Serving the world: papers from the 19th EurOMA/4th P&OM World Conference in Amsterdam

Citation

de Leeuw, S., Van Donk, D.P. and de Koster, R. (2015), "Serving the world: papers from the 19th EurOMA/4th P&OM World Conference in Amsterdam", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 35 No. 11. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-09-2015-0565

Serving the world: papers from the 19th EurOMA/4th P&OM World Conference in Amsterdam

Article Type: Guest Editorial From: International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Volume 35, Issue 11

From 1 to 5 July 2012 the 4th P&OM World Conference that also served as the 19th International Annual EurOMA Conference was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference was a joint effort between the universities of Groningen (in the conference committee represented by Professor Dirk Pieter Van Donk), Rotterdam (Professor René de Koster), Eindhoven (Professor Jan Fransoo) and the two universities in Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam: Professor Jack van der Veen, and VU University Amsterdam: Professor Sander de Leeuw). The central theme of the conference was Serving the World. The theme of the conference reflects that increasingly, certain parts of the world serve other parts. However, this is not very new since from the seventeenth century onwards Amsterdam (and the Netherlands) has been serving as a hub for the world based on trade and coordination of international flows of goods and services. While in the past the main coordination was around material flows, nowadays in addition services and information have to be coordinated. That perspective is continually evolving, and a major challenge for the OM community that can be studied from insights derived from the past, adapted to the needs of the current and the future.

The conference committee received 903 abstracts that were reviewed by 171 reviewers. A total of 567 abstracts were accepted for the conference leading to 529 full papers for the conference. Close to 700 academics participated from over 50 countries.

This special issue has been assembled from the best papers presented at the conference. Our invitation to submit papers resulted in 19 submissions, out of which four papers were finally selected for publication after three rounds of reviews.

The four papers of this special issue clearly reflect aspects of our theme Serving the World. They all relate to aspects that have global relevance, including information usage and employment of ICT using worldwide standards (Power and Gruner, coordination in a network of companies in new product development involving specialized design offices as well as suppliers of parts (Ates et al.), drivers and performance implications of Green Supply Chain Management approaches (Tachizawa et al.), and the impact of sanctions on an automotive supply chain (Davarzani et al.).

The paper by Power and Gruner investigates shifts towards less adoption of inter-organisational information technologies (IT) based on GS1 standards. It sheds light on whether such shifts exist and, if so, why they occur. Survey results provide evidence of both reduced and increased inter-organisation IT over time. Four in-depth case studies show why companies may reduce IT adoption. Such reduction appears to be largely explained by a complex interaction of multiple factors, which suggests the phenomenon should be studied further.

Ate, Van den Ende and Iannielo explore inter-organizational coordination patterns in a triadic relationship between a buying firm, a design agency and a component supplier in new product development projects. Building on organizational information processing and resource dependence theories and employing a multiple case study design the authors find four patterns of coordination approaches. These approaches are determined by the novelty of the project (radical vs incremental) and the design approach (user-oriented vs design driven). The study findings suggest that it is necessary to understand the determinants of inter-organizational coordination approaches in order to manage joint NPD projects in the most effective way.

Tachizawa, Gimenez and Sierra investigate the interrelationships among environmental drivers, Green Supply Chain Management approaches and performance outcomes. Using results from a survey administered in Spain they show that coercive and non-coercive drivers have different implications in terms of Green Supply Chain Management approaches. Moreover, monitoring itself is not sufficient to improve performance; firms need to adopt collaborative practices with their suppliers. Results show that whereas collaboration has a direct effect on performance, monitoring has only an indirect relationship through collaboration.

Davarzani, Zanjirani Farahani and Rahmandad have performed an exploratory case study to investigate the impact of econo-political risks (EPRs) on supply chains (SC). EPRs are defined in terms of scope (flow of material, money and knowledge) and time. Based on data from an automotive SC, this paper identifies the mechanisms through which a subset of EPRs influences SC operations and outcomes. The authors find impacts of EPRs through economic and regulatory channels. Members of SC in countries with a high risk of sanctions can use this paper to learn about potential solutions that they can include in their response portfolio.

We would like to thank the reviewers for their efforts to constructively comment on papers submitted and for their support to the authors to get the manuscripts published. Thank you Amrou Awaysheh, Nuran Acur, David Bamford, Ornella Benedittini, Harry Boer, Michael Braunscheidl, Manda Broekhuis, Raffaella Cagliano, Carolien De Blok, Pietro De Giovanni, Lisa Ellram, Cristina Gimenez, Matthias Holweg, Robbert Janssen, Jay Jayaram, Murat Kristal, Mike Lewis, Eamon Molloy, Ram Narasimhan, Boyana Petkova, Holger Schiele, Kirstin Scholten, Stefan Seuring, Rian Silvestro, Martin Spring, Merieke Stevens, Bjorge Timenes Laugen, Tom Van Woensel, Ann Vereecke.

Last but not least we are grateful to our fellow organizing committee members for their support during the event and to the EurOMA board for their valuable inputs in the organization of this event. We hope you find the special issue useful and inspiring.

Professor Sander de Leeuw, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

Professor Dirk Pieter Van Donk, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, and

Professor René de Koster, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands