Abstract

In this work we define the characteristics of the interface of finance, operations, and risk management (iFORM) research and provide examples of iFORM research questions. We illustrate why this is an interesting area and discuss where the two disciplines overlap in a meaningful way. Our goal is to lower the entry cost for new researchers by providing primers on (1) key finance results and papers that OM researchers endeavoring to enter into this field must know; (2) key OM results and papers that finance researchers endeavoring to enter into this field must know. Furthermore, we offer our perspective on resources to help readers to accelerate their iFORM research and on how to write, publish, and referee iFORM papers.

The Interface of Finance, Operations, and Risk Management

This monograph, as entitled, defines and describes the research field at the interface of Finance, Operations, and Risk Management (iFORM), provides examples where operations and finance overlap in meaningful ways, outlines promising research directions, and reduces the entry cost for anyone who would like to explore this new and exciting research field. The intended audience for this article includes both PhD students in operations management (OM), finance, and economics, who are looking for dissertation topics, and experienced researchers looking for novel applications of their expertise.

The following outlines the rest of this article. Chapter 2 compares perspectives of finance and operations on the same topic: the firm. This motivates the key questions in finance, which is presented in the finance primer in chapter 3 and key questions in OM, which is presented in the OM primer in chapter 4. Having discussed key ideas from these disciplines separately, chapter 5 examines how OM and finance intersect in meaningful ways and suggest several promising research directions. Chapter 6 presents a “dos and don'ts" list for publishing and reviewing iFORM papers.