Research in Industrial Engineering and Management: An Explorative Survey among Seven European IEM Departments

Abstract

The foundation of IEM departments in Europe has been accompanied by the rise of a new, complex research area, characterized by the interconnection among disciplines and the application of real life cases. This survey, based on discussions carried out at a European IEM symposium on this topic and on short interviews of the participants, illustrates the kaleidoscopic nature of IEM research and of the history of a set of seven IEM departments.IEM departments have shared research areas with closely linked academic disciplines as management, engineering and natural sciences. However, the symposium participants reported common issues and difficulties in conducting and developing IEM research, relative to the acceptation and recognition of IEM by colleagues from these traditional academic disciplines.Theanalysis of the survey data leaded to an insight in the possible causes of this phenomenon.IEM research represents a novel research approach with respect to that of classical academic disciplines, as far as its nature, methodology, and scope are concerned. This might cause a clear difficulty in aligning IEM research to the traditional academic research lines of the institutions where IEM is embedded.

Article history: Received (18 April 2012); Revised (27 May 2012); Accepted (11 June 2012)