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Celebrating the past, looking to the future
Journal of World Business 50 (2015) 1–2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of World Business journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jwb
From the Editor
Celebrating the past, looking to the future
The Journal of World Business (JWB) has a long and illustrious history. Originally issued as the Columbia Journal of World Business, first published in 1965, JWB celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015. Throughout the past half-century, JWB has distinguished itself as a preeminent outlet for cutting-edge research at the forefront of international business (IB) scholarship and practice. Following in the footsteps of so many successful JWB leaders, I am humbled to assume the position of Editor-in-Chief of the journal, effective January 1, 2015. In this editorial, I reflect back on the contributions of the journal and on the vision and leadership of its most recent editors. I also acknowledge and express appreciation to those who have most recently served the journal and I introduce a number of individuals who will help guide it going forward. Finally, I outline some new initiatives that are designed to ensure JWB’s place as a leading journal for years to come. To say that I will be standing on the shoulders of giants is an understatement. John Slocum and Fred Luthans are legends in the IB and broader management studies fields for their seminal research and professional leadership. Both John and Fred have served as Presidents of the Academy of Management (AOM), were elected fellows of that same organization, and are members of AOM’s Hall of Fame for their many publications in AOM journals. Both have served as editor or associate editor of numerous journals, and John has served as Editor-in-Chief of both the Academy of Management Journal and Organization Sciences. Together they have led JWB for nearly two decades, a period in which the journal has flourished, receiving higher recognition and visibility as reflected in its ranking as one of the top business management journals globally. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to John and Fred for laying such a strong foundation for the journal and for providing me expert guidance and counsel as I take on the challenge of maintaining the highest of standards. I would also like to thank Jan Olavarri, who has been serving as managing editor of the journal. With the transition to a new Editor-in-Chief, several of our excellent senior editors have also chosen to step down. I would like to personally thank Wayne Cascio, Pervez Ghauri, Peter Liesch, Rick Steers, and Dean Tjosvold for their exemplary service as JWB senior editors. Given this transition, I would also like to introduce and welcome several of our new senior editors: Bjo¨rn Ambos (Strategy, Innovation, and Multinational Organization), Siah Hwee Ang (Strategy, Institutions and Research Design), David Collings (Human Resource and Talent Management), Ajai Gaur (Strategy, Emerging Markets and Governance), Eugene Hahn (Methods, Offshoring and Global Production), Kamel Mellahi (Nonmarket Strategy and the Business Environment), Christian Schwens (Entrepreneurship, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2014.10.011 1090-9516/ß 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Technology and Internationalization), and Lena Zander (Culture, Leadership and Teams). These individuals join our returning senior editors David Ahlstrom (Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Emerging Markets), John Cullen (Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship), Wenzhan Jane Lu (Strategy, Internationalization and Emerging Market MNEs), and Mike W. Peng (Strategy and Emerging Markets). You’ll observe that we have moved away from geographic designations for our SEs. We have found the fact that some SE titles included a geographic designation, while others did not, to be sometimes confounding. This in no way signals a move away from our commitment to be seen as a truly global journal with a strong presence in all major world regions. Indeed, our editors are fairly evenly distributed among the three ‘‘Triad’’ regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. As stated below, we are also eager to further expand our presence and author representation to Africa and Latin America, and we hope that some of our efforts – such as the special issues below – will help to do that. You will also see there is some overlap between and among the expertise areas of our SEs; this is deliberate and by design so that we have editors who have versatility as well as specialization. The addition of two Senior Editors with particular expertise in research design and methods (Gene Hahn and Siah Hwee Ang) will help to assist and support me and the senior editors in assessing and evaluating the quality and rigor of the methodological techniques employed in submitted papers. They will also handle manuscripts in their own areas of expertise. In addition to serving as Senior Editors with their own areas of responsibility, David Collings and Kamel Mellahi have agreed to serve as Senior Consulting Editors, positions in which they will assist me with initial screening of manuscripts and also provide me with guidance – along with the other senior editors and our editorial review board – on strategic and editorial issues facing the journal. We expect to add one or two additional senior editors in the coming months. We are also fortunate that Kim Cahill has agreed to serve as managing editor of the journal. Welcome and thanks to new and returning members of our editorial team. Our editorial board is constantly being refreshed and updated, with many new faces and perspectives. For those of you reading and contributing to JWB, we hope that you are also reviewing for the journal. For those of you who are regular reviewers and would like to join the editorial board, please contact me with an expression of interest. Your nomination will be reviewed by the editorial team to ensure topical and geographic fit with the journal. Given the high number of submissions JWB receives, and the reciprocal obligations that accompany those submissions, we also expect authors to be available to review for the journal.
2
From the Editor / Journal of World Business 50 (2015) 1–2
We are moving forward with several new initiatives. Most importantly, beginning September, 2014, all new papers were submitted to the EES on-line system (http://ees.elsevier.com/jwb/ ). This development transitions JWB to the standard for most journals and will facilitate submissions, accelerate manuscript turnaround, and make for a smooth and efficient operation. With this move, we will also be expanding from 4 to 6 issues per year, beginning with the first issue of 2016. We have introduced two new article types: ‘Perspectives’ and ‘Reviews’. Perspectives papers are manuscripts that provide a broad but focused appraisal of an IB topic, theory, or phenomenon. While rigorous and relevant, they offer an alternative outlet that may not include the typical theory-testing format of traditional research articles. Reviews are comprehensive appraisals of a literature stream within IB that will include an assessment of the important contributions of this literature and an analysis of research gaps and opportunities for future contributions. Although you are welcome to submit these article types through the on-line system, should you have ideas for a Perspectives or Review article, I would recommend you contact the relevant Senior Editor to discuss it first. In addition, we will be including ‘‘From the Editors’’ columns periodically. The first of these will appear in the next issues and will be authored by David Ahlstrom, who will offer his views on ‘‘How to Write an Empirical Article for JWB’’. In conjunction with these developments, we have refined our Aims and Scope, which can be seen on our website. They reflect our strong history but also outline our direction for the future. JWB has always been viewed as a receptive outlet for all IB-related subjects, but especially those in the areas of Organizational Behavior, Human Resources, Talent Management, Culture, Leadership, and Strategy. We will continue to encourage submissions in these areas. At the same time, we would like to see more submissions in emerging areas, such as research at the intersection of strategy, innovation and technology, and in the areas of corporate responsibility and sustainability. We also strongly welcome submissions from emerging and underrepresented regions such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America, provided those submissions meet our expectations in terms of overall fit and potential contribution. You will also note in our aims and scope statement that we remain committed to publishing research that has some tangible
relevance for real world challenges and problems and that can inform managerial practice, public policy, and the broader role of business and society. This commitment to phenomenon-based (as opposed to pure theory based) research sets us apart from some other journals. Indeed, the topic of phenomenon-based research will likely be a subject for a future ‘‘From the Editors’’ column. At the same time, we of course require that submissions have strong conceptual and theoretical motivation and a sound methodological approach, but that these choices about theory and method are based on the problem at hand, not the other way around. Finally, we have a number of special issues in process. Most significantly, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the journal issue, we have commissioned contributions from leading IB scholars for a special issue marking this historic event. Many of the most distinguished thought-leaders from the past and present will be contributing to this issue, which will be published as issue #1 of 2016. Two other special issues – one on business groups in emerging markets and another on multinational firms from Latin American – ‘multilatinas’ – have been announced and the calls also appear in this issue. Both of these special issues provide opportunities for cutting-edge contributions on important emerging areas. Moving forward, we will institute a more formal process for consideration of special issues, and this process is now outlined on our journal website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-world-business/. For those of you considering submitting to the journal, we strongly encourage you to review recent issues and examples of articles published in JWB. The JWB website contains links to the most downloaded and cited articles published in the journal, many of which include rigorous empirical, conceptual, and review papers. While we have not yet officially published ‘‘perspectives’’ articles of the kind referenced above, the 50th anniversary issue, to be published as the first issue of 2016, will include many articles that take that format. In closing, I would like to thank all of those who have supported JWB over the past years and those who are joining me to continue the next chapter.
Jonathan P. Doh Editor-in-Chief Villanova University, United States
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of World Business journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jwb
From the Editor
Celebrating the past, looking to the future
The Journal of World Business (JWB) has a long and illustrious history. Originally issued as the Columbia Journal of World Business, first published in 1965, JWB celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015. Throughout the past half-century, JWB has distinguished itself as a preeminent outlet for cutting-edge research at the forefront of international business (IB) scholarship and practice. Following in the footsteps of so many successful JWB leaders, I am humbled to assume the position of Editor-in-Chief of the journal, effective January 1, 2015. In this editorial, I reflect back on the contributions of the journal and on the vision and leadership of its most recent editors. I also acknowledge and express appreciation to those who have most recently served the journal and I introduce a number of individuals who will help guide it going forward. Finally, I outline some new initiatives that are designed to ensure JWB’s place as a leading journal for years to come. To say that I will be standing on the shoulders of giants is an understatement. John Slocum and Fred Luthans are legends in the IB and broader management studies fields for their seminal research and professional leadership. Both John and Fred have served as Presidents of the Academy of Management (AOM), were elected fellows of that same organization, and are members of AOM’s Hall of Fame for their many publications in AOM journals. Both have served as editor or associate editor of numerous journals, and John has served as Editor-in-Chief of both the Academy of Management Journal and Organization Sciences. Together they have led JWB for nearly two decades, a period in which the journal has flourished, receiving higher recognition and visibility as reflected in its ranking as one of the top business management journals globally. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to John and Fred for laying such a strong foundation for the journal and for providing me expert guidance and counsel as I take on the challenge of maintaining the highest of standards. I would also like to thank Jan Olavarri, who has been serving as managing editor of the journal. With the transition to a new Editor-in-Chief, several of our excellent senior editors have also chosen to step down. I would like to personally thank Wayne Cascio, Pervez Ghauri, Peter Liesch, Rick Steers, and Dean Tjosvold for their exemplary service as JWB senior editors. Given this transition, I would also like to introduce and welcome several of our new senior editors: Bjo¨rn Ambos (Strategy, Innovation, and Multinational Organization), Siah Hwee Ang (Strategy, Institutions and Research Design), David Collings (Human Resource and Talent Management), Ajai Gaur (Strategy, Emerging Markets and Governance), Eugene Hahn (Methods, Offshoring and Global Production), Kamel Mellahi (Nonmarket Strategy and the Business Environment), Christian Schwens (Entrepreneurship, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2014.10.011 1090-9516/ß 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Technology and Internationalization), and Lena Zander (Culture, Leadership and Teams). These individuals join our returning senior editors David Ahlstrom (Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Emerging Markets), John Cullen (Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship), Wenzhan Jane Lu (Strategy, Internationalization and Emerging Market MNEs), and Mike W. Peng (Strategy and Emerging Markets). You’ll observe that we have moved away from geographic designations for our SEs. We have found the fact that some SE titles included a geographic designation, while others did not, to be sometimes confounding. This in no way signals a move away from our commitment to be seen as a truly global journal with a strong presence in all major world regions. Indeed, our editors are fairly evenly distributed among the three ‘‘Triad’’ regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. As stated below, we are also eager to further expand our presence and author representation to Africa and Latin America, and we hope that some of our efforts – such as the special issues below – will help to do that. You will also see there is some overlap between and among the expertise areas of our SEs; this is deliberate and by design so that we have editors who have versatility as well as specialization. The addition of two Senior Editors with particular expertise in research design and methods (Gene Hahn and Siah Hwee Ang) will help to assist and support me and the senior editors in assessing and evaluating the quality and rigor of the methodological techniques employed in submitted papers. They will also handle manuscripts in their own areas of expertise. In addition to serving as Senior Editors with their own areas of responsibility, David Collings and Kamel Mellahi have agreed to serve as Senior Consulting Editors, positions in which they will assist me with initial screening of manuscripts and also provide me with guidance – along with the other senior editors and our editorial review board – on strategic and editorial issues facing the journal. We expect to add one or two additional senior editors in the coming months. We are also fortunate that Kim Cahill has agreed to serve as managing editor of the journal. Welcome and thanks to new and returning members of our editorial team. Our editorial board is constantly being refreshed and updated, with many new faces and perspectives. For those of you reading and contributing to JWB, we hope that you are also reviewing for the journal. For those of you who are regular reviewers and would like to join the editorial board, please contact me with an expression of interest. Your nomination will be reviewed by the editorial team to ensure topical and geographic fit with the journal. Given the high number of submissions JWB receives, and the reciprocal obligations that accompany those submissions, we also expect authors to be available to review for the journal.
2
From the Editor / Journal of World Business 50 (2015) 1–2
We are moving forward with several new initiatives. Most importantly, beginning September, 2014, all new papers were submitted to the EES on-line system (http://ees.elsevier.com/jwb/ ). This development transitions JWB to the standard for most journals and will facilitate submissions, accelerate manuscript turnaround, and make for a smooth and efficient operation. With this move, we will also be expanding from 4 to 6 issues per year, beginning with the first issue of 2016. We have introduced two new article types: ‘Perspectives’ and ‘Reviews’. Perspectives papers are manuscripts that provide a broad but focused appraisal of an IB topic, theory, or phenomenon. While rigorous and relevant, they offer an alternative outlet that may not include the typical theory-testing format of traditional research articles. Reviews are comprehensive appraisals of a literature stream within IB that will include an assessment of the important contributions of this literature and an analysis of research gaps and opportunities for future contributions. Although you are welcome to submit these article types through the on-line system, should you have ideas for a Perspectives or Review article, I would recommend you contact the relevant Senior Editor to discuss it first. In addition, we will be including ‘‘From the Editors’’ columns periodically. The first of these will appear in the next issues and will be authored by David Ahlstrom, who will offer his views on ‘‘How to Write an Empirical Article for JWB’’. In conjunction with these developments, we have refined our Aims and Scope, which can be seen on our website. They reflect our strong history but also outline our direction for the future. JWB has always been viewed as a receptive outlet for all IB-related subjects, but especially those in the areas of Organizational Behavior, Human Resources, Talent Management, Culture, Leadership, and Strategy. We will continue to encourage submissions in these areas. At the same time, we would like to see more submissions in emerging areas, such as research at the intersection of strategy, innovation and technology, and in the areas of corporate responsibility and sustainability. We also strongly welcome submissions from emerging and underrepresented regions such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America, provided those submissions meet our expectations in terms of overall fit and potential contribution. You will also note in our aims and scope statement that we remain committed to publishing research that has some tangible
relevance for real world challenges and problems and that can inform managerial practice, public policy, and the broader role of business and society. This commitment to phenomenon-based (as opposed to pure theory based) research sets us apart from some other journals. Indeed, the topic of phenomenon-based research will likely be a subject for a future ‘‘From the Editors’’ column. At the same time, we of course require that submissions have strong conceptual and theoretical motivation and a sound methodological approach, but that these choices about theory and method are based on the problem at hand, not the other way around. Finally, we have a number of special issues in process. Most significantly, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the journal issue, we have commissioned contributions from leading IB scholars for a special issue marking this historic event. Many of the most distinguished thought-leaders from the past and present will be contributing to this issue, which will be published as issue #1 of 2016. Two other special issues – one on business groups in emerging markets and another on multinational firms from Latin American – ‘multilatinas’ – have been announced and the calls also appear in this issue. Both of these special issues provide opportunities for cutting-edge contributions on important emerging areas. Moving forward, we will institute a more formal process for consideration of special issues, and this process is now outlined on our journal website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-world-business/. For those of you considering submitting to the journal, we strongly encourage you to review recent issues and examples of articles published in JWB. The JWB website contains links to the most downloaded and cited articles published in the journal, many of which include rigorous empirical, conceptual, and review papers. While we have not yet officially published ‘‘perspectives’’ articles of the kind referenced above, the 50th anniversary issue, to be published as the first issue of 2016, will include many articles that take that format. In closing, I would like to thank all of those who have supported JWB over the past years and those who are joining me to continue the next chapter.
Jonathan P. Doh Editor-in-Chief Villanova University, United States