Management research: Opportunities and challenges

Citation

Yadav, S.S. and Shankar, R. (2008), "Management research: Opportunities and challenges", Journal of Advances in Management Research, Vol. 5 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr.2008.42605baa.001

Management research: Opportunities and challenges

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Advances in Management Research, Volume 5, Issue 2.

Rigorous research in management area is one of the greatest challenges that we face today. Relevance, linkages and applicability of this research for the practicing world is another major challenge before us. Well researched articles on contemporary business issues, both in traditional areas of management like organization development, finance, marketing, and operations as well as in recently developed areas like knowledge management, CRM, supply chain, investment management and international business, may turn out to be the most significant contribution towards developing new theories and applications. We will like to position Journal of Advances in Management Research (JAMR) for this purpose.

With this issue, JAMR completes 5 years of its existence. This journey has been a satisfying one, though not without difficulties. The major challenge for the editorial team has been to meet deadlines, while keeping in mind the target to continuously improve the quality. Our focus has always been to publish papers that meet the highest standards. We aspire to continue on this journey to pursue excellence and maintain high standards.

All those associated with the JAMR as contributors, reviewers and readers will be happy to know that from this issue onwards, the journal is to be published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The journal will be published in association with the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, a centre of excellence for higher training, consultancy, research and development in different facets of engineering and management disciplines. The editorial team will continue to solicit the high quality research papers from researchers and practitioners the world over.

The practising world of management profession is at a juncture that requires a lot of corrections and re-orientation. Global economic crisis, corporate governance, energy crisis, environmental issues, technology management, management of services, knowledge and intellectual capital management and many similar issues have assumed new dimensions in recent past. There is a need to address these in management research. New case studies need to be developed for understanding and analyzing these issues. We believe that many new management paradigms have evolved in the past and will keep evolving in the future in order to address the fast changing scenarios. Our journal would welcome research contributions, which address these issues.

Every researcher spends a considerable amount of time in reading and assimilating the existing research articles in his/her area of interest. In the process, many gaps are identified. Depending on the resources and interest, the researcher addresses few gaps. However, the non-addressed gaps could also be a matter of interest and motivation for others in the area, specially the newly inducted doctoral candidates. We, therefore encourage our authors to provide some insight in the existing gap-in-literature.

The present issue of JAMR contains six well researched papers. Prof. Eliashberg, Prof. Swami, Prof. Weinberg and Prof. Wierenga have used a knowledge management perspective to understand and analyze the manufacturing management support systems environment for the motion picture industry. The research canvas is globally distributed R&D network. Mr. Ouchi, Prof. Takahashi, Prof. Saiki, Prof. Watanabe, and Prof. Tou have studied two Japanese companies to understand and analyze the timing of the initial functionality development of copying machine. The implication of these decisions is interesting for professionals of strategic technology management in Hi-Tech firms, which are struggling to find ways to have sustainable competitive advantage at the market place. Case studies play an important role in understanding a typical business situation. In a majority of supply chains, all across the globe, the amplification in demand variability from retailers to suppliers' side has posed a major challenge in terms of high inventory and stock-outs at successive time periods. A study of this phenomenon, called as Bullwhip effect, has been presented by Prof. Ravichandran as case studies in this issue of JAMR. There is a need to understand the local and global financial market through new models, empirical studies and appropriate performance measures. Dr. Gopalaswamy and his co-authors have conducted an empirical study of Indian financial market for post-issue performance of fixed price and book built IPOs. Through the application of appropriate research methodology and tools, insightful lessons can be derived for existing and emerging companies or supply chains. The paper authored by Dr. Seema Sharma has analyzed the technical and scale efficiency performance of cement firms in India by using BCC model of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Dr. Arshinder, Prof. Kanda and Prof. Deshmukh have used a larger canvas of supply chain to develop a decision support tool for coordination among different partners.

Our objective to provide a robust platform for management research is made possible through the active cooperation of our research and practicing community in this area. The reach of journal and richness in content are certainly going to move towards a new height with the association of JAMR with Emerald. We look forward to this journey of JAMR with all its contributing authors, reviewers, editorial team members, publishers, academic and R&D institutions, practising managers and consultants with hope and enthusiasm and firmly believe that we will carve a niche for ourselves in the excellence of management research.

Prof. Surendra S. Yadav and Prof. Ravi ShankarDepartment of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India