Not Even Trying to Change the World: Why Do Elite Management Journals Ignore the Major Problems Facing Humanity?

Harley, Bill; Fleming, Peter

doi:10.1177/0021886321997189

Cited by 52 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Developing countries are particularly affected by grand challenges such as hunger, poverty, and violence (Jamali et al., 2021). Even though decades of research on Corporate Social Responsibility and organizational sustainability have brought to light several social and environmental issues (George et al., 2016), a recent review conducted by Harley and Fleming (2021) shows that only 2.8% of the articles published in top‐tier management journals directly addressed the grand challenges. From this body of research, an even smaller fraction examines the context of developing countries (Jamali et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategy implementation for the 2030 agenda: Insights from Brazilian companies

Caldana

Pacheco

Alves

et al. 2021

Business Ethics Env & Resp

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While firms' engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility has been associated with positive performance impacts, little is known about the incorporation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda into business practices. Precisely, although the literature suggests that firms are pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are limited insights on their strategy to implement them in the context of developing countries. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive large‐scale investigation of 2030 Agenda adoption by Brazilian companies. Accordingly, the analysis of our multicase study reveals (1) variations on the business opportunities brought by the SDGs depending on the firm position in the value chain, (2) which SDGs and target stakeholders are addressed through corporate policies and practices, (3) the different ways firms embrace the SDGs to pursue ambidexterity. Our findings clarify how firms in the developing countries interpret the institutional pressures and assemble their internal resources to respond to the SDGs challenges. Boundary conditions and policy implications are further discussed.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategy implementation for the 2030 agenda: Insights from Brazilian companies

Caldana

Pacheco

Alves

et al. 2021

Business Ethics Env & Resp

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…medical and natural sciences), admired and emulated by many exponents of MOS, open processes of peer review have been introduced and retained because they have been judged beneficial. The opacity of peer review is by no means the sole source of malaise currently affecting our field (Harley and Fleming, 2021), but greater transparency of manuscript evaluation processes can facilitate its illumination, and so enable relevant remedial action. Has the time now come to remove the blinkers that maintain our largely unexamined faith in blinding?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…raising the impact factor of the journal; facilitating or frustrating the career progression of prospective contributors) to comply with established norms (e.g. deference to established patterns of publication; see Harley and Fleming, 2021). The job of editors is particularly demanding when such 'challenges' are imperfectly aligned with 'crucial' elements of the editorial process.…”

Section: Power and Ethics In Knowledge Warrantymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical essay: Blinding faith – Paradoxes and pathologies of opacity in peer review

Willmott

2021

Human Relations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The standing and progress of science depends upon confidence in the evaluation of knowledge claims. This essay affirms the value of peer review as a ‘gold standard’ but argues that its efficacy for scientific progress is, on balance, diminished by blinding. It reflects critically upon the anomaly between an ethos of openness that is widely held to define scientific work, and the opacity institutionalized in reviewing and editorial processes, with specific reference to the field of management and organization studies. The anomaly is attributed to the operation of asymmetrical relations of power in the establishment and reproduction of evaluation processes. The proposed means of mitigating the anomaly, and thereby improving manuscript evaluation, is movement in the direction of more open peer review.

show abstract

“…Impactful and peer-reviewed published research may be difficult to conduct because it is problem-driven but must also advance theory (Wickert et al, 2020) or may be subject to perceived methodological biases (Langley and Klag, 2019). Furthermore, there are few existing case studies published in the peer-review process and management journals that explicitly demonstrate how rigorous management research can be combined with impact (Harley and Fleming, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Call for papers: Special issue of Strategic Organization: Impact Driven Strategy Research for Grand Challenges

2022

Strategic Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The urgency of grand challenges is clear. In the past twelve months, we have witnessed several interconnected global crises wreak havoc on communities around the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic is still looming despite national efforts to vaccinate all citizens and the long-term damage of the pandemic is yet to be seen. The COVID-19 pandemic struck during another global crisis-climate change. Despite scientific warnings over the past decades, climate action is still falling short of meeting deep decarbonization goals that will achieve globally agreed-upon climate targets. Furthermore, longer-standing challenges involving systemic racism have manifested through a series of hate crimes and Black Lives Matter protests. Poverty, inequality, gender-based discrimination, persecution of the LGBTIQ community, and labor exploitation are among the perennial issues which afflict humanity, and which are manifested within and beyond strategic organizations. Other environmental challenges such as rapid biodiversity loss have reached planetary proportions. Moreover, many of the challenges intersect. For example, climate change poses a particular threat to low-lying Pacific Island nations which are also subject to poverty in some cases. The poor and women are exploited in sweatshops in developing countries. Vaccines for COVID-19 appear to be available more easily in rich countries than poor ones. Managerial decision-making at the firm level is starting to consider the complexity of these interconnected issues and how to manage them strategically.At the same time, there is a growing emphasis on developing strategy and organization theory that is impactful and contributes to solving grand societal challenges (Jarzabkowski et al., 2021). Academic funding bodies are increasingly emphasizing the need for rigorous academic research that is societally relevant. For example, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK requests university submissions for impact cases which can affect 25% of the government funding for each institution thus providing universities with real financial incentives to promote impact cases. Researchers are rising to the challenge of combining research with impact by co-creating sustainability research with practitioners (Sharma and Bansal, 2020) and engaging in scientific activism .

show abstract

Not Even Trying to Change the World: Why Do Elite Management Journals Ignore the Major Problems Facing Humanity?

Cited by 52 publications

References 54 publications

Strategy implementation for the 2030 agenda: Insights from Brazilian companies

Strategy implementation for the 2030 agenda: Insights from Brazilian companies

Critical essay: Blinding faith – Paradoxes and pathologies of opacity in peer review

Call for papers: Special issue of Strategic Organization: Impact Driven Strategy Research for Grand Challenges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About