Interesting, Important, and Impactful Operations Management

Abstract

Operations management has evolved since the founding of M&SOM: new departments have been created in our journals, new tracks have been established in our conferences, and new methodologies have been adopted in our research. Are these changes good for the field? To some, they seem detrimental, yielding a fragmented community that does not always speak the same language nor interact in any meaningful way. Others celebrate our expanded diversity and the new areas of research that it opens up. We argue that neither group is entirely wrong, nor entirely correct. Like the latter, we argue that we must contribute to a growing set of domains using all possible tools of inquiry. But sharing the concern of the former, we view fragmentation as a symptom of a problem. To get out of its rut, to have greater impact, the field needs to ask questions that are important and provide answers that are interesting. In particular, we should (i) avoid the trap of specificity (excellent answers to narrowly defined questions), (ii) expand our horizon beyond our (relatively) small field (connect and actively engage with diverse audiences), and (iii) be bold to pioneer new areas of inquiry. Operations management is at the heart of many of the big issues in society today, and we should be (and can be) central to the conversation.

Reconfigurable supply chain: the X-network

“…In this section, we offer insights on multi-disciplinary compositions of RSC research and project future research directions. Quoting Paul Valery ("Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences") and in light with recent studies by Choi et al (2018) and Cachon et al (2019) that point to the necessities of multi-disciplinary research, we consider the multi-disciplinary collaboration as a key to further RSC developments in the era of Industry 4.0. Linking the further discussion to Sects.…”

The implications of complexity for humanitarian logistics: a complex adaptive systems perspective

“…The annual expenditure of humanitarian assistance is estimated at more than US$25 billion (Tatham and Pettit 2010), with HL activities approximated to account for as much as 60-80% of the total cost of humanitarian operations (Blecken 2010). Balancing the moral imperative that drives HL with the economic imperative for ensuring value for money presents challenges for humanitarian logisticians (Beamon and Balcik 2008;Gonçalves and Castañeda 2018;Naor et al 2018;Cachon et al 2020). In short, failure to provide sufficient supply in a timely manner has the potential to cause serious losses or even death (Thomas 2004;Tatham et al 2009;Day et al 2012;Turkeš et al 2017;Chapman and Mitchell 2018).…”

Alleviating Poverty by Empowering Women Through Business Model Innovation: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Insights and Opportunities

“…It stems from out-of-the-box thinking about operations. Many examples of business model innovation arise in business settings (e.g., see Netessine 2014, Cachon 2019, and, in this special issue, Cachon et al 2019). Yet every organization-community, public sector, business, or nongovernmental organization (NGO)-has a business model.…”