ASP, The Art and Science of Practice: Elements of a theory of the practice of operations research: Practice as a business

In the previous two articles in this series, I looked at practice from the perspective of doing operations research (OR). Because OR practitioners have careers and often found businesses, we need to understand practice as a business. Operations research/management science (OR/MS) businesses face many of the same issues as other technology and consulting businesses. However, the product is intangible, creating marketing problems. The businesses operate in a complex ecology with different levels of competition and cooperation among OR and software firms, depending on their different areas of expertise. Social networks play an important role in the way individuals and companies market and develop new strands of practice.