Design science research in operations management: is there a single type?

Abstract

Although many authors claimed that Design Science Research (DSR) could bring new insights to Operations Management (OM), this research method is still little used in OM studies. Aiming to present the main characteristics of DSR studies in the OM field, this study starts by conducting a systematic literature review of DSR studies published between 2013 and 2022. We identify that although DSR studies have increased in quantity and quality during this period, they remain concentrated in a few journals, authors and countries. DSR remains still under development in OM, and with a significant influence of the case study research method. Furthermore, we also propose that there is not just one type of DSR in OM, but two. The first type is practitioner-focused and highlights the empirical contributions and the results. The second is academy-focused and emphasises the methodology development and the understanding of how the results were generated. As those two types aim for different audiences, we believe that they will coexist in the future.

Keywords:

• Design science research
• operations management
• empirical studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gustavo Bagni

Gustavo Bagni is Production Planning and Control head in an international manufacturing company. He received his BS, MS and PhD from Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil) and his MBA from University of São Paulo (Brazil). His areas of interest are: Production Planning Systems, Master Production Plan, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), Supply Chain, and Experience Management.

Moacir Godinho Filho

Moacir Godinho Filho is a full professor of EM Normandie Business School. He is also affiliated to the Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering of Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil). He received his BS from the Federal University of São Carlos, his MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Brazil), MS, and his PhD from the Federal University of São Carlos. Professor Godinho Filho was a visiting scholar in the Aalborg University (Denmark), Northwestern University (USA), University of Wisconsin at Madison (USA) and also at North Carolina State University (USA). Professor Godinho Filho has published approximately 150 papers in journals with a selective review process. His areas of interest are: production planning and control, lean manufacturing, lead time reduction, logistics, industry 4.0 and supply chain management.

Max Finne

Max Finne is Associate Professor (tenured) of Information and Service Management at Aalto University School of Business. Prior to joining Aalto in 2018, Max was Associate Professor of Operations Management at Warwick Business School, Coventry, UK. He received his DSc (Technology) in 2014 from Aalto University. His current research interests are mostly focused within service operations management, circular economy and innovative pedagogies. Max’s research has been published in journals such as International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Business Ethics.

Matthias Thürer

Matthias Thürer is Chair of Factory Planning and Intralogistics at Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany). He contributed to the improvement, simplification and integration of material flow control systems, and their integration with Industry 4.0. Apart from Operations Management, Matthias is also interested in social and philosophical issues including system theory, cybernetics, causality, and philosophy of science.