EGOS Symposium I: Has Management Studies Lost its Way?
Ideas for how journals can encourage more innovative and influential research
Thursday, July 7, 2011, 17:30–18:30
University of Gothenburg
School of Business, Economics and Law
Vasagatan 1, Room H-CG-salen
Presenters
Mats Alvesson, University of Lund, Sweden, University of Queensland, Australia
Jörgen Sandberg, University of Queensland, Australia
Discussants
Andre Spicer, University of Warwick, UK (Associate Editor of the Journal of Management Studies)
Andrew Brown, University of Warwick, UK (Associate Editor of Organization Studies)
Despite the huge increase in the number of management articles published during the three last decades, there is a serious shortage of high-impact research in management studies. We contend that a primary reason behind this paradoxical shortage is the near total dominance of incremental gap-spotting research in management. This domination is even more paradoxical as it is well known that gap-spotting rarely leads to influential theories. We identify three broad and interacting key drivers behind this double paradox: institutional conditions, professional norms, and researchers' identity constructions.
In the Symposium we discuss how specific changes in these drivers can reduce the shortage of influential management theories, with a particular focus on what journals can do to generate more interesting and influential research.