Overview: Behavioral operational research in practice

This chapter provides a review of practical applications of behavioral operational research as reported in academic journals and at three recent conferences. It is contended that all practical applications of OR could be defined as behavioral studies, as real-world uses involve people and therefore behavior will be influenced in some way. The review presented, however, is restricted to applications of BOR that address (i) the incorporation of behavioral factors in models, (ii) modeling of behavior or (iii) understanding how behavior is influenced by models. The historical background of BOR is traced, from the earliest indexed journal paper through to the most recent conference presentations at EURO 2015; the growth of the subject is described; and BOR in practice is shown to be a multi-disciplinary endeavor.