Dr Martin Spring
B.Tech (Hons); D.M.S., Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Department
Management Science
Professional Role
Convener of the Supply Chain Management and Modelling Research Centre
External Roles
Heriot-Watt University: External Examiner for undergraduate programmes in operations management subject areas 2007-
ESRC CASE Studentship Panel Member 2003-2007
Associate Editor Journal of Supply Chain Management
Current Teaching
- MSc in E-Business and Innovation Management - E-Business Supply Chain Management
- MSCI 549 - Strategic Supply Chain Management
- MSCI 281 - Supply Chain Management
Research Interests
- Business-to-Business Services - Operations and Supply Aspects
- Modularity in Manufacturing and Services
- Business Models and Operations Strategy
- Power in Supply networks
- Research Methods in Operations and Supply Management
I would be particularly interested to supervise PhD students in the application of supply chain management ideas to services, and on modularity in services.
Current Research
Most of my research is part of or linked to my AIM Fellowship in Business Models for Business-to-Business Services. Themes include:
- Modularity in B2B services (with Luis Araujo) and as part of ModSeC (University of Oulu, Finland)
- Business Model Innovation (with Katy Mason)
- Service Definition in Third-Party Logistics (with Kostas Selviaridis)
- Service Supply Chains
Other areas:
Flexibility in supply networks (with Mark Stevenson)
Spatial aspects of inter-organisational relationships
Research Grants
ESRC/EPSRC AIM Fellowship in Services (2008-2010) on "Business Models for Business-to-Business Services" - click here for my AIM webpage
Profile
I joined the Department in September 2004, having previously worked in the Operations Management Group at UMIST (now MBS) and the Department of Management Science at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Before that, I worked in a number of large multi-national manufacturing firms, in production engineering and production management roles. My first degree was in Mechanical Engineering.
My early research was a product of my industrial background: a mechanical engineer's fixation with design, combined with a production manager's astonishment at what marketing people expected, resulted in a study of product customisation and the tensions between marketing and operations strategy. One insight from that work was a variation on the theme that not only do organisations design products, but products also design organisations.
A logical extension of this was into inter-organisational relationships: designs were evidently not given by "the market", but were co-determined in inter-organisational relationships. Hence I developed an interest in industrial networks and supply chain management but, again drawing on my own industrial experience, was sceptical of the talk of partnerships and trust as the answer to everything. More than ten years later, I am still sceptical of the emphasis on trust and the neglect of power to which some industrial network scholars subscribe. Power matters.
Most of my research, in one way or another, is concerned with how inter-organisational relationships shape and are shaped by the embodiments of products and services with which they are concerned. I am interested in bringing a combination of theoretical perspectives to bear on this issue, from management, sociology, economics and geography. Increasingly I focus on service-rich activities: the design activities in manufacturing supply networks, or the adoption and implementation of ERP systems through inter-organisational processes, for example.
Since joining the Department at Lancaster, I have been able to develop a long-standing collaborative relationship with my colleagues in industrial marketing (notably Luis Araujo) and to build alliances with new colleagues in the Management Science Department. My role as convener of the Supply Chain Management and Modelling Research Group provides a focus for this collaborative work, and the Centre provides a forum in which visitors and, especially, doctoral students, can share ideas, provide mutual support and maximise their research impact.
During my time at UMIST I was co-editor of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management. From 2004 -2008 I was a member of the ESRC CASE Studentships Panel.
Chapter (2)
Conference contribution (19)
Working paper (1)
Selected publications (19)
View all publications (45)
Publications
- Spring M and Mason K, 2011, 'Business models for complex performance: procuring aerospace engineering design services', in Procuring Complex Performance: Studies in Innovation in Product-Service Management, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 99-119, ISBN: 9780415800051
View details - Araujo L M and Spring M, 2011, 'Complex performance, process modularity and the spatial configuration of production', in Procuring Complex Performance: Studies in Innovation in Product-Service Management, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 78-96, ISBN: 9780415800051
View details - Spring M and Selviaridis K, 2010, 'The dynamics of business service exchanges: Insights from logistics outsourcing', Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, vol 16, no. 3, pp. 171-184.
View details - Araujo L M and Spring M, 2009, 'Products, service and services: re-thinking operations strategy', International Journal of Operations and Production Management, vol 29, no. 5, pp. 444-467.
View details - Stevenson Mark and Spring M, 2009, 'Supply chain flexibility: an inter-firm empirical study', International Journal of Operations and Production Management, vol 29, no. 9, pp. 946-971.
View details - Stevenson Mark and Spring M, 2007, 'Flexibility from a supply chain perspective: definition and review', International Journal of Operations and Production Management, vol 27, no. 7, pp. 685-713.
View details - Spring M and Selviaridis K, 2007, 'Third party logistics: a literature review and research agenda', International Journal of Logistics Management, vol 18, no. 1, pp. 125-150.
View details - Spring M, 2006, 'Learning-by-doing in transnational operations networks: insights from economic geography', The Learning Organization, vol 13, no. 6, pp. 560 - 568.
View details - Araujo L M and Spring M, 2005, 'Services, products and the institutional structure of production', 21st Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group Conference (Rotterdam) - 2005
View details - Spring M and Fusco J P, 2003, 'Flexibility versus robust networks: the case of the Brazilian automotive sector', Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems, vol 14, no. 1, pp. 26-35.
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