Letter to the Editor
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Letter to the Editor I would like to take issue with Stephen Ward over his
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'straight' case studies because 'their value to experienced operational researchers may be rather limit-
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implied condemnation in a recent editorial [1] of ed'.
case study with interest and then decide on its applicability and potential in my own particular situation. do not require a 'detailed I
description ... of the relationship between parties etc' which all too often can amount to little more
than padding.
As an example of my dislike, I would quote a paper [2] in the same issue of OR Insight describ-
ing the results of a questionnaire. The paper concluded with about 850 words (25% of the
paper) of pure and not very enlightened speculation; the only factual part of this section
was that the sample was too small for generality.
Lest I be considered totally destructive, the same issue of OR Insight contained two admirable case studies [3] [4] which met my criteria.
I cannot resist questioning the use of cognitive mapping by my friend Alberto Canen [5] to establish the blindingly obvious three groups (players)
and the relevant factors of 'cost, quality and
convenience'. I can only conclude that this was done to give his fellow (student) author practise in the use of the technique: Experienced OR practitioners would get as far as this on the back of an envelope. Is university OR falling too much in love with its own techniques to be truly relevant to the essentially practical nature of applied OR? H G Jones University of Strathclyde
References
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Ward S (1993) Categorising Case Studies, OR Insight, Vol 6, No 3, p2.
Edge C, and Klein J (1993), No Job Too Small?, OR Insight, Vo16, No3, pp 8-12.
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Campbell J and Canen A G (1993), Administrative Transportation, OR Insight, Vol 6, No 3, pp 26-32.
Writing as an OR worker of long experience and, dare I say it, of some success in industry, I read a
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Marples C and Robertson C (1993), Option Review with 1-IIVIEW, OR Insight, Vol 6, No 3, pp 13-18.
Baker B M (1993), Bags You Choose, OR Insight, Vol 6, No 3, pp 3-7.
Copyright
1993 Operational Research Society.
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