Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the application and exploitation of Big Data (BD) to create competitive advantage. It presents a framework of application areas, and how they help the ...understanding of targeting and scoping specific areas for sustainable improvement. Empirical evidence demonstrates the application of BD in practice and tests the framework.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory approach is adopted to the secondary research which examines vendors’ offerings. The empirical research used the case study method.
Findings
The findings indicate that there is opportunity to create sustainable competitive advantage through the application of BD. However there are social, technological and human consequences that are only now beginning to emerge which need to be addressed if true long-term advantage is to be achieved.
Research limitations/implications
The research develops a framework and tests it only in two dimensions. This should be expanded. The vendor analysis limitations lie within the nature of the information available and the difficulties in mitigating against bias.
Practical implications
The suggested framework can help academics and managers to identify areas of opportunity to do so, setting new levels of performance and new agendas for business.
Originality/value
This work contributes to service operations management, building on Kranzberg (1986) and the impact of technology and on Fosso Wamba et al. (2015) by developing a systems application framework to further understanding of BD from a practical perspective to extend their research taxonomy insights. The case studies demonstrate how the use of BD enhances operational performance.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that operations management (OM) scholars ought to be among the thought leaders in research into the design and management of global production networks, ...but too few of them currently are. It suggests possible reasons for what is holding them back and calls for ideas for removing the obstacles.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a viewpoint. Nevertheless, it reports results of an indicative survey and uses example cases to illustrate and support its arguments.
Findings
The survey confirms the conclusions from previous studies that the number of publications specifically in leading OM journals focusing on management of global operations is small. Relatively high levels of detail and dynamic complexity and hysteresis of variables affecting the management of global operations are identified as the major hurdles. Applying analytical modeling, a popular research methodology among OM scholars, may be of limited use as it mandates making too many simplifying assumptions. Empirical research is also difficult because it is time consuming and requires access to often sensitive data and may require longitudinal studies. These are tough problems with no clear solutions.
Originality/value
The paper urges OM scholars to take on the broad and strategic problems in management of global operations. That would not only change how the OM discipline is viewed, but it would also benefit the firm, the economy, and the society.
The ability of information technologies (ITs) to integrate activities and offerings across multiple channels offers a promising opportunity for retail firms to enhance their relationship with their ...customers and firm performance. Consumers value the flexibility to learn about the available offerings, complete their orders and obtain customer service across different channels in a convenient and integrated manner. Therefore, the retail industry has begun to use IT extensively to automate and integrate business processes across their traditional and online channels. This study examines the impacts of the use of IT by retail firms in integrating channel activities for selling to customers. Our research model argues that retail channel integration through IT should enhance the efficiency and innovation of a retail firm. In turn, these improvements should enhance their overall performance. We also propose that the environmental dynamism would moderate the effects of improvements in efficiency and innovation on firm performance. We draw upon recent theories in organizational resource integration and organizational learning to develop our research model and hypotheses. Based on survey data from 125 multichannel retailers in Singapore, we find that retail channel integration through the use of IT allows firms to not only be efficient in delivering the current offerings, but also be innovative in creating future offerings. Further, we find that environmental dynamism does positively moderate the effects of innovation ability on performance. Our results provide managerial insights for firms involved in digital integration not only in the retail sector but also in other service industries. These findings could also serve as a foundation for further research on service operations management for firms with both physical and online operations.
Research productivity at business schools is of interest to academicians, policy-makers, and other stakeholders. This study attempts to understand stratification in research productivity in a ...business school and explores the individual (rank, gender) and departmental (area of discipline) characteristics (RaGA), covering a dataset of 4,013 research outputs spanning the research themes (themes) of academic, practice-oriented, and pedagogic and (a la carte) (Tala) from 2011 to 2020. Theme-wise, the quantum and direction of research indicated that academic research > practice-oriented research > pedagogic development during 2010–2015 and 2015–2020. The major findings include: professors had higher per-capita productivity (PCP) across the themes, followed by assistant professors. In terms of a la carte, professors had higher PCP in scientific presentations/invited talks, books, chapters in books, articles in periodicals/dailies, and teaching cases. Assistant professors participated more in working papers and research projects. Associate professors had higher PCP in articles in academic journals and doctoral students advising. Female faculty fared well in academic research and male faculty in pedagogic development. Mixed trend was seen in practice-oriented research. Economic and social sciences outperformed other disciplinary areas in academic (working papers and scientific presentations) and practice-oriented research (research projects, books, chapters in books, and articles in dailies). Marketing, decision sciences, strategy, production, and operations management were better in pedagogic development. The higher production in articles in academic journals came from organization behavior, public policy, and production and operations management. This study has takeaways for policy-makers and emphasizes having a clear research agenda that can combine academic rigor with practice.
Conducting and publishing design science research van Aken, Joan; Chandrasekaran, Aravind; Halman, Joop
Journal of operations management,
November 2016, 20161101, Letnik:
47-48, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The new Design Science department at the Journal of Operations Management invites submissions using a design science research strategy for operations management (OM) issues. The objective of this ...strategy is to develop knowledge that can be used in a direct and specific way to design and implement actions, processes or systems aimed at achieving desired outcomes. This knowledge is developed by engaging with real-life OM problems or opportunities. Manuscripts submitted to this department will be evaluated on pragmatic validity and practical relevance. Because design science research (DSR) differs in some important aspects from other OM research strategies, this essay examines in some depth its challenges and possible solutions.
Dealing with the unpredictable: supply chain resilience Scholten, Kirstin; Stevenson, Mark; van Donk, Dirk Pieter
International journal of operations & production management,
01/2020, Letnik:
40, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
...SCRes has become a topic of significant academic attention (e.g. Sheffi, 2005; Brandon-Jones et al., 2014; Ambulkar et al., 2015; Hohenstein et al., 2015; Scholten and Schilder, 2015; Stevenson ...and Busby, 2015; Kamalahmadi and Parast, 2016; Purvis et al., 2016; Tukamuhabwa et al., 2017; MacDonald et al., 2018; Scholten et al., 2019). ...achieving and increasing SCRes is high on the agenda of researchers, organisations, supply chains, industries, governments, and economic institutions. 2. ...most studies to date have focussed on resilience at the organisational level rather than looking more closely at the individuals within firms that make decisions or, importantly, looking truly at the level of the supply chain or beyond. ...the literature has thus far made limited use of existing theory frames to further our understanding of SCRes. ...given the very nature of SCRes, it seems natural to import insights from other disciplines into Operations Management to better understand SCRes (Van der Vegt et al., 2015).
The major research methodologies deployed for operations management (OM) research include analytical modeling research (e.g., optimization, computational, and simulation models), quantitative ...empirical research (e.g., surveys, and event studies), and case study research. In recent years, there is an emerging trend toward employing a multi‐methodological approach (MMA) to address complex and intriguing OM issues. The MMA helps derive solid research results and boost the scientific merit of OM research. We examine this research trend and present some MMAs germane to the pursuit of rigorous and scientific OM research. We also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of such MMAs.
In this paper, we examine the problem of endogeneity in the context of operations management research. Whereas the extant literature has focused primarily on the statistical aspect of the problem, a ...comprehensive treatment requires an examination of theoretical and pragmatic considerations as complements. The prevailing problem with the focus on statistical techniques is that the standards tend to be derived from idealizations: the correlation between a regressor and a disturbance term must be exactly zero, or the analysis will be invalid. In actual empirical research settings, such a knife-edge assumption can never be satisfied, indeed it cannot even be directly tested. Idealizations are useful in helping us understand what it would take to eliminate endogeneity, but when applied directly and unconditionally, they lead to unreasonable standards that may unnecessarily stifle substantive inquiry. We believe that it is far more productive and meaningful to ask: “What can we realistically expect empirical scientists to be able to achieve?” To this end, we cover and revisit some of the general technical material on endogeneity, paying special attention to the idiosyncrasies of operations management research and what could constitute reasonable criteria for addressing endogeneity in empirical operations management studies.
In the Industry 4.0 era, automation and data analytics emerge as the major forces to enhance efficiency in operations management (OM). Disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, ...robotics, blockchain, 3D printing, 5G, Internet‐of‐Thing, digital twins, and augmented reality, are widely applied. They potentially will bring a radical change to real world operations. In this study, we first explore several major disruptive technologies, examine the corresponding OM studies, and highlight their current applications in the industry. Then, we discuss the pros and cons associated with the use of these technologies and uncover the potential human–machine conflicting areas. After that, we propose measures which may be able to achieve human–machine reconciles in the coming Industry 5.0 era. A concept of “sustainable social welfare” which includes worker welfare, privacy, etc. is proposed and the roles played by policy makers are also discussed. Finally, a future research agenda, which covers topics in both the Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 eras, is established.
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