A Vision of Responsible Research in Operations Management

Are we contributing positively to the society at large by research that we conduct in the field of Operations Management? Currently, the answer is probably closer to “no” than to “yes”. We often do not realize it but there is very real cost of conducting our research non-responsibly. In this invited OM Forum contribution, which is based on my Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Distinguished Fellow lecture given at UT Dallas in 2018, I discuss what I believe it means to conduct research responsibly and I offer some specific steps to improve the relevance of what we do, and I argue that this approach gives our field a new opportunity to make broader impact by expanding the horizon of our work.