BIO

Is it possible to imagine organising a business, service, company or enterprise without considering business logistics? Any expert in Economics and Business knows that the answer is no. And one of the people who has dominated and dedicated most time to studying and researching new challenges, technologies and formulas in the area of business logistics, using different methods, from macro to micrologistics, is Daniel Serra de la Figuera.

Daniel Serra de la Figuera holds an undergraduate degree in Economic and Business Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a Master in Systems Analysis for Decision Making, and a Doctorate in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in the USA. He is currently professor of Business Organization in the Department of Economics and Business at Pompeu Fabra University and Academic Director of UPF Barcelona School of Management and UPF-IDEC, the master and postgraduate study centres of Pompeu Fabra University.

He has researched and worked in many positions in both public and private sectors in the field of decision making and improving management. He managed projects in the field of Business Research for the Directorate General of Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology from 2001 to 2004. He also served as President of the scientific committee of the European Regional Science Association Conference in Barcelona in 2010.

He has published books and some 30 articles in prestigious international scientific journals and also teaches on the Master of Science in Business Analytics programme at the Barcelona School of Management, involving quantitative decision-making methods in complex environments.
Daniel Serra was the director of the Institute for Territorial Studies (1994-2011), vice-rector of UPF (2001-2013) and is currently the director of the Business Analytics Research Group at UPF, focused on developing new knowledge and understanding business results according to analytical methodologies, statistics and data analysis.

His main strength is the use of quantitative models in solving management problems, and administration of complex systems, a fundamental requirement for decision making. Or in other words, applying mathematics to management in order to make better decisions.

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Research

RESEARCH THEMES

Logística empresarial:
Modelos de Localización y de Transporte. Gestión de flotas. Gestión de la cadena logística. Logística inversa. Sistemas de información geográfica (SIG).
Métodos cuantitativos para la toma de decisiones:
Programación lineal, entera y multicriterio. Algoritmos metaheurísticos. Modelos de redes. Programación y Gestión de Proyectos.
Gestión Sanitaria:
Sistemas de emergencia. Gestión de colas. Localización de servicios sanitarios. Transporte sanitario.
Economía regional y urbana:
Análisis coste-beneficio. Impacto económico de grandes infraestructuras. Financiación de infraestructuras. Sistemas de peaje.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Serra, D.: “Implementing Turf analysis through Binary Linear Programming”, Food Quality and Preference, 28(1), 382-386, 2013.

Bosch, J. et al.: “El peso económico del deporte en Catalunya 2006”. Estudios de Economía Aplicada 30, 655-682, 2012

Marianov, V. and D. Serra: “Location of Multiple-Server Common Service Centers or Public Facilities, for Minimizing General Congestion and Travel Cost Functions”. International Regional Science Review, 34(3), 323-338, 2011.

Marianov, V. and D. Serra: “Median problems in networks””. H.A, Eiselt and V. Marianov (eds): Foundations of Location Theory. Springer. 39-70, 2011.

Silva, F. and D. Serra: “Locating emergency services with priority rules: The Priority Queuing Covering Location Problem”, Journal of the Operational Research Society 59, 2008, 1229-1238

Authors