Operations Management Research Research Articles

Pride or Guilt? Impacts of Consumers’ Socially Influenced Recycling Behaviors on Closed-Loop Supply Chains

Problem definition: Social influenced emotions of pride and guilt have been identified by the environmental psychology (EP) literature as crucial drivers impacting recycling behavior, but they have mostly been overlooked in operations management (OM) research. In contrast, EP studies often ignore firms’ operational decisions. We analyze the impacts of both social influence and firms’ operational decisions to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumers’ recycling behaviors, which is essential for realizing remanufacturing’s full potential. Methodology/results: We consider a closed-loop supply chain consisting of a manufacturer selling a single product to a consumer community. Consumers’ recycling behavior depends on both the recycling reward offered by the manufacturer, as well as intrinsic and socially influenced pride (guilt) from recycling (not recycling). We develop an evolutionary game to model consumers’ recycling behavior and characterize the resulting equilibrium recycling rate, which is then integrated into the manufacturer’s decision problem. We characterize the manufacturer’s optimal strategy and the equilibrium recycling rate in four distinct regions defined by both the product’s overall difficulty of remanufacturing and the underlying strengths of consumers’ socially influenced pride and guilt. We show that in settings where the product has a moderately high difficulty of remanufacturing and consumers have stronger socially influenced pride than guilt, the manufacturer optimally induces an interior recycling rate. In such scenarios, there exist win-win pathways in using social influence–based interventions to increase both the manufacturer’s profit and the recycling rate. However, misalignment may occur when consumers substantially care for the product’s recyclability. Managerial implications: This study bridges sustainable OM and EP literature by analyzing how consumers’ socially influenced emotions of pride and guilt affect a manufacturer’s optimal decisions, profits, and the resulting recycling rate. We provide important insights for designing effective and efficient social influence–based interventions to improve recycling rates. Funding: W. Chen was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71902017], and C.-L. Tseng was supported by the University of New South Wales UNOVA Knowledge Hub. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.0721 .

Operations Management Research: Relevance and Impact

Problem definition: A fundamental issue faced by operations management researcher relates to striking the right balance between rigor and relevance in their work. Another important aspect of operations management research relates to influencing and positively impacting businesses and society at large. We constantly struggle to achieve these objectives. Methodology/results: This MSOM Fellow forum article discusses key opportunities for increasing the relevance and impact of Operations Management research. In particular, it highlights two major areas: technology enabled operations and society and operations where unique opportunities exist for the field to make lasting contributions to business and society. Managerial implications: It concludes with a menu of approaches to enhance practical impact of our research.

고등교육 질 관련 연구 동향 분석 및 키워드 네트워크 분석 연구

Objectives This study was conducted to explore and analyze research trends related to the quality of higher education in South Korea by utilizing content analysis and keyword network analysis methods. The target period for the analysis includes publications released between 2013 and March 2024. Methods To achieve this, relevant literature on the quality of higher education in South Korea was selected for analysis. Quantitative content analysis was employed to investigate research trends. Additionally, keywords were extracted from the literature, and analyses of keyword occurrence frequency, co-occurrence frequency, centrality, and community were performed to explore keyword network patterns related to higher education quality. Results The results of the analysis are as follows. First, content analysis revealed that research related to the quality of higher education has been generally increasing, influenced by government policies. The most frequently studied topic was found to be ‘performance management and institutional research’. Second, keyword analysis showed that keywords such as ‘learning outcomes’, ‘educational outcomes’, and ‘quality management’ had high frequency and centrality, indicating that related research has been focused on outputs and performance. Additionally, keywords like ‘learning experience’, ‘student engagement’, and ‘faculty-student interaction’ were found to be relatively highly associated with these core keywords. Conclusions The study concludes that research on the quality of higher education in South Korea is influenced by government policies and is primarily focused on outputs and performance. Therefore, there is a need for diverse policy support from the government to diversify and invigorate research topics related to the quality of higher education.

Optimizing Healthcare Flexible Spending Account Contributions Using Inventory Management Theories: An Interdisciplinary Study

The healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA) offers employees significant tax benefits by allowing the use of pre-tax funds for healthcare expenses, but it also carries the risk of forfeiting unspent funds. To address the challenge of maximizing tax savings while minimizing the risk of forfeiture, this study applies inventory management and economic theories to develop a heuristic for optimizing FSA contributions. Both basic and extended versions of FSAs are examined, alongside the impact of marginal tax rates on decision-making. A simulation model demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic, with results showing minimal deviations from the optimal solutions—less than 0.42% for the basic version and 3.11% for the extended version, and performance differences of less than 0.005% and 0.08%, respectively. By integrating operations management, economic theories, and personal finance research, this study introduces a novel decision-support tool for optimizing FSA contributions, while also laying the groundwork for future research in this interdisciplinary field.

Reward exploitation or exploration? The effects of local government sustainability strategies and performance information on citizen evaluation

ABSTRACT Given the growing attention on citizen involvement in local sustainability, this study explores how citizens evaluate government sustainability performance stemming from exploitation (established policies) and exploration strategies (pioneering initiatives). Our survey experiment finds that positive sustainability performance resulting from exploitation achieves more favourable citizen evaluations compared to exploration. Negative sustainability performance does not moderate the associations between sustainability strategies and public assessments. Furthermore, Republicans, individuals with low climate beliefs, Hispanics, and low-income citizens prefer exploitation over exploration. As an early attempt to examine citizen preferences for organizational strategies, this study extends performance management research by linking organizational strategies with performance.

A Tale of Two Frontlines: Critically Assessing the Dynamics of Interracial Service Encounters

Minority frontline workers are often required to engage in interracial service encounters, which often involve additional complexities due to the subtle biases and stereotypes held by customers. Improving service delivery in interracial service encounters requires understanding the experiences of minority frontline workers. We begin by explaining the challenges faced by minority frontline workers and then offer an analytical framework that will allow operations management research to better account for these experiences. Next, we discuss opportunities for operations management researchers to explore how interracial service encounters impact employees, service operations, and service supply chains.

Hospital Performance and Operational Management: A Bibliometric Review of Key Factors Affecting Effectiveness

This study employs bibliometric and co-authorship network analyses to investigate the landscape of research in hospital performance and operational management. Using VOSviewer, key themes were visualized to depict the concentration and evolution of research areas from technology integration to quality management within healthcare settings. The study identifies central researchers and maps collaborative networks, revealing both densely interconnected groups and isolated researchers. Practical implications are discussed for academic researchers, hospital administrators, and policymakers, highlighting areas for strategic development and potential collaboration. Limitations such as selection bias and the exclusion of qualitative impact underscore the need for cautious interpretation of the results. The study provides a foundational tool for stakeholders to understand the current research environment and to guide future healthcare management practices effectively.

Resource-Based View Theory to Achieve a Sustainable Competitive Advantage of the Firm: Systematic Literature Review

The Resource-Based View (RBV) Theory explains the importance of VRIN/O resources and characteristics for achieving the sustainable competitive advantage. The purpose of this SLR is to analyze the role of RBV in the process of achieving SCA, especially in the supply chain and customer information field, as well as the role of RBV in previous research and for independent startup companies. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was created based on previous research that was collected and analyzed to obtain facts that support the current research findings. Data collection was carried out using the literature review method by classifying and eliminating data sources that did not meet certain indices, which then resulted in the finding that the RBV Theory plays a role in the supply chain in forming SCA by creating VRIN/O resources, namely maintaining good relationships with suppliers and then deploying and using resources. power properly. In addition, customer information can be a resource in VRIN/O, which is expected to increase and maintain customer loyalty, which is part of a sustainable competitive advantage. Based on previous research, RBV is not suitable for application in operations management research and startups. However, it encourages entrepreneurs to be more creative in managing their limited resources. Efforts have been made to write and collect facts in this SLR as much as possible, but like research in general, this SLR cannot be free from the limitations of dependence on actualization of previously collected data sources.

Bridging the Digital Divide in Online Retailing: The Effect of a Strategic Focus on E-Commerce Fulfillment Offerings

The digital divide is an area of significant concern as society increases its reliance on the internet for everyday tasks. Retail operations are no exception to this trend where the use of the online sales channel has become ubiquitous. As retailers seek to provide a high-quality customer experience across socioeconomic groups to maximize sales potential, they must find ways to bridge the digital divide and ensure consumer access to their products. Embracing resources and appropriation theory and the consumer transaction cost perspective, we hypothesize on the efficacy of strategically focusing on omnichannel fulfillment offerings and online fulfillment offerings as operational tools retailers can employ to expand access to their products and improve sales to the diverse populations affected by the digital divide. We contribute to the digital divide research in operations management by showing that a strategic focus on e-commerce fulfillment capabilities is associated with a reduction in the negative impact of the digital divide. We further disaggregate the digital divide into its two component parts, infrastructure deficiencies and socioeconomic factors, to delve into the nuances of the hypothesized relationships. The findings indicate that e-commerce fulfillment strategies are broadly effective at ameliorating the negative effects of infrastructural elements of the digital divide while overcoming the socioeconomic-related component of the digital divide is more nuanced. To further understand the complexities of the socioeconomic element of the digital divide, we disaggregate the measure and explore the impact of an emphasis on omnichannel and online fulfillment offerings to help alleviate the impact of the digital divide for the following vulnerable consumer populations: those who are in poverty, those who are over 25 and have less than a high school education, those 65 and older, and individuals with a disability. Our results show that while these vulnerable populations can be aided by carefully selecting which omni or online fulfillment offerings are available to consumers, not all fulfillment offerings are effective.

Do mid‐level providers enhance hospital cost per discharge or triple aim performance efficiency? An exploratory analysis

AbstractHospital administrators are shifting care delivery models toward an approach that uses more caregivers in the form of mid‐level providers (MLPs), such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical nurse specialists. To date, however, healthcare operations management (OM) literature remains ambiguous about longitudinal empirical associations between mid‐level providers and hospital costs, quality, and other performance measures. We analyze how the extent of MLP employment used by a hospital is associated with hospital operational outcomes, as reflected by hospital cost per discharge and Triple Aim Performance (TAP) efficiency metrics. Our findings indicate percent MLP usage is positively associated with efficiency metrics for hospital clinical quality, technical efficiency, and patient experience, but not associated with hospital costs. We also find percent MLP usage is associated with the likelihood that hospitals excel on all TAP metrics simultaneously. Post‐hoc exploratory analyses suggest the associations exhibit differential outcomes across hospital efficiency quantiles, while sub‐sample analyses motivate boundary conditions for some hypothesized MLP associations. We contribute to healthcare OM research by providing one of the first panel data analyses of MLPs, improving insights relative to extant work. By giving key stakeholders useful findings about outcomes associated with hospital staffing trends, our managerial contribution helps hospital administrators understand empirical consequences of the increasing use of MLPs.

EXPRESS: Impact of Inventory Levels and Product Variety on Consumers' Perceptions of Brands

Past research in operations management and marketing on inventory levels and product variety has predominantly focused on their effects on brand performance indicators, such as sales and market share, while overlooking the influence on consumers’ perceptions of brands. Brand perceptions, encompassing reputation, quality, credibility, and emotional associations, go beyond typical revenue metrics and offer foresight into a brand’s future performance. Hence, understanding the effects of inventory and product variety on brand perceptions is crucial, and that constitutes the main contribution of this paper. Through a consumer-facing automobile search platform, we collect data on new cars’ inventories of more than 20,000 dealerships in the United States from August 2020 to March 2021. We measure brand perceptions using 273,991 responses by in-market consumers collected by YouGov. To address endogeneity concerns, we model the effects of inventory and variety on perceived brand strength using three different empirical approaches: 1) high-dimensional fixed effects, 2) instrumental variables, and 3) causal forest. Across all analyses, we find that inventory has a positive effect on perceived brand strength but the main effect of product variety is not significant. Our second contribution is related to the fact that past research on inventory and variety does not, for the most part, investigate systematic heterogeneity due to brand- or consumer-specific factors that impact the effectiveness of inventory or variety; to help fill this gap in the literature, we investigate the role of two important and theoretically motivated moderators: consumer income and luxury status of the brand. We find that consumers’ income levels and brands’ luxury status negatively (positively) moderate the effects of product inventory (variety) on perceived brand strength. Our results have managerial implications for effective assortment planning under scarcity, determining the right range of product offerings for luxury versus non-luxury brands, optimizing the customer’s online browsing experience, and targeting advertisements based on brand and consumer characteristics.

Can Digital Skills Empower Disadvantaged Castes and Women? Evidence From India

How do digital skills influence individuals’ wages in contexts where caste-based and gender-based social stratification play an important role? We draw on sociology and economics literature to argue that the returns to digital skills in such contexts are shaped by caste and gender, and that digital skills empower disadvantaged individuals to increase their wages. Our empirical analysis of a rich micro-dataset on more than 20,000 individuals across all states in India from two waves of Indian Human Development Survey in 2005 and 2011 yields two key findings. First, we find that the positive returns to digital skills are greater for individuals from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India than for individuals from other castes. Second, we find that the returns to digital skills are greater for women than for men. We also find that movement up the skilled occupation ladder is a mechanism that mediates the relationship between digital skills and wages. Our post hoc exploratory analyses suggest that among individuals from the lowest castes (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), the returns to digital skills are greater for women than for men, and that returns to digital skills are lower in regions with less developed infrastructure and lower literacy rates than in other regions. We discuss the implications of our findings for diversity, equity, and inclusion research in operations management.

How performance measurement systems enable or hinder organizational ambidexterity

PurposeThis study aims to examine how different uses of performance measurement systems (PMS) enable or hinder organizational ambidexterity (OA), intended as the simultaneous pursuit of exploitation and exploration.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a qualitative research design, we gathered data through semi-structured interviews, observations and reviews of documents at four departments of an automotive firm.FindingsWe contribute to operations management research and practice by demonstrating how PMS, which are typically associated with exploitation, can also foster exploration and enable organizations to become ambidextrous. Specifically, we show how PMS can be structured and used in more agile ways and, in relation to innovation, we identify which PM practices should be introduced and with what effects and those that should be avoided. We also contribute to organization theory by highlighting how a single management tool can promote the achievement of both exploration and exploitation.Practical implicationsIn investigating PMS uses and their effects, we identify several positive practices. For example, we show how managers can use PMS more effectively and how targets could be deployed to stimulate creativity and innovation. We also emphasize the need for managers to opt more often for team incentives rather than individual ones to encourage the collaboration needed for OA.Originality/valueWe provide in-depth insight into how PM tools affect an organization’s ability to pursue exploitation and exploration, thus contributing to research in operations, innovation and organization theory.

MSD: Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Data for the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge

To support the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey (hereafter “MSD”), provides pharmaceutical manufacturing data from a continuous tablet production setting. The data set contains approximately 300 million data points related to around 75 process parameters monitored over 120 hours. In this paper, we present the data set and share our vision to inspire and facilitate new applications of operations management (OM) methodologies in pharmaceutical manufacturing. We begin with an introduction to pharmaceutical manufacturing for OM researchers and then elaborate on emerging technologies, common industry challenges, and research opportunities. We explain the data set and propose a roadmap for future research directions. Researchers are welcome to examine the proposed research questions or analyze other research questions using the data set. History: This paper has been accepted as part of the 2024 MSOM Data-Driven Research Challenge. Funding: This work was supported by The Dutch Research Council - NWO VIDI Grant. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2024.0860

Reflecting on how action research enables theorising in operations management: a provocation to interiority

This reflection on action research in operations management explores some undeveloped themes: the place of meaning in the social science of OM and how quality may be assessed, how knowledge/theory is developed and how action research in OM creates impact. The case is made that action researchers’ interiority as attentiveness to data of consciousness and to data of sense as they enact the cycles of action and reflection through the meta learning cycle is undeveloped in OM research and is central to cogenerating practical knowledge and grounding the impact of their work.

Carbon neutrality: Operations management research opportunities

AbstractClimate change, primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is a pressing environmental and societal concern. Carbon neutrality, or net zero, involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the most common GHG, and then balancing residual emissions through removing or offsetting. Particularly difficult challenges have emerged for firms seeking to reduce emissions from Scope 1 (internal operations) and Scope 3 (supply chain). Incremental changes are very unlikely to meet the objective of carbon neutrality. Synthesizing a framework that draws together both the means of achieving carbon neutrality and the scope of change helps to clarify opportunities for research by operations management scholars. Companies must assess and apply promising technologies, form new strategic relationships, and adopt novel practices while taking into account costs, risks, implications for stakeholders, and, most importantly, business sustainability. Research on carbon neutrality is encouraged to move beyond isolated discussions focused on specific tactics and embrace a more, though not fully, holistic examination. Research opportunities abound in both theoretical and empirical domains, such as exploring tradeoffs between different tactics, balancing portfolios, and investigating the strategic deployment of initiatives over time. As a research community, we are critically positioned to develop integrative insights at multiple levels, from individual processes to horizontal and vertical partnerships and ultimately to large‐scale systemic realignment and change.

Integrating advanced digital technologies in existing lean-based production systems: analysis of paradoxes, imbalances and management strategies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of paradoxes, underlying tensions and potential management strategies when integrating digital technologies into existing lean-based production systems (LPSs), with the aim of achieving synergies and fostering the development of production systems.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a collaborative management research (CMR) approach to identify patterns of organisational tensions and paradoxes and explore management strategies to overcome them. The data were collected through interviews and focus group interviews with experts on lean and/or digital technologies from the companies, from documents and from workshops with the in-case researchers.FindingsThe findings of this paper provide insights into the salient organisational paradoxes embraced in the integration of digital technologies in LPS by identifying different aspects of the performing, organising, learning and belonging paradoxes. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the intricacies and relatedness between different paradoxes and their resolutions, and more specifically, how a resolution strategy adopted to manage one paradox might unintentionally generate new tensions. This, in turn, calls for either re-contextualising actions to counteract the drift or the adoption of new resolution strategies.Originality/valueThis paper adds perspective to operations management (OM) research through the use of paradox theory, and we (1) provide a fine-grained perspective on why integration sometimes “fails” and label the forces of internal drift as mechanisms of imbalances and (2) provide detailed insights into how different management and resolution strategies are adopted, especially by identifying re-contextualising actions as a key to rebalancing organisational paradoxes in favour of the integration of digital technologies in LPSs.

Research in Diversity: Lessons for Operations Management From the Women's Studies Field

We postulate that the study of diversity, equity, and inclusion can deepen and add relevance to research in operations management (OM). Specifically, the role of gender is little studied in the existing OM literature—to the detriment of the field. This article considers OM issues by employing the theories, data, and topics from the field of Women's Studies. Our findings indicate that incorporating viewpoints from Women's Studies can change what is considered research, improve the accuracy of OM research, extend existing studies in the field through new parameters, and open new areas of inquiry.

Data Science Supporting Lean Production: Evidence from Manufacturing Companies

Research in lean production has recently focused on linking lean production to Industry 4.0 by discussing the positive relationship between them. In the context of Industry 4.0, data science plays a fundamental role, and operations management research is dedicating particular attention to this field. However, the literature on the empirical implementation of data science to lean production is still under-investigated and details are lacking in most of the reported contributions. In this study, multiple case studies were conducted involving the Italian manufacturing sector to collect evidence of the application of data science to support lean production and to understand it. The results provide empirical proof of the link and examples of a variety of data science techniques and tools that can be combined to support lean production practices. The findings offer insights into the applications of the traditional lean plan–do–check–act cycle, supporting feedback on performance metrics, total productive maintenance, total quality management, statistical process control, root cause analysis for problem-solving, visual management, and Kaizen.

Seeking and Exploiting Synergies Among the UN Sustainability Development Goals: Research Opportunities for Operations Management

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) countries signed up to achieve 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership by 2030. However, the trend of progress toward achieving these goals indicates that none of the 17 goals may be achieved by 2030 globally. We first provide La foundation for operations management (OM) researchers to help shape the interventions for countries and companies to help achieve the SDGs by (1) identifying the synergies among the SDGs so that interventions can impact multiple SDGs positively and (2) linking some of the extant OM research with the synergies among the various SDGs. This way, researchers can understand the complexity of the challenges ahead and build on the OM literature to influence the interventions of governments and organizations to maximize the attainment of the SDGs. We also list some research opportunities to help OM researchers develop research agendas.