Modelling and simulation

Quantitative modelling has been the basis of most of the initial research in operations, labelled as operational research in Europe, and was the basis of initial management consulting and operations research in the US. Initially, quantitative modelling in operational research was orientated very much towards solving real-life problems in OM rather than towards developing scientific knowledge. Later however, especially in the US, a strong academic research line in operations research emerged in the 1960s, working on more idealized problems and thus building scientific knowledge in OM. During that same period, much of this research lost its empirical foundations, and research methods have been primarily developed for these more or less theoretical research lines, leaving the more empirically orientated research lines for more than 30 years in the blue with regard to research methodology.