This paper is both an extension and an expansion of two earlier studies concerned with the direction of OR/MS research as reported in its archival literature (Reisman and Kirschnick [Reisman, A., F. Kirshnick. 1994. The devolution of OR/MS: Implications from a statistical content analysis of papers in flagship journals. Opns. Res. 42(4) 577–588], [Reisman, A., F. Kirshnick. 1995. Research strategies used by OR/MS workers as shown by an analysis of papers in flagship journals. Opns. Res. 43(5) 731–739.]). All of these papers provide a content analysis of the OR/MS archival journals. However, this paper focuses on the entire life-cycle literature of Cellular Manufacturing as a module of OR/MS. It addresses the research strategy employed by, and the theory-vs-applied orientation exhibited by, the authors. In all, 235 articles, starting in 1969, were reviewed and classified on a five-point scale, ranging from pure theory to bonafide applications. Secondly, the articles were classified in terms of seven types ...