THEORY BUILDING IN THE OM/SCM FIELD: POINTING TO THE FUTURE BY LOOKING AT THE PAST

We examine select theoretical papers from the Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) and Journal of Operations Management (JOM) over a time period of the last 10 years. Our study reveals good theory-building practices. We find that the authors delineate a clear boundary around the operations management and supply chain management (OM/SCM) issue of their theoretical consideration. They build on existing theoretical perspectives but also advance the existing body of literature by proposing new constructs that can have a broader appeal. Multiple theoretical perspectives are integrated to explain an OM/SCM issue. Some of these perspectives can involve theoretically opposing or orthogonal concepts. By doing so, the authors often challenge the underlying theoretical conception of a dominant paradigm.