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. T h e cu rre n t iss u e a n d fu ll tex t a rch iv e o f th is jo u rn a l is a v a ila b le a t http://www.em eraldinsight.com/0144-3577.htm

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Research in operations management suggests that firms can mitigate the negative impact of product variety on operational performance by deliberately pursuing modularity in the design of product family architectures. However, modularity is not a dichotomous property of a product, as different types of modularity can be embedded into a product family architecture. The present paper explores how manufacturing characteristics affect the appropriate type of modularity to be embedded into the product family architecture, and how the types of modularity relate to component sourcing. The study is based on a qualitative research design involving a multiple case study methodology to examine six product families belonging to six European companies. The themes derived through case analyses are synthesized in the form of empirical generalizations. Insights from these empirical generalizations are subsequently developed into two propositions explaining why and under what conditions these empirical generalizations might hold for a product family outside of the original sample. The theoretical results formalize, first of all, a type of modularity (i.e. combinatorial modularity) not currently described in literature. Second, the theoretical propositions suggest that when the desired level of product variety is low (high) relative to total production volume, component swapping modularity (combinatorial modularity) helps to maximize operational performance. Finally, the complexity of component families outsourced to suppliers and the geographical proximity of component family suppliers affect the extent to which the product variety-operational performance trade-off can be mitigated through modularity.

In order to improve performance at the operational level, more and more firms are developing explicit linkages with suppliers and with customers. While the question of "what beneficial impact do linkages with suppliers and with customers have for a firm" has been addressed in numerous studies, the equally important question of "why" this beneficial impact arises deserves further discourse and explication. This paper borrows and applies the Resource-Based View of the Firm, a theoretical perspective prevalent in the strategic management literature, to develop a conceptual framework to describe, explain, and predict the advantages of a firm's linkages with entities in its supply chain on its internal operations. The proposed framework can be used to justify decisions to develop, strengthen, and protect relationships with suppliers on the upstream side and with customers on the downstream side. The framework can also be used to evaluate practices implemented to link a firm to its suppliers and customers and to provide a decision roadmap for firms to better understand how to maximize operational performance benefits from these supply chain linkages.

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