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  • Spring Hughes Mason McCaffrey 2017 Post-print

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Operations Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Operations Management, 49-51, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2016.12.003

    Accepted author manuscript, 758 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

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Creating the competitive edge: a new relationship between operations management and industrial policy

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/03/2017
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Operations Management
Volume49-51
Number of pages14
Pages (from-to)6-19
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date1/02/17
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Policy interventions by governments to alter the structure of economic activity have either been dismissed or ignored by operations management (OM) scholars. However, in recent years, such ‘industrial policy’ measures have gained increasing support in developed economies, particularly in relation to manufacturing. This paper argues that contemporary manufacturing in high-cost economies is rooted in technological innovation. As such, it can be enhanced by industrial policy interventions that prevent systems failures in the process of turning technological innovation into commercially viable products. In particular, we argue that this can be achieved by establishing non-firm, intermediate research organizations and by other measures to change the institutional architecture of an economy. We disagree with claims in earlier OM literature that industrial policy is all but irrelevant to manufacturing firms and to OM. Instead, we argue that OM must broaden its conceptual scope so as to encompass active engagement with non-firm network participants such as government-supported intermediate research organizations, and that, as well as learning to be effective users of industrial policy, OM practitioners and academics should engage actively in the development of industrial policy. In this way, high-value, high-productivity manufacturing can be viable in high-cost economic environments.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Operations Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Operations Management, 49-51, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2016.12.003