New Member of the Academy of … Family
21 September 2013 at 11:46 am Nicolai Foss 3 comments
| Nicolai Foss |
So, we have the Academy of Management Review and the Academy of Management Journal, commonly acknowledged as the top theory and empirical management journal, respectively. We are also blessed with the Academy of Management Perspective (formerly, the Academy of Management Executive), which seeks (successfully) to style itself as the management research equivalent to the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Then there is also the Academy of Management Learning and Education and there is the rather recently established Academy of Management Annals.
The sixth member of the family is now being launched, and has assumed the name of the Academy of Management Discoveries. The founding editor is Andrew H. Van de Ven who is the Vernon H. Heath Professor of Organizational Innovation and Change in the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota, a major figure in organization theory over the last 4 decades, and a former President of the Academy of Management. According to the journal’s website, AMD will”promote the creation and dissemination of new empirical evidence that strengthens our understanding of substantively important yet poorly understood phenomena concerning management and organizations.” The journal is “phenomenon-driven” rather than aimed at theory testing per se.
In the end, I am not entirely convinced that this is that different from the mission and practice of the Academy of Management Journal, and I can see a scenario where we get an AMJ #2. However, the journal is open to replication research and “evidence-based assessments”, and certainly the first characteristic would seem to set it apart from the AMJ (even if replication research and evidence-based assessments would seem to pull away from phenomenon-driven discovery and towards theory testing).
Here is a brief YouTube clip with Van de Ven talking about the kind of research that the AMD will publish.
Manuscripts can be submitted here.
Entry filed under: - Foss -, Institutions.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Peter Klein | 21 September 2013 at 2:08 pm
Check out this session at the upcoming SMS: http://atlanta.strategicmanagement.net/tools/schedule/sessionDetails?id=158
“Over the past decade, numerous leadings scholars in strategy have called to expand the nature of research in strategy from the traditional ‘hybrid’ papers that combine verbal theorizing with large-sample empirical analysis to new formats that preserve the diversity and vibrancy of the field. The panel will explore two specific formats being promoted: theory driven and stylized-fact driven research. One of the goals is to engage in a conversation that highlights the needs for new types of research. Second, and equally important, the session will help to discuss quality standards for these new formats as well as provide information on initiatives promoting them undertaken by the major journals in the field.”
Van de Ven is one of the panelists.
2.
Ulrik William Nash | 23 September 2013 at 4:13 am
Even better, why not combine the two? After all. theory is wrong if Nature disagrees.
3.
Bo Nielsen | 30 September 2013 at 9:46 am
Replication research is a great advance in management research, which may help us move closer to becoming a true “science”, if indeed this is what we want to (or should strive to) become…At any rate, IF this journal actually allows for replication studies that would provide validity and sustainability to existing theories, this would be a great leap forward – though I suspect, as alluded to by Nicolai, that the risk here is that this is just another AMJ2. The editorial team will have a huge task in selecting and educating reviewers on the merits and quality of replication studies as well as easy some people’s fear of having their proven theories…disproved…