Using Experiments in Supply Chain Management Research

Recently, the use of laboratory experiments has attracted attention in SCM research. The Journal of Supply Chain Management dedicated a discussion forum to that topic, which is introduced with an essay by Eckerd and Bendoly. In this forum, Bachrach and Bendoly “touch on some of the basic tenets of rigorous behavioral experimentation” and “promote such rigor in future SCM behavioral studies”. The commentary by Rungtusanatham et al. deals with scenario-based role-playing experiments and vignette design. The self-explanatory title of the article by Siemsen is The usefulness of behavioral laboratory experiments in supply chain management research. Finally, Stevens discusses questions to consider when selecting student samples. Similarly, Thomas has discussed this topic in his recent article When student samples make sense in logistics research, published in the Journal of Business Logistics. To sum up, experiments might become increasingly important as behavioral research plays a growing role in our field.