An Ivory Tower of Babel? The Impact of Size and Diversity of Teams on Research Performance in Business Schools

Happy Diamond Anniversary JMS! A Decade Analysis of the Journal of Management Studies

“…In the second set of analyses, we extracted all bibliometric information on authorship and citations for all articles published in JMS in the same period and examined econometrically the variables that were associated with performance (i.e., using citation counts as a proxy). We used binomial regression estimation since we were dealing with both count data and overdispersion (Krammer, 2009; Krammer and Dahlin, 2023). Following prior studies in this vein, we have included a large batch of controls to ensure the robustness of our results.…”

“…Given the continuous proliferation of business schools around the world (Hawawini, 2016) and the increasing emphasis on research performance (Krammer and Dahlin, 2023), particularly in terms of top publications (Aguinis et al, 2020) and interdisciplinarity (Ryan and Neumann, 2013), we would expect that scholarly contributions to JMS would originate from an increasingly diverse group of regions and countries, target an increasing range of issues/topics, and often cross disciplinary boundaries. Hence, in this context, we have several research aims:…”

“…Management studies as a field has a history nearly as long; however, some source ‘modern’ management scholarship to the work of Frederick Taylor and his ‘scientific’ approach to industrial management and productivity. The last decades have witnessed an impressive growth for management as a field both in terms of research (Colquitt and Zapata‐Phelan, 2007; Krammer and Dahlin, 2023) and education (Sandhu et al., 2019), leading to the development of management as a discipline. Against this background, the Journal of Management Studies ( JMS ), founded in 1963, has been an important outlet for management studies scholars for decades, sitting in a select company of Administrative Science Quarterly (1956) and Academy of Management Journal (1958) as the three most longevous journals in the field.…”

“…Notwithstanding the benefits of academic publishing, such strong focus on performance metrics across universities globally has exacerbated the pressure to publish as the main, and often sole, mandate of scholarly contribution. It is therefore not surprising to see an increase in authors from different parts of the world seeking to publish in top management journals, which in turn drives competition but also stimulates global collaboration (Krammer and Dahlin, 2023). However, many commentators have also criticized academia for its singular emphasis on the ‘publishing game’ (i.e., volume, journal rankings, and impact factors) and issued commensurate calls for research with greater practical and policy implications that benefit society more broadly (Wickert et al., 2021).…”

“…Given the continuous proliferation of business schools around the world (Hawawini, 2016) and the increasing emphasis on research performance (Krammer and Dahlin, 2023), particularly in terms of top publications (Aguinis et al., 2020) and inter‐disciplinarity (Ryan and Neumann, 2013), we would expect that scholarly contributions to JMS would originate from an increasingly diverse group of regions and countries, target an increasing range of issues/topics, and often cross disciplinary boundaries. Hence, in this context, we have several research aims: Analyse to what extent JMS has retained its reputation as a leading scholarly outlet for cutting‐edge research in management studies. Examine the types of articles published in the journal, including emerging topics, and the most frequent theories and types of methods employed. Analyse the extent to which articles published in the journal represent an increasingly diverse set of authors from geographic, demographic, and disciplinary viewpoints. Document the ‘success factors’ (in terms of subsequent citations) for published JMS articles in relation to diversity. Discuss some of the major ‘innovations’ developed by the journal to maintain and further improve its status vis‐à‐vis its peers. …”