Mathematical Management – Operations Research in the United States and Western Europe, 1945 – 1990

IF 7.6 0 MANAGEMENT

Management Revue Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.5771/0935-9915-2023-1-69

R. Vahrenkamp

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Abstract

The rise of Operations Research, which provides mathematical models for the management of commercial enterprises, in the political knowledge culture of Cold War Science is shown and then transferred to the institutionalization of Operations Research in Europe and in the Federal Republic of Germany. The predecessor organizations of the German Society for Operations Research are presented and the interaction of the annual conference of this society with the conferences on a European and worldwide level. It tells how numerous chairs for corporate research and operations research were founded at universities between 1960 and 1980. The connection between Operations Research and the macroeconomic field of econometrics in chairs, conferences and publications is explained and problematized. The great flood of publications on the subject of Operations Research between 1960 and 1980 is referred to, but the rise of the competing field of business informatics in the 1980s halted the success of Operations Research. Based on the historical study by Alexander Nützenadel, the difference between the field of econometrics, which is based on empirical data, and the field of operations research, which is more academically oriented, is worked out. The methodological approach of Operations Research is referred to as abstractification. An example for abstractification is the transport model of linear optimization, which simplifies (abstractifies) economic reality to such an extent that it can be transformed into manageable formulas. However, the transport model is unsuitable for applications in the real economy and thus serves only as a self-referential project for the academic sector. This contribution shows that Operations Research lacks the level of empirical implementation of mathematical models known from econometrics and the social sciences. How transport optimization was taken up in the political knowledge cultures of the Eastern bloc (1945 – 1990) and in the German Democratic Republic is dealt with in a section.

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数学管理-运筹学在美国和西欧，1945 - 1990

运筹学在冷战科学的政治知识文化中兴起，为商业企业的管理提供数学模型，然后在欧洲和德意志联邦共和国转移到运筹学的制度化。介绍了德国运筹学学会的前身组织，并介绍了该学会年会与欧洲和世界范围内会议的相互作用。它讲述了1960年至1980年间，有多少大学设立了企业研究和运筹学教授。运筹学和计量经济学的宏观经济领域在椅子，会议和出版物之间的联系被解释和问题。1960年至1980年期间，运筹学主题的大量出版物被提及，但20世纪80年代商业信息学竞争领域的兴起阻止了运筹学的成功。在Alexander n泽纳德尔(Alexander tzenadel)的历史研究的基础上，区分了以实证数据为基础的计量经济学领域与以学术为导向的运筹学领域的区别。运筹学的方法论方法被称为抽象。抽象的一个例子是线性优化的运输模型，它将经济现实简化(抽象)到可以转换为可管理的公式的程度。然而，运输模型不适合在实体经济中应用，因此只能作为学术界的自我参考项目。这一贡献表明运筹学缺乏计量经济学和社会科学中已知的数学模型的经验实施水平。运输优化是如何在东方集团(1945 - 1990)和德意志民主共和国的政治知识文化中进行的，在一个章节中处理。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Management Revue MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

1.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies is an interdisciplinary European journal that undergoes peer review. It publishes qualitative and quantitative work, along with purely theoretical papers, contributing to the study of management, organization, and industrial relations. The journal welcomes contributions from various disciplines, including business and public administration, organizational behavior, economics, sociology, and psychology. Regular features include reviews of books relevant to management and organization studies. Special issues provide a unique perspective on specific research fields. Organized by selected guest editors, each special issue includes at least two overview articles from leaders in the field, along with at least three new empirical papers and up to ten book reviews related to the topic. The journal aims to offer in-depth insights into selected research topics, presenting potentially controversial perspectives, new theoretical insights, valuable empirical analysis, and brief reviews of key publications. Its objective is to establish Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies as a top-quality symposium journal for the international academic community.