Why Language Matters in Management: Regional Contributions to a Global Conversation

Publishing in top-level academic journals is both a personal achievement and a crucial requirement in every scholar's career, albeit the institutional demands vary markedly among countries and institutions. In this study, we scrutinise how the effect of a set of factors - expenditure on education, R'D, English language proficiency and math competency - may influence the likelihood of publishing in top-ranked management journals. We have analysed the entire records of published articles in four top management journals over the past six years (2009-2014). On a sample of 1,322 articles, the results revealed that top level publishing is positively influenced by the national expenditure on R&D and English proficiency. The quantitative competency proved to have no effect on the ability to publish in top management journals, which is surprising given the current emphasis on quantitative studies. The results are discussed to provide scholars some guidelines to improve their publications in top journals.

Publishing in top-level academic journals is both a personal achievement and a crucial requirement in every scholar's career, albeit the institutional demands vary markedly among countries and institutions.In this study, we scrutinise how the effect of a set of factors -expenditure on education, R&D, English language proficiency and math competency -may influence the likelihood of publishing in top-ranked management journals.We have analysed the entire records of published articles in four top management journals over the past six years (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014).On a sample of 1,322 articles, the results revealed that top level publishing is positively influenced by the national expenditure on R&D and English proficiency.The quantitative competency proved to have no effect on the ability to publish in top management journals, which is surprising given the current emphasis on quantitative studies.The results are discussed to provide scholars some guidelines to improve their publications in top journals.

Purpose – According to Merchant and Van der Stede (2017), top managers use management controls to increase the likelihood that employees will act in the best interests of the organization. Nowadays, increasing numbers of companies expect their employees to perform well simultaneously on exploitation and exploration. This is referred to as individual ambidexterity (e.g., Mom et al., 2019). Due to the increasing importance of the topic, the main purpose of the present article is to summarize findings from top tier management journals and to detect findings with implications for result, action, and personnel/cultural controls. Methodology – We apply a structured approach to detect the most relevant studies for our examination and search for ambidexterity and ambidextrous in title, abstract, and keywords. The final sample consists of 45 articles published in top tier management journals, including all subfields. Findings – In the first step, we provide an overview of both methods and theories used to study individual ambidexterity. In a second step, we summarize and analyze the insights on how organizations can use results, action, and personnel/cultural controls to enable individuals to achieve higher ambidextrous performance. In the final step, we highlight directions for future research with the hope of motivating further research from scholars in the management accounting field to address this relevant topic. Originality – Given the increasing importance of ambidexterity, the present study introduces the relevant concepts and definitions and translates existing research into the language of management control. We therefore facilitate future research on this highly relevant topic within the management accounting field.

According to Merchant and Van der Stede (Management control systems: performance measurement, evaluation and incentives, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, 2012), top managers use management controls in order to increase the likelihood that employees act in the best interest of the organization. Nowadays, more and more companies expect their employees to perform well on exploitation and exploration at the same time. This is referred to as individual ambidexterity (e.g., Mom et al. in J Manag 45:3009–3034, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318776775 ). Due to the increasing importance of the topic, the main purpose of the present article is to review findings from top tier management journals and to summarize implications for result, action, and personnel/cultural controls. We apply a structured approach to detect the most relevant studies for our examination and search for ambidexterity and ambidextrous in title, abstract, and keywords. The final sample consists of 56 articles published in top tier management journals including all subfields. In the first step, we provide an overview of both methods and theories used to study individual ambidexterity. In a second step, we summarize and analyze the insights on how organizations can use results, action, and personnel/cultural controls to enable individuals to achieve higher ambidextrous performance. In the final step, we highlight directions for future research and hope to motivate more research from scholars of the management accounting field to address this topic of relevance.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify and review empirical strategic management articles that pertain to supply chain management (SCM) and are published in top management journals.Design/methodology/approach– The researchers review all articles published in five top management journals, namely,Academy of Management Journal,Administrative Science Quarterly,Management Science,Organization Science, andStrategic Management Journal, from 2004 to 2013, to identify empirical articles relevant to SCM. The researchers subsequently categorize the literature in thematic categories and subcategories, and they identify the theories informing the research and the methodologies applied.Findings– The most prevalent finding of this literature review is that abundant research pertaining to SCM is being published in top management journals. This demonstrates that SCM is a broad phenomenon studied by scholars across disciplines; thus, a broader literature perspective can be beneficial to those working in this area. Moreover, the reviewed studies are informed by theories that extend beyond the “traditionally used” resource-based view and transaction cost economics. Finally, the majority of the research suggests an inter-organizational scope.Originality/value– This study familiarizes logistics/SCM scholars with SCM-related research conducted in the strategic management field, informing them about the types of phenomena studied by strategic management scholars, the theoretical lenses and literature used to enhance understanding of these phenomena, and the empirical methodologies applied to examine those. Importantly, through this familiarization, logistics/SCM scholars can learn from but also contribute to the strategic management literature that pertains to SCM.

“We are experts on elite entrepreneurs”: A call to integrate marginalized populations into entrepreneurship research

This article discusses our analysis of over 2,000 articles published within 20 top business and management journals. The article empirically demonstrates how little attention is being paid by the work published within these journals to contemporary political issues across the globe. We also demonstrate the extent to which the same is true of `critical' journals such as Organization . To this end we argue that mass scholarly ranking mechanisms, such as the British Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), create a general state of myopia on the part of business and management scholars towards a variety of political issues, even making a virtue out of ignorance in this regard. We suggest that this is not simply a problem for critical management studies and proceed to raise the question of what the responsibility of business and management academia actually is.

Focus on Authors

Inter-organisational boundary spanning indicates various communication and coordination activities performed by individuals between organisations which integrate activities across multiple cultural, institutional and organisational contexts. Yet the theoretical roots and the conceptual dimensions of boundary-spanning research are still ambiguous. We conducted a systematic literature review to look back on the evolution of inter-organisational boundary-spanning research and explore its conceptual dimensions. Our analysis is based on 32 papers published between 1977 and 2017 in the top ten management journals and reveals a growing trend of publishing inter-organisational boundary-spanning research in top management journals. For theoretical development, the researchers in this particular field of study need to refine the definition of boundary spanning to further reduce the level of conceptual ambiguity. This in turn will help gauge the scope of boundary-spanning membership and differentiation of their roles and responsibilities. We anticipate some changes and further development of research methods to reflect such refinement of the relevant constructs.

The development of green skills across firms in the institutional context of Thailand

The globalization of business and the related increase in amount and relevance of international research suggest the need to map the international management field. Building on reviews by Werner (2002) and Werner and Brouthers (2002), this study provides a comprehensive picture of the field by examining the amount and type of international management research in 20 top management journals from 2002 to 2006. An assessment of the pervasiveness of international management topics is also offered through a detailed analysis of international management publication patterns of 10 top management journals.

PurposeAlthough supply chain scholars have acknowledged the fundamental disruptive changes experienced by today’s supply chains and the ensuing novelty of the research problems worthy of investigation, they have primarily relied on a limited number of theories to help explain the phenomena of interest. The purpose of this paper is to use a systematic literature review to address this gap and propose additional theories that supply chain researchers can use to help address novel supply chain phenomena, such as those caused by technological disruptions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a systematic literature review to examine the studies published over the last 10 years in six of the top supply chain management journals (411 articles) and six of the top marketing and management journals (1,214 articles).FindingsFirst, the findings show that 15 theories have been relied upon by over 95 per cent of the studies within supply chain management that use formal theories. Second, the authors identify the most frequently used theories within marketing and management (217 theories). Third, as space limitations make it impossible to offer a rich description of each of the 217 theories, the authors identify 30 theories that they considered to be the most salient to supply chain research and suggest areas where supply chain scholars can apply these theoretical lenses.Originality/valueThe research effort allowed the authors to map the current use of theories within the field to gain a better understanding of what other theories could augment the body of theories used within supply chain management. Thus, the current study is a “one stop shop” that supply chain scholars can consult when in a quandary about what theoretical lens to utilize.

The use of qualitative case studies in top business and management journals: A quantitative analysis of recent patterns

Organizational autonomy is a fundamental organizational design choice that holds a central position in management theories and practice. To date, this construct has suffered from definitional vagueness and conceptual fragmentation in its academic study across different management subfields. Drawing from a review of 87 articles appearing in top academic management journals, we had four objectives. We sought to establish clarity and consensus on the construct of organizational autonomy, to review the fragmented fields of studies on its determinants and outcomes, to identify unresolved or neglected debates, and to provide an organizing template for guiding future research. In a first section, we discuss the development of the organizational autonomy construct and review its diverse definitions, primary determinants, and outcomes. In a second section, we provide a set of recommendations spanning methodological directions and conceptual opportunities on the overlooked dynamics of organizational autonomy. Overall, our review provides a unified framework and direction for enhancing the understanding of one of the management field’s fundamental concepts.

This case study examines how top academic managers make sense of entrepreneurship at the university. Based on semiotic analysis, the findings outline three management narratives. The entrepreneurial narrative emphasizes management by experience, the humanistic narrative focuses on management by networks and the development narrative highlights management by vision. Unpacking the dynamics of each narrative, our analysis sheds light on the conflicted role of academic managers at a crossroads between traditional academia and entrepreneurial management. Research Questions/Objective How top academic managers make sense of entrepreneurship at the university through narratives? Links to Theory The conceptual and theoretical framework of this case study is built based on academic entrepreneurship and narrative theory. Phenomenon Studied Academic entrepreneurship Case Context Academic top managers of a Finnish multidisciplinary university Findings The findings outline how top academic managers make sense of academic entrepreneurship through three management narratives. The entrepreneurial narrative centres around the idea of management by experience and emphasizes the manager’s own entrepreneurial experiences. The humanistic narrative centres around the idea of management by networks highlighting how the managers can guide and assist others who act as entrepreneurs. Finally, the development narrative centres around management by vision and focuses on the overall picture of the entrepreneurial university. Discussions The case study implies that academic entrepreneurship (AE) is understood and conceptualized by the managers in multifaceted and sometimes contradictory ways. Representing the frontline of academic management and changes in Finnish universities, the top academic managers are confronted with tensions between the ideals of traditional academia and the contemporary entrepreneurial developments in universities. This study contributes to the field of academic management by highlighting the much-needed experience-based perspective of top academic managers in relation to AE.