How relevant is OM research to managerial practice?

Operations management research: an update for the 1990s

Operations Management Research was started to promote research that advances both the theory and practice of operations management (Meredith and McMullen 2008). In this guest editorial, we discuss how operations management (OM) researchers could more systematically engage in the exploration of technological opportunity. In this respect, operations management research is an activity shaped by technological invention and innovation in use. Whereas OM researchers currently are still mainly interested in the performance of OM processes and practices adopted by large populations (e.g. of firms or customers), they should also attend to early adopters trying out new technology as well as those combining and configuring existing technologies in new ways. Expanding attention from studying how established practice transforms operational contexts in terms of efficiency and reliability to the development of innovative practice requires an integrative methodological approach for OM research. We outline such an integrative approach, based on a science-for-design approach. To systematically link practice and science, five methodological steps for the systematic formulation of research agendas and the development and testing of design principles are proposed. As such, we provide a framework that effectively connects practice and the scientific knowledge base in developing field-tested and grounded OM knowledge.

The operations management research agenda: An update

A couple of years ago, one of us was a co-author on a paper presenting the results of a nice little operations management (OM) research study. Although narrowly focused, it came to some important conclusions and insights regarding an important concept in our field, but we were at a loss about where to try to publish it. It wasn’t a massive study with multiple confounded variables that had to be teased out using sophisticated statistical techniques, nor did it present impressive, earth-shaking conclusions, so it seemed obvious that it wasn’t suitable for the top journals in our field. Nor, some editors informed us, was it appropriate for the engineering or math or management oriented, journals where OM researchers sometimes publish their work. It seemed we had run out of alternatives. Whereas the field of Finance has 46 or more journals that have the words Finance or Financial in their title, and somewhat the same is probably true for Marketing, Economics, and Management, in OM, there are only about five journals with the words Operations Management somewhere in their title. It thus seemed clear that there was a tremendous need, and opportunity, for additional journals in our field. Moreover, since the demise of the Production & Inventory Management Journal published by APICS (formerly, the American Production and Inventory Control Society) and the Notes section of the Journal of Operations Management, there has been no place for academic scholars to read about and publish small but high-quality OM research studies. Between just these two publications themselves, that means about 70 short OM research papers are not being published each year, or are perhaps being published but in less preferred or less appropriate journals. And since that time, the field has grown in both size and stature, while the pressure for publishing continues to increase. As a result, we decided to take matters into our own hands and initiate an OM journal dedicated to smaller, focused papers that held particular promise of advancing practice, since OM is basically an applied field. The journal would not compete with existing A-level journals in the field but would instead aspire to publish shorter, more sharply focused work that exhibited solid methodological rigor. The journal would entertain all OM topics and all forms of research: survey, math modeling, case, field, qualitative, simulation, ethnography, hermeneutics, metaanalyses, and other such reputable methodologies. However, total manuscript length would be limited to 20 pages (including figures and tables) and the turnaround time would be fast, with a target maximum of 8 weeks. We Oper Manag Res (2008) 1:1–5 DOI 10.1007/s12063-008-0009-8

Objeto: El objetivo planteado es analizar la investigación en docencia en Dirección de Operaciones (DO) publicada en revistas de alto impacto del área, con objeto de estudiar tendencias y establecer futuros retos.\n\t\t\t\t Diseño/metodología/enfoque: Se ha realizado un estudio bibliométrico en 45 de las principales revistas JCR de DO y Management para el periodo 1995-2010. Los 129 artículos identificados sobre investigación en docencia en DO han sido analizados.\n\t\t\t\t Aportaciones y resultados: Existe una escasez de artículos sobre docencia en las principales revistas de DO y Management. El 62.2% de las revistas analizadas no han publicado ninguno, y las restantes (17) han dedicado tan solo el 0.4% del total de sus publicaciones a esta temática. Predominan los trabajos descriptivos y teóricos/conceptuales, en los que se abordan innovaciones docentes. Entre los retos identificados destacar la necesidad de desarrollar trabajos empíricos de calidad que permitan conocer\n\t\t\t\t el impacto real de las metodologías docentes en la mejora del rendimiento del alumno (en sus diferentes vertientes).\n\t\t\t\t Limitaciones: El análisis se ha restringido a 45 de las revistas más importantes de DO y Management basándonos en trabajos previos. Esta muestra puede considerarse representativa dados los objetivos del estudio planteado.\n\t\t\t\t Implicaciones prácticas: Los investigadores en docencia en DO reciben un análisis los trabajos publicados que les permitirá orientar sus futuras investigaciones en función de los resultados y retos planteados. A los docentes de DO se les ofrece una selección de artículos que pueden ayudarle en el desarrollo de su estrategia formativa. Las empresas se beneficiarán de este trabajo en la medida de que nuestros resultados pueden ayudar a que se ofrezca al mercado laboral directivos mejor formados.\n\t\t\t\t Valor añadido: La innovación en docencia es la base para la mejora de la formación y de la capacitación que obtengan los alumnos y futuros gestores de empresa. No se habían realizado investigaciones previas que estudiaran las publicaciones sobre docencia en revistas de DO y Management y pusieran en valor este importante campo de estudio.

Social media data contain rich information in posts or comments written by customers. If those data can be extracted and analysed properly, companies can fully utilise this rich source of information. They can then convert the data to useful information or knowledge, which can help to formulate their business strategy. This cannot only facilitate marketing research in view of customer behaviour, but can also aid other management disciplines. Operations management (OM) research and practice with the objective to make decisions on product and process design is a fine example. Nevertheless, this line of thought is under-researched. In this connection, this paper explores the role of social media data in OM research. A structured approach is proposed, which involves the analysis of social media comments and a statistical cluster analysis to identify the interrelationships amongst important factors. A real-life example is employed to demonstrate the concept.

International operations management and operations management research: a comparative analysis

The relative importance of journals used in operations management research A citation analysis

The journal of Operations Management Research (OMR) is a rigorous journal that started its publication in 2008. It publishes short, focused research studies that advance both the theory and practice of operations management. Considering the relevant OMR’s contribution to the field of Operations Management in the last years, this study provides an overall assessment of the journal performance by conducting a retrospective review. To elaborate on OMR's temporal development in terms of publications, authors, affiliated institutions and countries, citation patterns, and conceptual structure, we extract publications from Scopus database for the period 2008–2020. We rely on bibliometric techniques in addition to bibliographic coupling, keyword analysis, and content analysis. 166 documents were analyzed using RStudio, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Findings emphasize OMR’s steady productivity growth (3.24%). Narrowly, Olhager J. is the most productive authors while Kalchschmidt M. and Stentoft J. are the most influential authors (H-index of 4). Furthermore, USA contributes to the highest number of publications while UK is the most influential country in terms of citations. Cranfield School of Management, UK stands as the top cited university. The analysis of the thematic evolution concludes to three main clusters: "Manufacturing and Supply chain Performance", "Six Sigma and Lean Management", and "Reshoring, Backshoring and Offshoring". This study recommends to further investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution and the sequels of COVID-19.

Addressing endogeneity in operations management research: Recent developments, common problems, and directions for future research

Statistical power in operations management research

This paper provides guidelines for the design and execution of survey research in operations management (OM). The specific requirements of survey research aimed at gathering and analysing data for theory testing are contrasted with other types of survey research. The focus is motivated by the need to tackle the various issues which arise in the process of survey research. The paper does not intend to be exhaustive: its aim is to guide the researcher, presenting a systematic picture which synthesises suitable survey practices for research in an OM context. The fundamental aim is to contribute to an increase in the quality of OM research and, as a consequence, to the status of the OM discipline among the scientific community.

ABSTRACTDespite ambitious efforts in various fields of research over multiple decades, the goal of making academic research relevant to the practitioner remains elusive: theoretical and academic research interests do not seem to coincide with the interests of managerial practice. This challenge is more fundamental than knowledgetransfer, it is one of diverging knowledgeinterestsand means of knowledgeproduction. In this article, we look at this fundamental challenge through the lens of design science, which is an approach aimed primarily at discovery and problem solving as opposed to accumulation of theoretical knowledge. We explore in particular the ways in which problem‐solving research and theory‐oriented academic research can complement one another. In operations management (OM) research, recognizing and building on this complementarity is especially crucial, because problem‐solving–oriented research produces the very artifacts (e.g., technologies) that empirical OM research subsequently evaluates in an attempt to build explanatory theory. It is indeed the practitioner—not the academic scientist—who engages in basic research in OM. This idiosyncrasy prompts the question: how can we enhance the cross‐fertilization between academic research and research practice to make novel theoretical insights and practical relevance complementary? This article proposes a design science approach to bridge practice to theory rather than theory to practice.

Following trends are not limited to the fashion and beauty industry. Many researchers in papers, master’s degree thesis, and PhD dissertations prefer to solve domain questions or problems with research methodologies previously used by others in the field, mainly, case study research in operations management and technology management studies. This paper is about to stress on adding design research methodology (DRM) as a very useful and practical methodology in management studies that can meet the main aim and concern facing researchers in management studies: produce and develop practical domain knowledge which meets the rigor and relevance functions of the research. This study unlocks all the aspects of DRM and represents a methodological perspective, and sheds light on the reasoning behind why and how DRM should be used more as a methodology in management studies in general, and operations and technology management specifically.

This work protocol form part of a three-phase publication (Marin-Garcia, 2019). Its objective is to establish a work procedure to answer these questions: 1) in which journals have articles about Operations Management with Partial Least Squares (PLS) been published?; 2) Do the results of previous reviews on this topic still prevail based on the very limited set of journals that it have been conducted (and before substantial modifications were made to report methods of PLS-based studies)?; 3) Do recent articles fulfil report recommendations; 4) What kind of measurement model has been considered for the constructs most frequently used in the selected articles?; 5) What are the usual R2 values in the cross-sectional studies represented in the selected articles?; 6) Within what statistical power range do the relations analysed with PLS fall?The article summarises current recommendations to select the analysis procedures and to report the research works that have used structural equations with PLS. We believe that this is an excellent contribution for researchers because it helps to improve the analyses and reports that derive from using PLS to, thus, increase the probabilities of them being accepted in relevant journals.Another contribution made by the present work, apart from establishing the aforementioned protocol, is to provide a list of the recent articles about operations management that have used PLS and the coding procedure to conduct our systematic review (to be subsequently published).