Behavioral Mechanism Design for Operations Management
Guest Editors: Elena Katok and Christoph Loch

Mechanism Design is a field in economics that investigates ways to design institutions that are effective in achieving a particular goal, such as efficiency, profitability or innovativeness. Institutions can include contracts, market mechanisms used in procurement (auctions, negotiations, posted price, and others), as well as informal mechanisms based on trust, reputation, or social preferences.

Recent research in behavioral operations management, decision sciences, and economics provides numerous insights into how people actually behave when faced with operations management problems. Behavioral Mechanism Design moves beyond uncovering such behavioral deviations from economic rationality to also identifying managerial interventions that counteract or leverage these behavioral deviations. In other words, we seek papers that help define and test institutions that improve operational performance considering realistic human behavior.

For example, papers might examine institutions or mechanisms for:
· Allocating resources
· Procuring services and materials
· Improving worker or group performance
· Information sharing across an organization or supply chain
· Selecting suppliers and collaborating with them
· Improving information and innovation sharing among partners.

Applications include Humanitarian Logistics where there is a need for clear rules on allocating resources, while the volunteer workforce may be averse to static rules in times of crisis. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) initiatives, as well as Supply Contracts, require information sharing and trust, as well as collaboration among channel partners. Procurement Auctions used for purchasing goods and services may affect supplier relationships and quality.

A variety of methodologies are encouraged, including laboratory experiments, analytical modeling, and empirical and field based research. Papers that tackle practical problems of high potential will be given special consideration. Manuscripts should be of a high academic standard, and should adhere to the format, style and other established guidelines for regular POM submissions. Manuscripts will be processed as they are received and those that do not fit the theme of the issue will be returned promptly. Articles that fit the theme will be reviewed by the guest editors, senior editors, and referees.
Please submit your manuscript at the journal’s Manuscript Central site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/poms) to the guest editors (listed as department editors in Manuscript Central) and specify that the submission is for this special issue. The submission deadline is February 15, 2011.
Questions can be emailed to one of the guest editors: Elena Katok, Smeal College of Business, Penn State University, ekatok@psu.edu; and Christoph Loch, INSEAD, christoph.loch@insead.edu.