Call for Papers
Special Issue of the Journal of Operations Management
Technology Management in a Global Context: From Enterprise Systems to Technology Disrupting Operations and Supply Chains
Background
With many new technology developments taking place today across the globe, technologies have great relevance for the strategic and tactical operational decisions made by operations managers. It is long recognized that technology impacts operations. Over the past two centuries, what it means to manage operations effectively has evolved hand-in-hand with technology. Thus, it is useful to reflect on the contemporary state of this evolution across operations and supply chain management (OSCM).
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the operations management (OM) literature considered impacts of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). In the 1990s-2000s, researchers tackled Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and e-commerce processes. Yet recently, OM academics have not focused as much effort on empirically examining impacts of emerging technology innovations within production operations, warehousing, transportation, logistics, distribution, or customer services. Contemporaneously, across the globe a vast number of new mobile, social, and local technologies are disrupting existing operations and supply chains. We aim to resolve this dearth of empirical research.
Among many enterprise technology developments, managers today are considering whether and how to upgrade antiquated (i.e., pre-2010s) Warehouse Management Systems. Managers also must improve existing Transportation Management Systems to enable real-time tracking of production inputs and finished goods (e.g., at the trailer-, container-, pallet-, case-, or item-level). Such upgrades may enhance scheduling and execution of production and warehousing. Many such decisions involve quandaries of on-premise technology implementation versus cloud-based technology outsourcing. Managers also are being forced to evaluate impacts of even newer technologies such as tractor-trailer electronic logging devices, new technology models for omnichannel retailing, Internet of Things, 3D printing, Blockchain, autonomous systems, robotic material handling, drones, and virtual reality. Each technology may prove useful or may not yet be “ready for primetime.”
Social/mobile/local technology trends span developed countries but also reach into remote, impoverished, and developing areas across the globe. This development introduces new business models as well as new operations challenges that create rich research opportunities. An interesting example concerns social media apps, which initially started out for messaging. As the apps evolved, some were transformed into service operations platforms. Such platforms can help businesses: Many small as well as large businesses now use the new platforms to access millions of app users, sell products/services, enable payments, and interact. However, these operational changes can also have downsides. For instance, the new platforms may lock technophobic elderly out of services. Thus, the disruptive new technologies can be double-edged swords, potentially harming some populations.
A salient challenge with adopting any new technology is that, while the technology may hold a promise to help improve one’s operations, it also may constrain one’s operations. For every technology success, many operations managers will offer anecdotes about implementation pain points and outright system failures. Any advanced technology can become an albatross around an operations manager’s neck, locking operations into old processes insufficient for modern OSCM needs or today’s customer desires. As such, we hope authors will reflect on how technology influences OSCM for both better and worse.
Topics
Given these diverse and exciting technology developments taking place across the globe, we are interested in publishing methodologically and topically diverse, empirical, OSCM studies with the potential to stimulate future research and advance theory and practice. Our goal is to deepen and enrich our present understanding of the contemporary developments taking place between technology, organizations, operations, and supply chains. Potential research topics include but are not limited to the following:
•Innovative, operations uses of advanced technologies in the developing world and the developed world outside of the U.S. (e.g., drones, robots, Blockchain, clean technology, etc.)
•Technology innovation and diffusion of use
•Technology choice and adoption
•Technology design and redesign for developing world needs
•Development processes for new product/process technologies in developing countries
•Human resources context of innovation and implementation
•Knowledge and learning perspectives of technology
•Technology outsourcing (e.g., from developed country to developing country, or vice versa, or from developing country to developing country)
•Manufacturing technologies (e.g., Internet of Things, robotic automation, Industry 4.0)
•Service technologies (e.g., retail, healthcare, e-business, and others)
•Warehousing and transportation technologies (e.g., virtual/augmented reality, advanced transportation systems, everything-on-demand delivery systems)
•Demand shaping, procurement, and sourcing; contracting systems linking demand to supply (e.g., Blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning)
•Enterprise and inter-enterprise information systems
•Intervention-based research examinations of specific technology implementations and their longitudinal outcomes
Deadlines
Manuscript submissions: 1 September 2020
Initial (first-round) decisions: 1 December 2020
Revised paper resubmissions: 1 March 2021
Manuscripts should conform to the instructions given in the Guide for Authors for the Journal of Operations Management
(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/18731317/homepage/author-guidelines)
Special Issue Guest Editors
Dr. Gregory R. Heimis the Janet and Mark H. Ely '83 Professorin the Department of Information & Operations Management of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He holds an A.B. in economics from The University of Chicago and a business administration Ph.D. in operations and management science from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Dr. Heim’s research interests include topics in service operations, e-service operations, management of technology, quality management, mass customization, and retail supply chain management, especially for customer returns and reverse logistics. His research today usually involves empirical econometrics and data analytics methods. A major focus of his research program concerns how technology supports OSCM. Recently, he has developed research projects in healthcare OM and financial reimbursement processes. His articles appear in Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management,Journal of Service Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and other journals. Dr. Heim is the Technology Management Department Editor for Journal of Operations Management, a Senior Editor for the Service OM department of Production and Operations Management, and an Editorial Review Board member for Journal of Service Research.
Dr. Xiaosong (David) Pengis an Associate Professor in the Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. Previously he was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. Dr. Peng completed his doctoral degree in Operations Management from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and a master’s degree in information systems management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Peng’s current research interests include information technology impacts on manufacturing and service operations, operations strategy, and global sourcing. His research usually involves empirical econometrics and data analytics methods. Dr. Peng’s research has appeared in Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Decision Sciences, andInternational Journal of Production Research, among others. He is currently an Associate Editor for Journal of Operations Managementand Decision Sciences, and a Senior Editor for Production and Operations Management.
全球范围内的技术管理：从企业系统到技术干扰的运营和供应链
背景
随着当今全球范围内许多新技术的发展，技术与运营经理制定的战略和战术运营决策有着极大的相关性。长期以来，人们认识到技术会影响运营。在过去的两个世纪里，有效管理运营的含义与技术密切相关。因此，反思这种运营和供应链管理（OSCM）交叉演变的发展现状是很有用的。
从20世纪80年代到90年代初，运营管理（OM）文献考虑了先进制造技术（AMT）的影响。在20世纪90年代至2000年代，研究人员研究了企业资源规划（ERP）系统和电子商务流程。然而，最近，OM学者们并没有把精力放在实证研究新兴技术创新对生产运营、仓储、运输、物流、配送或客户服务的影响上。与此同时，在全球范围内，大量新的移动、社交和本地技术正在扰乱现有的运营和供应链。我们旨在解决实证研究的不足。
在许多企业技术发展中，如今的管理者正在考虑是否以及如何升级过时的（即2010年代以前的）仓库管理系统。管理人员还必须改进现有的运输管理系统，以便能够实时跟踪生产输入和成品（例如，在拖车、集装箱、托盘、箱子或物品级别）。这种升级可以提高生产和仓储的调度和执行。许多这样的决策涉及到内部技术实施与基于云的技术外包的两难困境。管理者也被迫评估新技术的影响，如拖拉机拖车电子记录设备、全渠道零售的新技术模型、物联网、3D打印、区块链、自主系统、机器人材料处理、无人机和虚拟现实。每一项技术都可能被证明是有用的，或者尚未完全成熟。
社会/移动/本地技术趋势跨越发达国家，但也延伸到全球偏远、贫困和发展中地区。这一发展带来了新的商业模式和新的运营挑战，创造了丰富的研究机会。一个有趣的例子涉及社交媒体应用程序，它最初是为消息传递而开发的。随着应用程序的发展，一些应用程序被转化为服务运营平台。这样的平台可以帮助企业：许多小型企业和大型企业现在都在使用新平台访问数以百万计的应用程序用户、销售产品/服务、实现支付和交互。然而，这些运营上的改变也有缺点。例如，新的平台可能会将技术恐惧症的老年人拒之门外。因此，颠覆性的新技术可能是一把双刃剑，可能伤害到一些人。
采用任何新技术的一个突出的挑战是，虽然这项技术可能有助于改善一个人的操作，但它也可能限制一个人的操作。对于每一项技术的成功，许多运营经理都会提供一些关于实施痛点和系统彻底失败的轶事。任何先进的技术都可能成为运营经理的绊脚石，将运营锁定在不足以满足现代OSCM需求或当今客户需求的旧流程中。因此，我们希望作者能够反思技术对OSCM的影响，无论是好是坏。
主题
鉴于在全球范围内发生的这些多样化和令人兴奋的技术发展，我们有兴趣出版方法论和主题多样性、经验丰富的OSCM研究，这些研究有可能刺激未来的研究和推进理论与实践。我们的目标是加深和丰富我们目前对技术、组织、运营和供应链之间的当代发展的理解。潜在的研究课题包括但不限于：
•在发展中国家和美国以外的发达国家使用先进技术（如无人机、机器人、区块链、清洁技术等）
•技术创新和推广使用
•技术选择和采用
•根据发展中国家的需要进行技术设计和重新设计
•发展中国家新产品/工艺技术的开发过程
•创新和实施的人力资源背景
•技术知识和学习视角
•技术外包（例如，从发达国家到发展中国家，或从发展中国家到发展中国家）
•制造技术（如物联网、机器人自动化、工业4.0
•服务技术（如零售、医疗保健、电子商务等）
•仓储和运输技术（如虚拟/增强现实、先进运输系统、一切按需交付系统）
•需求塑造、采购和获得；将需求与供应联系起来的承包系统（例如区块链、人工智能、机器学习）
•企业和企业间信息系统
•对具体技术实施及其纵向结果进行基于干预的研究检验
截止日期
稿件提交：2020年9月1日
初步（第一轮）决定：2020年12月1日
修订论文再次提交：2021年3月1日
稿件应符合 Journal of Operations Management作者指南中的说明
(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/18731317/homepage/author-guidelines).
特刊特邀编辑
Dr. Gregory R. Heim在德州农工大学梅斯商学院信息与运营管理系的Janet and Mark H. Ely '83 教授。他拥有芝加哥大学经济学学士学位和明尼苏达大学卡尔森管理学院运营管理学博士学位。海姆博士的研究方向包括服务运营、电子服务运营、技术管理、质量管理、大规模定制和零售供应链管理，尤其是客户退货和逆向物流。他现在的研究通常涉及实证计量经济学和数据分析方法。他的研究计划的一个主要焦点是技术如何支持OSCM。最近，他开发了医疗运营和财务报销流程方面的研究项目。他的文章发表在《决策科学》、《运营管理杂志》、《服务研究杂志》、《制造与服务运营管理》、《生产与运营管理》以及其他期刊上。海姆博士是《运营管理杂志》的技术管理部编辑，《生产和运营管理》的服务运营管理部高级编辑，以及《服务研究杂志》的编辑评审委员会成员。
Dr. Xiaosong (David) Peng是休斯顿大学鲍尔商学院副教授。此前，他是德州农工大学的助理教授。彭博士在明尼苏达大学卡尔森管理学院获得运营管理博士学位，并在卡内基梅隆大学获得信息系统管理硕士学位。彭博士目前的研究方向包括信息技术对制造业和服务业运营、运营战略和全球采购的影响。他的研究通常涉及实证计量经济学和数据分析方法。彭博士的研究发表在《运营管理杂志》、《生产与运营管理》、《决策科学》和《国际生产研究杂志》等杂志上。他目前是《运营管理和决策科学》杂志的副主编，以及《生产和运营管理》的高级编辑。