A Review of Behavioral Operations Management

The decision quality of managers is crucial for achieving efficient operations management. However, in real practice, the decision-making process of managers often involves irrational behavior, leading to decision biases. Decision biases are the fundamental problems that prevent businesses from achieving efficient management. The causes of decision biases are wide-ranging and complex, making it difficult to manage, thus facing significant research challenges. In recent years, academic community has conducted a series of studies on various scenarios in operations management, especially inventory and supply chain management. These studies have extensively identified different types of decision biases and repeatedly tested the robustness of these biases, explored the formation mechanisms of decision biases, and intervention methods. However, existing research perspectives are extensive and scattered, lacking systematic understandings and arrangement of decision biases. Therefore, this study aims to systematically discuss the problem of decision-maker behavioral biases in inventory and supply chain management, analyze their scientific connotations and formation mechanisms, and summarize some important progress. At the same time, future directions for research and practice are proposed, to provide in-depth insights into decision biases for both academic research and industry application, and achieve “understanding the factors behind decision biases and promote unbiased decision-making”.