Reassessing the scope of OR practice: The Influences of Problem Structuring Methods and the Analytics Movement

Ranyard, John; Fildes, Robert; Hu, Tun-I

doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2015.01.058

Cited by 92 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…(p. 593). Ranyard et al (2015) argue that the operational research (OR) community needs to extend its efforts for practitioners, particularly as regards problem structuring methods (PSMs) or Soft OR and the business analytics movement, to capitalize on the big data and analytics revolution and to be at the forefront of assisting practice with better theory concerning how to obtain value. Waller and Fawcett (2013) say that data science, predictive analytics and big datawhich they collectively refer to as DPB -is increasing in importance for academics as well as practitioners.…”

Section: Business Analytics and Value Creationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management challenges in creating value from business analytics

Vidgen

Shaw

Grant

2017

European Journal of Operational Research

386

288

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The popularity of big data and business analytics has increased tremendously in the last decade and a key challenge for organizations is in understanding how to leverage them to create business value. However, while the literature acknowledges the importance of these topics little work has addressed them from the organization's point of view. This paper investigates the challenges faced by organizational managers seeking to become more data and information-driven in order to create value. Empirical research comprised a mixed methods approach using (1) a Delphi study with practitioners through various forums and (2) interviews with business analytics managers in three case organizations. The case studies reinforced the Delphi findings and highlighted several challenge focal areas: organizations need a clear data and analytics strategy, the right people to effect a data-driven cultural change, and to consider data and information ethics when using data for competitive advantage. Further, becoming data-driven is not merely a technical issue and demands that organizations firstly organize their business analytics departments to comprise business analysts, data scientists, and IT personnel, and secondly align that business analytics capability with their business strategy in order to tackle the analytics challenge in a systemic and joined-up way. As a result, this paper presents a business analytics ecosystem for organizations that contributes to the body of scholarly knowledge by identifying key business areas and functions to address to achieve this transformation.

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Section: Business Analytics and Value Creationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management challenges in creating value from business analytics

Vidgen

Shaw

Grant

2017

European Journal of Operational Research

386

288

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite this recognition, most empirical studies of OR practice have mainly assessed the adoption rates of particular OR approaches by practitioners and organisations (e.g. Mingers & Taylor, 1992;O'Brien, 2011;Ranyard, Fildes, & Hu, 2015;Stenfors, Tanner, Syrjänen, Seppälä, & Haapalinna, 2007). These studies are mostly about OR practice rather than of OR practice and thus, arguably, the discipline appears to be surprisingly uninterested in empirically examining OR practice itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making OR practice visible: Using ethnomethodology to analyse facilitated modelling workshops

Franco

Greiffenhagen

2018

European Journal of Operational Research

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Empirical studies attempting to open the 'black box' of the practice of operational research (OR) are beginning to appear in the literature, particularly within the area known as behavioural OR. Many scholars within this community share a commitment to both empirically investigate what OR practitioners and users actually do when engaged in OR-supported processes, and evaluate what the effect of these 'doings' is. Despite these developments, we still know very little about the complexities and situated specifics of OR practice as it happens on the ground. This is mostly due to the methodological challenges involved in treating real-time OR practice as an analytical problem, which requires making OR practice 'visible' by bringing to the fore its material and interactional features for close examination. In this paper we adopt ethnomethodology as one way to address this challenge. Using an empirical vignette drawn from a facilitated modelling workshop in which causal mapping was used with a top management team, we illustrate how an ethnomethodologically-informed perspective can reveal the ways in which OR-supported activity is practically accomplished by those involved, moment by moment, and with what effects. We conclude the paper by summarising the contribution that these kinds of fine-grained studies of OR practice make to the behavioural OR agenda, and outline some potentially useful avenues for future research.

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“…Overall, the adoption of a methods analytic focus prompts us to investigate the wider range of OR methods actually used in practice (e.g. Ahmed & Robinson, 2013;O'Brien, 2011;Ranyard, Fildes, & Hu, 2015), how method use changes over time (e.g. Fortuin & Zijlstra, 2000) and, crucially for BOR, what the behavioural consequences of different use patterns are (e.g.…”

Section: Focus On or Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Operational Research

Franco¹,

Hämäläinen²

2016

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In this chapter, we highlight the importance of the behavioural perspective to advance the discipline of operational research (OR). The power of this perspective lies in its ability to identify the conditions under which the impact of OR-supported processes is enhanced or hindered by behavioural factors, with a view to developing more effective OR practice. To help organise and guide the conduct of empirical studies in the sub-discipline of behavioural OR (BOR), we draw on practice theories from the social and organisational sciences to propose an integrative framework based on the three central concepts of OR methods, OR actors, and OR praxis. In discussing these concepts, we refer to the developing empirical BOR literature to highlight alternative analytical foci. We end the chapter by discussing the implications of the behavioural perspective for advancing the OR discipline, particularly with regards to foregrounding OR praxis in academic papers, attending to a wide diversity of OR actors, developing OR competences, and the role of theory and research methodology.

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Reassessing the scope of OR practice: The Influences of Problem Structuring Methods and the Analytics Movement

Cited by 92 publications

References 73 publications

Management challenges in creating value from business analytics

Management challenges in creating value from business analytics

Making OR practice visible: Using ethnomethodology to analyse facilitated modelling workshops

Behavioral Operational Research

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