Empirical Research Published in Production and Operations Management (1992–2005): Trends and Future Research Directions

Abstract

We review and evaluate empirical research in more than 150 papers published in Production and Operations Management (POM) during 1992 to 2005 to assess how far the papers' authors have met the journaľs stated objective of promoting empirical research. We also assess the diversity of articles in terms of the purposes of research, data collection approaches, and data analysis techniques. We classify the empirical research articles based on their primary purpose (theory building, theory verifying, application, and providing evidence), data collection approach (case study, qualitative research, archival research, survey‐based research, laboratory research, and field research), data analysis technique (descriptive statistics, various multivariate statistical techniques, and mathematical modeling), and operations topics (strategy, quality, and supply chain management). We also discuss directions for future empirical research in operations management. During 1992 to 2005, the articles based on empirical data have increased substantially from 30 to 50 percent of all articles published in POM. During 1992 to 1998, about three‐fourths of the empirical‐research‐based articles published in POM focused on the manufacturing industry, but recently the gap between the numbers of manufacturing‐ and service‐focused articles published in POM has almost disappeared. While a previous assessment of articles published in a range of operations management journals showed that almost all of the empirical articles were based on either surveys or case studies, our results indicate that POM has published articles that were based on a much wider and more diverse range of data collection approaches. Production and Operations Management has clearly established itself as a leading outlet for publishing empirical research in operations management.

Ethical Sourcing: An Analysis of the Literature and Implications for Future Research

“…On the other hand, it is interesting that this trend swims against the tide of the generic OSCM research showing the growing importance of service operations. Gupta et al (2006) found that most of early empirical research published in Production and Operations Management is manufacturing-focused articles; however, this gap has now almost disappeared. While this does not represent the entire trend towards services in the field of OSCM, it suggests an implication for future ethical sourcing research.…”

A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science

“…Managing processes and operations in organizations has been an enduring theme in management/organizational research (Craighead and Meredith 2008;Gupta et al 2006;Sprague 2007;Voss 2007). Much of the work is founded on the technical principles of Frederick Taylor's "Scientific Management'' whose roots go back over a hundred years (Wilson 2003).…”

Operations research methodology life cycle trend phases as recorded in journal articles

“…We recognize that the 11-year period could give false readings of true life cycle phases, because the data used involved only a short interval of time relative to actual total life cycle time periods. In defense, Gupta et al (2006), using a moving average method, demonstrated life cycle trends in themes, subjects, and methodologies in articles from a single journal using only 11 yearly points of data to plot trends. Also, the original Schniederjans (1995) study only used 10 yearly points out of a 35-year history, which this paper has shown accurately captures the decline phase of GP articles.…”

“…While fitting a statistical model significantly to a set of time-related article frequencies does not guarantee a life cycle phase exists in that data, researchers have successfully used this approach to identify trends. Gupta et al (2006) used frequency counts and curve smoothing to provide an estimate of trends in methodology research publication behavior of the Production and Operations Management Journal. Schniederjans (1995) successfully used this regression approach to find the GP life cycle.…”