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DOES INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT NEED A SEPARATE PERSPECTIVE?
Author(s) -
Whybark D. Clay
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
production and operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.279
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1937-5956
pISSN - 1059-1478
DOI - 10.1111/j.1937-5956.1997.tb00421.x
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , analogy , business , subject (documents) , computer science , information technology operations , operations management , economics , operations research , marketing , management science , philosophy , linguistics , artificial intelligence , library science , information technology , operating system , engineering
This essay argues that it is difficult to justify intellectually a separate subject of international operations management. Nevertheless, courses with titles like that abound and other professional activities are centered on international operations, at least in the United States. Of course, there are real differences in management activities in different parts of the world that must be contended with. A comparison of European and U.S. managers' exposure to international business suggests that there is a higher startup cost for U.S. managers to do so. Drawing an analogy between the management of operations and the solving of a huge mathematical programming problem implies that there are few new variables introduced by going international, but that the weights on existing variables can change substantially. Therefore, even though difficult to justify intellectually, continuing to treat international operations management separately may provide us some short‐term advantages. By helping us focus our attention on the important variables that change, it may provide us the insights to help reduce the startup cost for U.S. managers entering international operations.