Introduction to the Special Issue on Research at the Interface of Finance, Operations, and Risk Management (iFORM): Recent Contributions and Future Directions

Interface of finance, operations, and risk management (iFORM) is a relatively new research area dealing with timely, complex, and boundary-spanning issues in a variety of settings from start-ups to global enterprises. iFORM research addresses ways to better integrate physical, financial, and informational flows by combining the operational choices of the firm with its financial decisions, and merging information flows between the firm and its customers and suppliers with informational flows between the firm and its investors. We report on the main research themes of the recent iFORM research, based on, and going beyond, papers that appeared in the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management iFORM special issue. We highlight the main emerging contributions in the area. Among the most frequently addressed issues in current research include the following: supply chain finance, such as trade credit and buyer-intermediated finance and their effects on supply chain performance; agency problems, such as risk shifting and managerial short-termism and their influence on operational decisions; contracting between the firm and its investors and how it alters contracting with supply chain partners; and supply risk management in the form of dealing with commodity price fluctuations and supplier performance issues. We suggest four promising directions of future iFORM research: supply chain finance, integrated risk management, start-up and entrepreneurial financing, and asset pricing with supply chains.