IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormsom/v22y2020i1p170-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Empirical Research Is Good for Operations Management, and What Is Good Empirical Operations Management?

Author

Listed:
  • Marshall Fisher

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104;)

  • Marcelo Olivares

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile, Of 624 Santiago, Chile;)

  • Bradley R. Staats

    (Kenan–Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599)

Abstract

Empirical research in operations management has increased steadily over the last 20 years. In this paper, we discuss why this is good for our field and offer some comments on the qualities we admire in an empirical operations management paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Marshall Fisher & Marcelo Olivares & Bradley R. Staats, 2020. "Why Empirical Research Is Good for Operations Management, and What Is Good Empirical Operations Management?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 170-178, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:22:y:2020:i:1:p:170-178
    DOI: 10.1287/msom.2019.0812
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2019.0812
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/msom.2019.0812?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paat Rusmevichientong & David Shmoys & Chaoxu Tong & Huseyin Topaloglu, 2014. "Assortment Optimization under the Multinomial Logit Model with Random Choice Parameters," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 23(11), pages 2023-2039, November.
    2. Gustavo Vulcano & Garrett van Ryzin & Richard Ratliff, 2012. "Estimating Primary Demand for Substitutable Products from Sales Transaction Data," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 313-334, April.
    3. Hakold F. Smiddy & Lionel Naum, 1954. "Evolution of a "Science of Managing" in America," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 1-31, October.
    4. John E. DiNardo & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 1997. "The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303.
    5. James M. Davis & Guillermo Gallego & Huseyin Topaloglu, 2014. "Assortment Optimization Under Variants of the Nested Logit Model," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 250-273, April.
    6. Felipe Caro & Jérémie Gallien & Miguel Díaz & Javier García & José Manuel Corredoira & Marcos Montes & José Antonio Ramos & Juan Correa, 2010. "Zara Uses Operations Research to Reengineer Its Global Distribution Process," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 71-84, February.
    7. Alan B. Krueger, 1993. "How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984–1989," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 33-60.
    8. Robert L. Bray & Yuliang Yao & Yongrui Duan & Jiazhen Huo, 2019. "Ration Gaming and the Bullwhip Effect," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 453-467, March.
    9. Yigal Gerchak & David Mossman, 1992. "On the Effect of Demand Randomness on Inventories and Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 804-807, August.
    10. Chris Parker & Kamalini Ramdas & Nicos Savva, 2016. "Is IT Enough? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India’s Agriculture Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(9), pages 2481-2503, September.
    11. Ravi Anupindi & Maqbool Dada & Sachin Gupta, 1998. "Estimation of Consumer Demand with Stock-Out Based Substitution: An Application to Vending Machine Products," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 406-423.
    12. Santiago Gallino & Antonio Moreno, 2014. "Integration of Online and Offline Channels in Retail: The Impact of Sharing Reliable Inventory Availability Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1434-1451, June.
    13. Zeynep Akşin & Barış Ata & Seyed Morteza Emadi & Che-Lin Su, 2013. "Structural Estimation of Callers' Delay Sensitivity in Call Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(12), pages 2727-2746, December.
    14. John Paul MacDuffie, 1997. "The Road to "Root Cause": Shop-Floor Problem-Solving at Three Auto Assembly Plants," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 479-502, April.
    15. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, January.
    16. Olga Perdikaki & Saravanan Kesavan & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2012. "Effect of Traffic on Sales and Conversion Rates of Retail Stores," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 145-162, January.
    17. Christian Terwiesch, 2019. "OM Forum—Empirical Research in Operations Management: From Field Studies to Analyzing Digital Exhaust," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 713-722, October.
    18. Teck-Hua Ho & Noah Lim & Sadat Reza & Xiaoyu Xia, 2017. "OM Forum—Causal Inference Models in Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 509-525, October.
    19. Chloe Kim Glaeser & Marshall Fisher & Xuanming Su, 2019. "Optimal Retail Location: Empirical Methodology and Application to Practice," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 86-102, January.
    20. Nicole DeHoratius & Ananth Raman, 2008. "Inventory Record Inaccuracy: An Empirical Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(4), pages 627-641, April.
    21. Jose A. Guajardo & Morris A. Cohen & Sang-Hyun Kim & Serguei Netessine, 2012. "Impact of Performance-Based Contracting on Product Reliability: An Empirical Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(5), pages 961-979, May.
    22. A. Gürhan Kök & Marshall L. Fisher, 2007. "Demand Estimation and Assortment Optimization Under Substitution: Methodology and Application," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1001-1021, December.
    23. Hummy Song & Anita L. Tucker & Karen L. Murrell, 2015. "The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(12), pages 3032-3053, December.
    24. Lawrence Brown & Noah Gans & Avishai Mandelbaum & Anat Sakov & Haipeng Shen & Sergey Zeltyn & Linda Zhao, 2005. "Statistical Analysis of a Telephone Call Center: A Queueing-Science Perspective," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 100, pages 36-50, March.
    25. Gabriel Bitran & René Caldentey, 2003. "An Overview of Pricing Models for Revenue Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 203-229, August.
    26. Dennis J. Zhang & Gad Allon & Jan A. Van Mieghem, 2017. "Does Social Interaction Improve Learning Outcomes? Evidence from Field Experiments on Massive Open Online Courses," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 347-367, July.
    27. Gérard P. Cachon & Taylor Randall & Glen M. Schmidt, 2007. "In Search of the Bullwhip Effect," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 457-479, April.
    28. Yina Lu & Andrés Musalem & Marcelo Olivares & Ariel Schilkrut, 2013. "Measuring the Effect of Queues on Customer Purchases," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(8), pages 1743-1763, August.
    29. Bradley R. Staats & Diwas S. KC & Francesca Gino, 2018. "Maintaining Beliefs in the Face of Negative News: The Moderating Role of Experience," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 804-824, February.
    30. Fernando Bernstein & Awi Federgruen, 2005. "Decentralized Supply Chains with Competing Retailers Under Demand Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(1), pages 18-29, January.
    31. Vishal Gaur & Marshall L. Fisher & Ananth Raman, 2005. "An Econometric Analysis of Inventory Turnover Performance in Retail Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 181-194, February.
    32. Marshall Fisher & Ramnath Vaidyanathan, 2014. "A Demand Estimation Procedure for Retail Assortment Optimization with Results from Implementations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2401-2415, October.
    33. Gad Allon & Awi Federgruen & Margaret Pierson, 2011. "How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 489-507, October.
    34. Enno Siemsen & Aleda V. Roth & Sridhar Balasubramanian & Gopesh Anand, 2009. "The Influence of Psychological Safety and Confidence in Knowledge on Employee Knowledge Sharing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(3), pages 429-447, April.
    35. Marshall L. Fisher & Christopher D. Ittner, 1999. "The Impact of Product Variety on Automobile Assembly Operations: Empirical Evidence and Simulation Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(6), pages 771-786, June.
    36. Hau L. Lee & V. Padmanabhan & Seungjin Whang, 1997. "Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 546-558, April.
    37. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats & David M. Upton, 2009. "Team Familiarity, Role Experience, and Performance: Evidence from Indian Software Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 85-100, January.
    38. Marcelo Olivares & Christian Terwiesch & Lydia Cassorla, 2008. "Structural Estimation of the Newsvendor Model: An Application to Reserving Operating Room Time," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 41-55, January.
    39. E. H. Bowman, 1963. "Consistency and Optimality in Managerial Decision Making," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 310-321, January.
    40. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats, 2011. "Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 310-328, July.
    41. Andrés Musalem & Marcelo Olivares & Eric T. Bradlow & Christian Terwiesch & Daniel Corsten, 2010. "Structural Estimation of the Effect of Out-of-Stocks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1180-1197, July.
    42. Saravanan Kesavan & Vishal Gaur & Ananth Raman, 2010. "Do Inventory and Gross Margin Data Improve Sales Forecasts for U.S. Public Retailers?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1519-1533, September.
    43. Marshall Fisher & Ananth Raman, 1996. "Reducing the Cost of Demand Uncertainty Through Accurate Response to Early Sales," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 87-99, February.
    44. Anita L. Tucker, 2007. "An Empirical Study of System Improvement by Frontline Employees in Hospital Units," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 492-505, April.
    45. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    46. Steven A. Lippman & Kevin F. McCardle, 1997. "The Competitive Newsboy," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 45(1), pages 54-65, February.
    47. Pavithra Harsha & Shivaram Subramanian & Joline Uichanco, 2019. "Dynamic Pricing of Omnichannel Inventories," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 47-65, January.
    48. Marshall Fisher, 2007. "Strengthening the Empirical Base of Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 368-382, December.
    49. Antonio Moreno & Christian Terwiesch, 2015. "Pricing and Production Flexibility: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Automotive Industry," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 428-444, October.
    50. Sriram Narayanan & Sridhar Balasubramanian & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2009. "A Matter of Balance: Specialization, Task Variety, and Individual Learning in a Software Maintenance Environment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(11), pages 1861-1876, November.
    51. Robert L. Bray & Haim Mendelson, 2015. "Production Smoothing and the Bullwhip Effect," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(2), pages 208-220, May.
    52. Marcelo Olivares & Gérard P. Cachon, 2009. "Competing Retailers and Inventory: An Empirical Investigation of General Motors' Dealerships in Isolated U.S. Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(9), pages 1586-1604, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peng Liang & Hasan Cavusoglu & Nan Hu, 2023. "Customers’ managerial expectations and suppliers’ asymmetric cost management," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(6), pages 1975-1993, June.
    2. Karca D. Aral & Erasmo Giambona & Ye Wang, 2022. "Buyer’s Bankruptcy Risk, Sourcing Strategy, and Firm Value: Evidence from the Supplier Protection Act," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 7940-7957, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Terwiesch & Marcelo Olivares & Bradley R. Staats & Vishal Gaur, 2020. "OM Forum—A Review of Empirical Operations Management over the Last Two Decades," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 656-668, July.
    2. Teck-Hua Ho & Noah Lim & Sadat Reza & Xiaoyu Xia, 2017. "OM Forum—Causal Inference Models in Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 509-525, October.
    3. Maria R. Ibanez & Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats, 2018. "Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4389-4407, September.
    4. Chiang, Chung-Yean & Qian, Zhuang & Chuang, Chia-Hung & Tang, Xiao & Chou, Chia-Ching, 2023. "Examining demand and supply-chain antecedents of inventory dynamics: Evidence from automotive industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    5. Pol Boada-Collado & Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, 2020. "Estimating and Optimizing the Impact of Inventory on Consumer Choices in a Fashion Retail Setting," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 582-597, May.
    6. Diwas S. KC & Bradley R. Staats & Maryam Kouchaki & Francesca Gino, 2020. "Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4397-4416, October.
    7. Mou, Shandong & Robb, David J. & DeHoratius, Nicole, 2018. "Retail store operations: Literature review and research directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 399-422.
    8. Elçin Ergin & Mehmet Gümüş & Nathan Yang, 2022. "An Empirical Analysis of Intra‐Firm Product Substitutability in Fashion Retailing," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 607-621, February.
    9. Boxiao Chen & Xiuli Chao, 2020. "Dynamic Inventory Control with Stockout Substitution and Demand Learning," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(11), pages 5108-5127, November.
    10. Bradley R. Staats & Diwas S. KC & Francesca Gino, 2018. "Maintaining Beliefs in the Face of Negative News: The Moderating Role of Experience," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 804-824, February.
    11. Yina Lu & Andrés Musalem & Marcelo Olivares & Ariel Schilkrut, 2013. "Measuring the Effect of Queues on Customer Purchases," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(8), pages 1743-1763, August.
    12. Fildes, Robert & Ma, Shaohui & Kolassa, Stephan, 2022. "Retail forecasting: Research and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1283-1318.
    13. Brett A. Hathaway & Seyed M. Emadi & Vinayak Deshpande, 2021. "Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You: An Empirical Study of Caller Behavior Under a Callback Option," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1508-1526, March.
    14. Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats, 2011. "Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 310-328, July.
    15. Amr Farahat & Joonkyum Lee, 2018. "The Multiproduct Newsvendor Problem with Customer Choice," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 123-136, January.
    16. Melissa A. Valentine & Tom Fangyun Tan & Bradley R. Staats & Amy C. Edmondson, 2019. "Fluid Teams and Knowledge Retrieval: Scaling Service Operations," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 346-360, May.
    17. Marshall Fisher, 2007. "Strengthening the Empirical Base of Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 368-382, December.
    18. Gad Allon & Awi Federgruen & Margaret Pierson, 2011. "How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 489-507, October.
    19. Karen Donohue & Özalp Özer, 2020. "Behavioral Operations: Past, Present, and Future," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 191-202, January.
    20. Masoud Kamalahmadi & Qiuping Yu & Yong-Pin Zhou, 2021. "Call to Duty: Just-in-Time Scheduling in a Restaurant Chain," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(11), pages 6751-6781, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:22:y:2020:i:1:p:170-178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.