Editorial
SEVEN YEAR ITCH
In the 1955 film, The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe’s dress famously blows up over
a subway grating, tempting men into infidelity after seven years of
marriage. Although not the phrase’s
original meaning – it referred to a now
forgotten irritating and contagious skin infection
lasting seven years – today it is
used more generally to refer to an urge to move on from any situation, although
not necessarily after seven years.
As we enter our seventh year of publication, however, we are indeed itching
to move on. Our first six years have
built a strong foundation for the journal.
·
We assembled an outstanding international
editorial board who have cemented SO!’s reputation for providing timely, informed and developmental review process of the highest quality – and for accepting only the very best work.
·
We attracted strong article and essay
submissions focused on the intersection of strategy and organization theory
from scholars in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
·
We achieved worldwide accessibility through
institutional and individual subscriptions, and witnessed soaring article and
essay downloads from so.sagepub.com at SAGE Journals Online.
·
We secured coverage in the ISI’s Web of Knowledge, which began with
Volume 5 (2007), and will have our first official ‘impact factor’ for 2009
published in 2010.
In a very short time, SO! has established a
clear place for itself in the field.
‘Unofficial’ Impact
Factor
Web of
Knowledge began covering SO!
in 2007, and as a result, SO!’s first ‘official’ impact factor will
be for 2009. Because it will be based on
citations in 2009 to articles published in 2007 and 2008, the impact factor
will not be published until 2010. Until
then, we will continue to provide our own ‘unofficial’ impact factor, as well
as other evidence of SO!’s impact on the field.
If SO! had been accepted to the Web of Knowledge in 2005, its 2007 impact factor (58 citations in
2007 to 33 articles and essays published in 2005 and 2006), would be 1.75,
placing it 21st among the
81 management journals currently covered, up from 24th of 78 in
2006.[1]
Further evidence of SO!’s impact is found
in a recent ranking of strategy journals published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.[2] This study indicates that, during its first
three years of publication, SO! ranked second behind only the Strategic Management Journal in number of citing articles per
paper. The study’s authors conclude
that:
“SO! made an impressive entry to the field: in 2003-2006 it ranks second in per
article impact and fourth in overall impact, despite being established only in
2003. This shows … that while it often takes time to achieve a leading position
(which requires coordination of expectations among authors, readers, reviewers,
and editors, and therefore is usually a long process), it is not impossible to
do so quickly. Hard work and enthusiasm of the founding editors, recruitment of
leading people in the field to the editorial board, and finding a unique scope
on which the journal focuses, seem to be necessary to allow such quick and
successful entry” (Azar and Brock, 2008: 795).
This is impressive for such a young journal; but our
aspirations for 2010 are much higher.
You can help assure that SO!’s
first ‘official’ impact factor is commensurate with its standing as a leading journal in the fields of strategy and organization by getting into the habit – now – of citing articles appearing
in SO!
SO!WHAT Award for Scholarly Contribution. Last year
we initiated the “SO!WHAT” awards for scholarly
contribution – one for the most outstanding article and one for the most
outstanding essay published in SO! five years
earlier – to recognize exceptional contributions to the field of strategic
organization.
The award winners are selected by the coeditors, in consultation with the journal’s editorial
board, after considering citations in the Web
of Knowledge and Google Scholar,
downloads from so.sagepub.com, as well as qualitative evidence of the publication’s impact on
subsequent research. Recipients receive
a plaque commemorating the award and a five-year subscription to SO!
This year’s winners, selected from in Volume 2
(2004), presented along with some of
our editorial board members’ reactions to these outstanding
contributions, are:
Best Article:
Organizing Practice in Services to
Capture Knowledge for Innovation
“Our knowledge of
the innovation process in service industries lags far behind that of
product-based industries. Dougherty cuts
to the essence of what makes the service context unique, and through analysis
of detailed, rich data on innovation practices in nine service organizations,
gives us significant insights. She identifies mechanisms to address the
considerable challenge of capturing the knowledge embedded in service
activities – knowledge that is crucial for innovation – and in doing so,
strikes the ideal balance of providing intriguing insights for scholars and
making useful prescriptions for managers.” Mary Tripsas, Harvard Business School, Harvard
University
“Reflecting the new practice sensibility in organization and
strategy studies, this paper builds on rich, qualitative data to develop
subtle and original insights about innovation on the ground. In particular, Dougherty's distinction
between 'pro-practice' and 'anti-practice' principles of organizing offers two
crisp and striking concepts that will sensitise both scholars and practitioners
to oft-neglected features of innovation success and failure. This paper is sure
to motivate future attention to the importance of the fine detail of work in
organizational innovation and strategy.”
Richard Whittington, Saïd Business School, Oxford University
Best Essay:
Donald
C. Hambrick, SO! 2(1)
“Hambrick … is right on in suggesting that strategic management has
become overly populated by researchers who, due to the strictures of journals,
are bent on extending any current theoretical perspective by deploying some
conceptual or empirical quibble.
Ultimately, there is too little bridging of perspectives, too little
problem- (and solution-) driven research, and too little attention paid to
process, implementation and design. Congratulations, Don, on a
timely recognition of these disturbing trends.” Danny
Miller, HEC - Montreal
“Hambrick’s essay is
a provocative call for strategy research to undertake four tasks: (1) pay more
attention to processes and people, (2) give replication more credit to develop
more nuanced understanding of the phenomena we study, (3) make theory building
less central to increase our ability to study important empirical phenomena,
and (4) emphasize filling in existing theories rather than generating new
ones. Agree or disagree, these are useful points of debate. For the record, I agree strongly with points
1 and 2 [and] 3 ... so long as we frame such work in generalizable
ways. I disagree with point 4: while I
welcome efforts to fill in existing theories, we ... need new theory
development to tackle phenomena that existing theories cannot explain no matter
how filled in and nuanced they become.
Don: thanks for giving the debate
a jump start.” Will Mitchell, Fuqua School of Business, Duke
University
Editorial Review Process
To ensure
a high-quality and timely review process for our authors, we maintain a
working, international editorial board of 100 leading scholars and researchers
with sufficiently broad in expertise to carry out all the journal’s reviewing; SO!
uses no ad hoc
reviewers. Each year,
we refresh the Board, creating opportunities for 10-15 new top-notch scholars
to contribute to SO!’s further advance, and thank our past board members by
releasing them from further duty!
Our authors deserve timely feedback and expect that
editorial feedback and decisions will be constructive, informed, and challenge
them to improve their work.
·
Authors whose work is not sent out for editorial review, either because
it does not fit the journal’s aims and scope, or because it is not developed
sufficiently for our one-revision editorial policy, receive a letter explaining
the decision from the coeditors within 10-14
days.
·
Manuscripts accepted for full review are sent (double-blind) to three
editorial board members who focus on the substance and rigor of submissions, providing discipline
and method neutral feedback that challenges authors to strengthen their work
while maintaining their voice. Authors receive reviewer
feedback and a decision letter from the coeditors
within 60-90 days.
It is gratifying to receive so many positive
responses indicating that we are meeting these standards. We are indebted to our editorial board for
enabling us to provide our authors the highest possible quality feedback on
their work, and to do so in less than 60 days, on average.
Between October 2007 and October 2008 (2006-07
figures in brackets):
·
44 (40) percent of papers were returned to their authors by the Editors
without being sent out for blind review;
·
24 (32) percent were rejected after blind editorial review;
·
20 (18) percent were invited to revise and resubmit their work for
further consideration after review;
·
12 (12) percent were accepted for publication.
Notable
among these figures is the continued high rate at which submissions are
returned to authors by the coeditors without being
sent out for blind review. All submissions are carefully
screened by the coeditors before being sent out for
review. Because our publication decisions are made after no more than one major
revision, a policy we adopted to
ensure a prompt review process, the quality and
development stage of initial submissions greatly affects their likelihood of
being accepted for full review.
Also
notable is the continued high rejection rate relative to the rate at which
revisions were invited and papers accepted.
Clearly SO!’s
Board members are willing to accept only the very best work – so send us yours!
Open Call for Article and
Essay Submissions
SO!
welcomes article submissions
that have a strong interdisciplinary base and reflect a clear understanding of
the related strategic and organizational literatures. Empirical and theoretical articles published
in SO! are conducted soundly and
rigorously within their genre and discipline.
Preferred
submissions identify a compelling strategic organization topic and a strong
conceptual framework for tackling it. We
do not accept for review literature reviews or propositional inventories.
In addition to regular
refereed articles, we also welcome proposals for SO!APBOX
editorial essays. A
soapbox is a platform used by a self-appointed, spontaneous, or informal
orator, or, more broadly an outlet for delivering opinions. These editorial essays are a forum for
thought-provoking informed opinion and reflection, forging interdisciplinary
bridges and new research directions, debating methodological traditions, and
staking out the field of strategic organization.
Submission and review
processes for articles and editorial essays are described on the inside-back
cover of journal, and in more detail on the coeditors’
journal website at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~baum/so.html,
or at SAGE Journals Online at so.sagepub.com.
Ann Langley joins SO! as Guest Coeditor for 2009
Please welcome Ann Langley (HEC, Montreal) as Guest
Coeditor for Volume 7 (2009). We asked Ann to join SO! as a Guest Coeditor to help with the
review of manuscripts that would normally have been assigned to Royston
Greenwood, who will be extremely busy with his duties as OMT Program Chair for
the 2009 Academy of Management Conference.
Ann be assigned new manuscripts between January and June 2009, and will
see these through the review process.
We are excited that Ann has agreed to serve in this capacity; we are
sure her efforts will contribute to furthering SO!’s reputation for providing a timely, informed and
developmental review process of the highest quality – and for accepting only the very best work.
A Soothing Salve …
SO! continues to make progress toward its ambition
of providing an unparalleled forum reconnecting the fields of strategy and
organization theory. That integration
remains core to our aspired identity and contribution to the field. We have achieved a great deal … but yearn to move on. How quickly we are
able to achieve our goals, however, ultimately depends upon you! So keep sending us your submissions
… and reading and referencing the articles and essay we publish!
Joel A. C. Baum, Royston Greenwood, and P.
Devereaux Jennings
Coeditors
[1] Because SO! was not
covered in the ISI during this
period, citation counts do not include references to SO! articles published in SO!
Consequently, the impact factor is underestimated relative to journals
covered in the index.
[2] Azar, O.H. and Brock, D.M. (2008).
“A Citation-based Ranking of Strategic Management Journals.” Journal of Economics and Management
Strategy, 17 (3): 781–802.