2018
Le Figaro · May 2022
Professor of Technology and Operations Management
Bianca & James Pitt Endowed Chair in Environmental Sustainability
Academic Director, INSEAD Hoffmann Institute