The adolescence of Asia management research: APJM, 1997–2006

Abstract

In this article we reflect on the adolescent years of Asia management research published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Management (APJM) by reviewing work published in the past 10 years (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006). We report that during the last decade, APJM has published 223 research articles, written by 373 different authors, who are affiliated with 203 different institutions. Our discussion of the future of Asia management research is guided by Kuhn's (Kuhn, T. S. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962) perspective on the nonlinear progression of science. We argue that as a growing community, Asia management research is finding its "identity" and establishing its presence in the larger worldwide management research community. Following our analysis, we conclude that the growth of Asia management research-as captured by APJM publications-throughout its "adolescent" years has set forth a challenging and exciting path for the future. Adolescence is a period of life when many different directions seem possible. As adolescents seek answers to questions such as "Who am I?" and "Where am I Asia Pacific J Manage (2007) 24:

The early adulthood of the Asia Pacific Journal of Management: A literature review 2005–2014

“…The contributing institutions are located in 32 different countries, pointing to an increase in the international scope of the authorship-as shown in Ang (1997) and Ang (1997) and later confirmed by Pleggenkuhle-Miles et al (2007). Chinese institutions (coming from both Mainland China and Greater China) and American institutions are the most prolific contributors to APJM.…”

“…All of these data point to a sharp increase in citation counts when compared to previous stages (Pleggenkuhle-Miles et al, 2007). APJM has come a long way since the Bmodest but promising^citation numbers analyzed by Delios in his 2005 editorial.…”

“…Both the number of scholars and the volume of institutions are much higher than in the journal's childhood (Ang, 1997) and adolescence (Pleggenkuhle-Miles et al, 2007). Moreover, when traditional bibliometric laws are used to analyze these data, results point to a particularly high number of scholars/institutions (higher than would commonly be expected) publishing their work in APJM.…”

“…China is undoubtedly the key country covered in the journal's research, with almost 60% of these articles on China, and over 70% if we -Miles et al, 2007), and a Special Issue was published on India and innovation recently, after the period under study (Jain, Nair, & Ahlstrom, 2015;Prabhu & Jain, 2015). Research focused on other AP countries is not so extensive; however, the range of researched nation-states includes countries already analyzed in previous stages-Australia, Indonesia Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as Bnew^countries, among them, Iran, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Russia, pointing to a more Asia-wide perspective further encompassing Central and West Asia (e.g., Ismail & Ford, 2010).…”

“…In his 1997 review, Ang pointed to the interest of increasing collaborative research in Asian management studies as a way to overcome time and resource constraints and deal with the complexity of the Asian environment. Following Ang (1997) and Pleggenkuhle-Miles et al (2007) scientific collaboration has been undertaken through co-authorship. About 18% of the articles gathered in the database are single-authored, pointing to a relevant and steady increase in collaborative research when compared to previous stages; the percentage of single-authored articles was over 40% in the journal's childhood (Ang, 1997) and over 35% in the journal's adolescence (PleggenkuhleMiles et al, 2007).…”