Operations strategy and context

Operations strategy is an important area of practice and research. Since the seminal manufacturing strategy articles of Skinner (1969, 1974) and the books by Hayes & Wheelwright (1984) and Hill (1989), the number of papers, articles and books on the topic has grown exponentially and led to significant theoretical progress. In the process, manufacturing was taken out of its isolation. Today we rather use the term operations to include supply chain management, quasi-manufacturing services, e-business, service operations and the links between manufacturing and other functions, such as new product development, purchasing, marketing/sales and logistics. At the same time, the empirical field has gone through a range of changes, including internationalization of operations and development of global operations networks, which has led to unprecedented levels of complexity, variety and dynamics operations managers have to deal with in their strategic considerations and decisions. This e-book contains five papers which analyze the connections between competitive priorities, manufacturing capabilities and operations performances and explore relations between operations strategy and national cultures.