Guest editorial: Five steps towards exploring the future of operations management

Operations Management Research was started to promote research that advances both the theory and practice of operations management (Meredith and McMullen 2008). In this guest editorial, we discuss how operations management (OM) researchers could more systematically engage in the exploration of technological opportunity. In this respect, operations management research is an activity shaped by technological invention and innovation in use. Whereas OM researchers currently are still mainly interested in the performance of OM processes and practices adopted by large populations (e.g. of firms or customers), they should also attend to early adopters trying out new technology as well as those combining and configuring existing technologies in new ways. Expanding attention from studying how established practice transforms operational contexts in terms of efficiency and reliability to the development of innovative practice requires an integrative methodological approach for OM research. We outline such an integrative approach, based on a science-for-design approach. To systematically link practice and science, five methodological steps for the systematic formulation of research agendas and the development and testing of design principles are proposed. As such, we provide a framework that effectively connects practice and the scientific knowledge base in developing field-tested and grounded OM knowledge.

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