Operations Management Research Research Articles

Qualitative middle-range research in operations management

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential of a qualitative middle-range research approach to contribute to the advancement of operations management (OM) field.Design/methodology/approach–To better signify such contribution, it takes insight from Merton's (1968) notion of middle-range theory as a means to create pathways of propositions that link substantive concepts and practices of OM in both context-specific and context-free operational environments.Findings– The paper brings to the fore the argument that achieving the primary objective of filling the “theory-methods” void in OM can be achieved through adoption of a qualitative middle-range approach.Originality/value– The originality of this paper hinges on the premise that theory-oriented qualitative field research that is able to incorporate experiences of different stakeholders of the OM intervention is highly likely to benefit OM theory advancement as well as OM practice.

Contingency theory, performance management and organisational effectiveness in the third sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework that explains how performance management (PM) affects the organisational effectiveness in the third sector. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopt a two stage process in developing the theoretical framework; a systematic review of literature and theoretical developments of the framework. The underlying principles for developing the theoretical framework are mainly based on prior theoretical justification and empirical research in management accounting and international development fields. Findings – Drawing upon contingency theory, the authors propose a theoretical framework explaining how the contingency variables affect PM and organisational effectiveness in the third sector. The authors discuss the justification for contingency theory as well as its weaknesses in the PM research. The authors also highlight how a modified Performance Management and Control Framework could be used to identify PM practices in the third sect...

Production Outsourcing and Demand Variability

We examine the relation between demand uncertainty and firms’ production outsourcing decisions. Contrary to the traditional view on make-or-buy decisions discussed in management accounting textbooks, we predict that demand uncertainty has a negative impact on outsourcing by a manufacturer from a supplier. Research in operations management suggests that outsourcing can increase the production lead time and can result in excessive production variability due to lack of incentive alignment between the manufacturer and the supplier. These adverse effects increase the production costs to a greater extent when the demand is more variable, leading to a negative relation between demand uncertainty and outsourcing. We test this prediction using a large sample of manufacturing firms in Turkey. As predicted, we find that when firms face more variable demand, they outsource a smaller proportion of their manufacturing costs on average, and are less likely to engage in outsourcing. The results are significant both statistically and economically and are robust to alternative specifications.

Proposals for special issues welcomed

OperationsManagement Research is now accepting proposals for special issues. A key aspect of a special issue is that it is aligned with the purpose of OMR, i.e., a special issue topic must reflect the need for contributions to theory and practice as well as address a contemporary topic. The journal takes a broad view of operations including manufacturing operations, service operations, supply chain operations, retail operations, as well as health care operations, humanitarian logistics, and other types of organizations including not-for-profit, government, and public organizations. The journal also welcomes perspectives such as global operations, right-sourcing and right-shoring, sustainability, behavioral OM, risk, big data and analytics, innovation, and emerging economies, as well as interfaces with other areas such as business or corporate strategy, marketing, finance, product development, R&D, finance, and accounting. Furthermore, OMR has no preferred research methodology. Instead, OMR welcomes research that utilizes a variety of methodologies including case, action, survey, mathematical modeling, simulation, etc. However a special issue could focus on the application of a particular methodology to operations management (e.g., simulation studies in operations management) or depending on the topic encourage the use of multiple research methodologies. The editorial team for a special issue should consist of two or more individuals that (together) are very familiar with the topic, e.g. by combining areas of specialization if the special issue is concerned with the intersection of two topical areas. A proposal for a special issue should contain the following information:

Operations Research Contributions to Emergency Department Patient Flow Optimization: Review and Research Prospects

In recent years, Operations Research/Management (OR/OM) has had a significant impact on improving the performance of hospital Emergency Departments (EDs). This includes improving a wide range of processes involving patient flow from the initial call to the ED through disposition, discharge home, or admission to the hospital. We review approximately 350 related papers to (a) demonstrate the influence of OR/OM in EDs, and (b) assist both researchers and practitioners with the OR/OM techniques already available to optimize ED patient flow. In addition, we elaborate on some practical challenges yet to be addressed. By shedding light on some less studied aspects that can have significant impacts on ED operations, we also discuss important possibilities for future OR/OM researchers.

Theory Development in Operations Management: Extending the Frontiers of a Mature Discipline via Qualitative Research

ABSTRACTThis invited paper discusses theory development in operations management. Many stellar researchers have made excellent contributions to theory development in our field. Operations management is a maturing discipline. Recently, theory driven empirical research has become common in top‐tier journals in our field. Impelled by this trend and due to the path dependency of research, in general, researchers have examined operations phenomena using theories from management and organizational science. How do we extend the frontiers of knowledge in our maturing discipline? How do we develop theories within the field of operations management? In examining some of the seminal ideas that have shaped our field, a common characteristic is that they relied on observational studies and conceptual reasoning. Is it time for us to stress the usefulness of qualitative research methods in our field? Could this lead to an intellectual renewal in our field and extend the frontier of a maturing discipline? This paper explores these questions and advances the notion that qualitative analysis needs to be emphasized more than it has been in recent past. This paper is meant to provoke discussion among empirical researchers in operations management.

Spanish University Business Chairs used to increase the deployment of Action Research in Operations Management: A case study and analysis

This research identifies Action Research as a methodology that can play an important role in enhancing the contribution of universities to the improvement of business competitiveness through Operations Management research. We propose that a Business Chair, defined as an agreement between a university and a business organization, can be a useful tool in research projects based on Action Research methodology. We analyze a set of Business Chairs in the field of Operations Management in Spanish universities. We draw up a set of research questions aiming to determine the degree to which Action Research methodology is used in the Chairs analyzed, and to define the key factors for the successful implementation of Action Research projects.

Key determinants of sustainable smartcard payment

This paper aims at examining the sustainability of smartcard payment in retailing and consumer services. The analytical results of our survey data suggest that usefulness, ease of use, convenience, automatic add-value service, security, reliability, and participation of popular service providers have considerable effects on continuous use of smartcard payment. The present work empirically identifies and justifies the key determinants of sustainable smartcard payment from the consumer perspective. The findings provide managerial insights for the implementation of cutting-edge technology to enhance sales and service operations and make important contributions to research and practice in technology-based service innovation and service operations management.

A critical evaluation of alternative methods and paradigms for conducting mediation analysis in operations management research

Mediation as a theory testing approach has witnessed considerable adoption among Operations Management (OM) researchers. Although mediation-testing methods have evolved tremendously in the past decade, their dissemination in the OM field has not seen parallel growth. These advanced techniques facilitate the testing of existing and complex hypotheses in a more precise manner. With the intent of critically evaluating existing and alternative methods for conducting mediation analysis needed to support sophisticated empirical research, this paper first reviews OM studies that tested for mediation in the past eleven years (2002–2012) from top-tier OM journals. Four commonly used mediation approaches were identified. Based on principles of good theory building, type of mediation model, and properties of empirical data, we evaluate the existing methodologies and make recommendations on how to improve the rigor of OM mediation testing. Using published OM studies in top journals as examples, we then illustrate the relevance and advantages of these recommendations, as well as their ease of use. Furthermore, we empirically show that more robust and insightful results can be achieved by adopting these techniques, which in turn have the promise of leading to better theory building and testing in the field of operations management.

OM Forum—OM Research: From Problem-Driven to Data-Driven Research

This essay, based on my 2013 MSOM Distinguished Fellow lecture, presents my view on new opportunities and challenges for research in operations management.

Understanding the Various Aspects of Performance Management Systems (Case Study of a Private School)

“Treat people the way they are and they will stay that way. Treat people the way they can become and they will become that way” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). Performance management is one of the most important construct in management research. This exploratory study elaborates the various aspects of the performance management system. Researchers have taken a private school as a case study. The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance management system of a private school in terms of the appraisal procedures used for the evaluation of teachers and to assess the effectiveness of the performance management system. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research approach has been adopted that consist of a questionnaire and semi structured interviews in order to understand the different aspects of the performance management system. 3 head teachers and 22 teachers have participated in this research. The findings revealed that proper monitoring, effective recognition, rewards and feedback may add value to the overall process of the performance management system. Findings have also shown that the appraisal form is used annually for the evaluation and feedback about teachers is taken only from the class representatives these are the hindering factor in the evaluation system of the case study school. Researchers have also explored some suggestive solutions for the improvement of the current performance management system. The current study will not only contribute to the performance management research but it can also be important study for considering issues during the implementation of performance management system in private schools.

Repealing the LIFO Inventory Accounting Choice? A Review of LIFO and Inventory Management

Researchers in the disciplines of both Operations and Accounting have studied Inventory Management, though in relative isolation. In this paper, one of our goals is to help inform researchers in Operations Management about an extensively debated question in inventory accounting: whether to repeal the LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) inventory accounting choice? This question has received extensive scrutiny from various stakeholders including academics, businesses, and different levels of governmental agencies such as US Congress. Specifically, we provide a literature review on how LIFO affects and is affected by inventory management. This is done by first reviewing the potential determinants of LIFO inventory accounting choice and then reviewing potential interactions between LIFO and inventory management. It is our hope that this review will help stakeholders have a more comprehensive understanding of LIFO before making their decisions.

Customer relationship management performance measurement using balanced scorecard and fuzzy analytic network process: The case of MAPNA group

The complexity of a competitive business environment and increased customer expectations has revealed the necessity of awareness from organizational strengths and weakness and continuous improvement of productivity. Thus, today's managers seek a comprehensive, reliable and flexible solution to evaluate their organizations' performances so that they will obtain accurate and sufficient information of their positions while ensuring the implementation of their own strategies, and will improve their organizations with a future-oriented view. This performance management research, specifically measures the customer relationship management (CRM) in business to business (B2B) area using balanced scorecard (BSC) for determination of CRM indicators and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) to determine CRM indicators and sub-indicators in a case study on MAPNA organization in order to provide for a ground for CRM efficiency improvement in this organization.

Is Customer Dependency Associated with Supplierrs Misstatement Risk and Audit Fees?

What are the implications of customer-base concentration, i.e., the degree of a supplier’s dependency on its major customers, for outside auditors? While prior research highlights the negatives of major customer dependency for client business risk, we find that suppliers with more concentrated customer bases spend less on audit fees. The negative association between audit fees and customer-base concentration holds after controlling for a wide array of firm characteristics, and is more pronounced when dependent suppliers and major customers share the same auditor. Our evidence is consistent with a negative link between audit effort and major customer dependency due to lower audit complexity. The audit fee discount identified, however, does not imply that audit quality declines with major customer dependency. Indeed, we find that suppliers with more concentrated customer bases are less likely to experience restatements of previously audited financial statements, which suggests a positive link between audit quality and major customer dependency. Overall, our study contributes to research in accounting and operations management on inter-organizational relationships by exploring the interplay of major customer dependency with client business risk and audit complexity. Taking the outside auditors’ perspective, our study provides new managerial insights on the costs and benefits of major customer relationships for supplier firms.

Operational Entrepreneurship: How Operations Management Research Can Advance Entrepreneurship

In this article, we introduce the notion of operational entrepreneurship—the selection and management of transformation processes for recognizing, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities for potential value creation—to offer examples of research opportunities at the interface of entrepreneurship and operations management. Specifically, we believe that operations management has been under‐utilized for gaining a deeper understanding of (i) the knowledge and motivation required for opportunity recognition, (ii) evaluations of a recognized opportunity to determine if it represents an opportunity for the specific entrepreneur, and (iii) the role that feedback from an exploitation of a current opportunity plays in the recognition and evaluation of subsequent opportunities. We also introduce (but not develop) the notion of entrepreneurial operations.

Team performance management: past, current and future trends

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to update the Team Performance Management (TPM) readership on the development of the journal since the first review article was written in 2007. Design/methodology/approach – Each of the 136 articles published in the journal between 2007 and 2012 were analyzed to identify interesting trends and patterns. Findings – The USA still holds the top positions in terms of the largest number of published articles, and a total of 28 countries are represented by first author affiliation. Academic first authors have increased from 69 to 92 percent since the 2007 analysis. Of the total articles published from 2007-2012, 32 percent of the articles are single authored, while 35 percent are double authored. The majority of the authors published just once in the journal (84 percent) during that period. The publication of research articles has increased from 55 to 67 percent. The most popular article achieved 4,310 downloads. Research limitations/implications – This study is not a rigorous statistical analysis, but rather seeks to provide an update on the 2007 analysis, with a review of the last six years' articles published in the journal. As before, only the first author's details were used for the analysis, which may have caused a slight bias in the findings. Originality/value – This article provides a quick guide in terms of the types of articles published in TPM during the last six years and with the 2007 article, gives an overview of the journal and team performance management research in the last 18 years.

Application of Operations Research in Management

Operations research as a branch of comprehensive and multidisciplinary cross science, there are two types of decision problems. The first one is how to make use of resource to fulfill the tasks as much as possible. The other one is how to Using the least amount of resources to complete a certain task. The planning model about resource utilization in the factory is built through the investigation and analysis. It uses limited resources to complete the production task at most. In the actual problems of the university financial management and daily life, multi-target optimization is necessary. Analytic hierarchy process is used to built Hierarchical evaluation model and make decision of how to select school for graduate education.

OM Forum—Operations Management Challenges for Some “Cleantech” Firms

A “cleantech” firm is one with an innovative technology and/or business model for serving an existing market with dramatically reduced environmental impact. This paper describes operations management (OM) challenges faced by five cleantech companies, and a few questions that these raise for OM and multidisciplinary research. It aims to fuel readers' motivation to identify and pursue others. The OM community has fundamental roles to play in the creation of an environmentally sustainable economy.

Exploring the Author Affiliation Index

The Author Affiliation Index (AAI) for ranking a set of academic journals was first presented by Gorman and Kanet (Manuf Serv Oper Manag 7:3---19, 2005). Since that time, it has become a popular method for assessing journal quality in a myriad of academic disciplines. However, a recent paper published by Agrawal et al. (Prod Oper Manag 20:280---300, 2011) pointed out several potential problems with the AAI. In this paper, we present a modified AAI that incorporates several improvements to the original AAI and addresses the three concerns expressed by Agrawal. The modified AAI allows for international institutions, introduces a weighting factor to allow for a greatly expanded set of prestigious institutions, considers the entire population of articles published in a journal during a specified time period, and utilizes a batch means approach to data collection to allow for proper statistical inference. We illustrate the modified AAI using a set of ten well-known journals that publish Operations Research and Operations Management research. The primary intent of this paper, however, is not to rank these ten journals; rather these ten journals are simply used to illustrate the use of the newly developed modified AAI.

Should we try out for the major leagues? A call for research in sport operations management

Purpose– Research related to operations management (OM) in the sport industry is underdeveloped, despite sport being a continued context of study in other management disciplines. Most studies on the topic are conducted largely in isolation and not linked to the wider OM theory base. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the few studies conducted and develop a detailed research agenda to encourage future research in this interesting, important and topical context.Design/methodology/approach– This paper uses a comprehensive systematic literature review methodology to synthesize the research on sport OM to date. Gaps within the literature are identified and avenues for future research to drive improved performance in multiple aspects of sport OM are suggested.Findings– Examination of the literature shows sports OM to be underdeveloped, with little cumulative learning between existing studies and weak linkages between sport and OM research. To develop the topic further there is a clear requirement for more theory-based research as well as more rigorous empirical testing. The sport industry has special characteristics that differentiate it from the overall service industry and call for targeted research.Practical implications– Sport today is a major business. The industry also contributes to individual health and well-being. This paper suggests several research directions designed to improve off-field performance in sport operations.Originality/value– This paper is the first to identify and synthesize the separate studies that have been conducted on OM in sport to date in order to provide a multifaceted research agenda aimed at developing both theoretical and managerial contributions within this important yet under researched area.