Purpose – Ownership change has been an overlooked contingency factor in past plant level practice-performance studies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of ownership changes to practice-performance dynamics by longitudinally following the same 23 manufacturing sites...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability to the service business of general models used in the manufacturing environment. This is done by applying Ferdows’s model, “the strategic role of the plant”, in two cases. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how, in recent decades, manufacturing sites have reacted to changes in their business environment by developing their management practices. This also makes it possible to predict the behavior and lifecycles of the new practices adopted by...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities and pitfalls of longitudinal studies in the field of operations management (OM). Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal study conducted in Finland was analyzed from the methodological point of view. In the theoretical...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze changes in the supply chain and production process, and the effects these changes have had on competitive performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study is longitudinal and was conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010 with a standard...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the moderating effect of uncertainty impacts the relationship of operational responsiveness and firm performance. Research on the relationship of supply chain fit and firm performance is discussed in isolation in different streams of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use and effect of benchmarking in manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 23 companies were interviewed longitudinally in 1993, 2004 and 2010. For the study a standard questionnaire was used, and the questions...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the relationships between the capabilities and performance characteristics of logistic service providers (LSPs) in the Caribbean region. The study considers the organization’s process improvement (PI) performance as it relates to their innovation...

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of operations management in society. The article detects trends, raises critical questions to operations management research and articulates a research agenda to increase the value of such research in addressing societal problems....