Technological turtles all the way down as fixes for sustainability: The case of satellite operations around earth

Join us in this Birmingham Business School, Department of Management Research Seminar Series event.

Abstract

The paper explores whether technological solutions can effectively address sustainability issues in the satellite industry, specifically concerning the rapid increase of satellites in low Earth orbit. Through interviews with managers from established firms and startups involved in satellite launch, operation, and maintenance, the study examines the industry’s presentation of technological fixes such as remanufacturing and satellite life extension. While significant optimism surrounds technological solutions for a high-tech sector, our findings reveal a problematic pattern of infinite regress, where each technological solution depends indefinitely on further technologies. Additionally, rapid innovation cycles, economic incentives, and nationalistic competition create practical barriers that limit the effective implementation of these sustainability solutions. Consequently, despite initial optimism, the study concludes with a pessimistic outlook regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of technological fixes for satellite sustainability and, more generally, other sectors.

Biography

Professor Sodhi joined Bayes (then Cass) Business School in 2002. He received his Ph.D. in management science from the UCLA Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994. He is an elected lifetime Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society and a Fellow of the OR Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. His research interests lie primarily in supply chain management, particularly supply chain risk and sustainability, although he also works in healthcare.

He has published in numerous academic and managerial journals, including MSOM, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and Interfaces. He has held various editorial roles, including Senior Editor and Department Editor at Production and Operations Management (POM). He has also been editor of the Annual Edelman Awards issue of Interfaces and editor-in-chief of INFORMS Online. He is among the top-cited authors in operations in the Stanford/Elsevier database and the top 1% of authors by download on SSRN.

After receiving his PhD from UCLA, he first taught operations management at the University of Michigan Ross Business School, where the Sloan Foundation funded his research on the trucking industry. After that, he worked primarily in management consulting. He was Vice President at a software company based in San Jose. Earlier, he worked as director of enterprise e-business strategy at Scient and, before that, as manager of the supply chain practice at Accenture. He has worked with clients in various industries, including consumer electronics, commodity and speciality chemicals, petroleum products distribution, hospitality industry procurement, and airlines.

Meet-the-editor

This seminar will be followed by a meet-the-editor session at 2-3pm, during which Prof Sodhi will share editorial experience in Production and Operations Management (POM), Interfaces, and INFORMS Online

Buffet lunch available from 12:30pm