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Management science methodologies in environmental management and sustainability: discourses and applications

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Journal of the Operational Research Society

Abstract

This paper investigates and discusses the use of systemic methodologies (SMs) developed in management science/operational research (MS/OR), in particular, those SM that have been informing the complexity inherent in environmental management and sustainable (EM/S) practices. By surveying a sample of the top MS/OR and systems journals, we assess the extent to which systemic management science methodologies developed recently have been used in tackling EM/S problems. Titles and abstracts of EM/S applications published in MS/OR and systems journals between 1989 and 2009 were queried for the occurrence of typical keywords associated with a set of SMs (eg, complexity theory, systems dynamics, soft systems, critical systems, viable systems model). The survey identifies a set of articles representing the practice of either a particular methodology or of a mixture of various SMs in EM/S setting. By assembling and critically reviewing a sample of applications in EM/S the paper hopes to raise awareness among environmentalists, operational researchers and management scientists of the benefits of using systemic approaches developed in MS/OR and, in this way, to encourage further exchange and conversation between these fields of management.

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Notes

  1. Both the authors have PhDs in MS/Systems Thinking and Complexity.

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Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgements are made to Jon Walker for support in reviewing an earlier version of this paper; to Pedro Pablo Cardoso and Kathryn Knowles (PhD candidates from Hull Business School) for assisting us in the review of some of the papers included in the sample.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Manchester, UK

    A Paucar-Caceres

  2. Hull University Business School, The University of Hull, Hull, UK

    A Espinosa

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  1. A Paucar-Caceres
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  2. A Espinosa
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Correspondence to A Paucar-Caceres.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table A1.

Table a1 MS/OR articles reporting applications to EM/S (1989–2009)
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Paucar-Caceres, A., Espinosa, A. Management science methodologies in environmental management and sustainability: discourses and applications. J Oper Res Soc 62, 1601–1620 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2010.110

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