Conference Call for Papers: Interdisciplinarity in Management Research: Premises, Pitfalls, and Promises

Conference Call for Papers

Interdisciplinarity in Management Research:

Premises, Pitfalls, and Promises

 5-6 March 2024

John McIntyre Conference Centre, The University of Edinburgh, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Rd, Edinburgh, EH16 5AY, Scotland, UK

A Conference Sponsored by the Journal of Management Studies and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

How can a view to other disciplines help further our goal of theory development in management studies so as to create more impactful scholarship? Despite having its roots in multiple fields – including, among others, psychology, economics, and sociology – there are continued calls for management research to become more interdisciplinary (e.g., Baudoin, et al., 2023; Budhwar & Cumming, 2020; Dunning, 1989; Ogbonnaya & Brown, 2023).

Yet, our field continues to struggle in producing creative and interdisciplinary research that mobilizes methods and theories from other fields and which would truly deliver groundbreaking insights to management studies (Cheng, et al., 2009; Kniffin & Hanks, 2017). Whether and how management research can learn about and better understand phenomena by drawing on knowledge from other disciplines, or vice-versa how other disciplines can learn from “our” field, remains a contested question (Markóczy & Deeds, 2009). Often, interdisciplinarity is praised for its premises and there is generally strong agreement about its benefits for the societal and scientific enterprise (de Bakker, et al., 2019). Yet, it seems many management scholars struggle to fully draw on the repertoire of other scientific disciplines and cross the boundaries of our own knowledge frontier. The idea of undertaking interdisciplinary research is enticing yet the practice of actually doing interdisciplinary management research – and getting this published in leading management journals – can be fraught with difficulties. Its premises are challenging, its pitfalls are many, yet its promises are far-reaching. 

Here, as we develop our ideas for the Journal of Management Studies conference, we understand interdisciplinarity in a broad sense. It can start from within our home terrain which is typically the business and management school (or, for instance, a social science or psychology department) and could stretch to business school departments typically less engaged in studying management and organizations such as finance, accounting, marketing, and, of course, economics. Even crafting interdisciplinary research based on collaborations among groups within a business school is often a challenge, as we frequently do not seem to speak the same language, or share the same aspirations to develop novel and original theory. Yet, the aim of truly interdisciplinary research  is to reach outside our comfort zones, drawing on narratives that are novel to management studies and to enter what are effectively ‘uncharted waters’ (Breslin & Gatrell, 2020) including both arts and humanities (e.g., Aguilera, et al., 2022; Cornelissen, 2008), as well as natural sciences like physics and chemistry (Padgett & Powell, 2012) in order to bring in new perspectives and insights.

Against this backdrop, at the 2024 Journal of Management Studies conference, we seek to rejuvenate the debate about interdisciplinarity in management studies. We call for developmental proposals that offer ideas for interdisciplinary research, as well as those that investigate the craft of how this can be achieved more effectively. Our call is for proposals that explore how to mobilize the theoretical and methodological repertoire of other disciplines. Our purpose is to better understand and theorize contemporary management phenomena in a light that is different from how we would typically see these, based on the theories and methods familiar to us.

For this conference, we call for three broad types of submissions whose boundaries are fluid:

First, developmental proposals that examine phenomena interesting to management scholars by mobilizing theories or methods from another discipline. Here, we are particularly curious to hear how we as management scholars can learn from those disciplines and how such research can offer insights that we would struggle to generate via our familiar theories and methods alone.

Second, papers that examine the craft of doing interdisciplinary research and its associated premises, pitfalls and promises, in order to trigger a debate about what would ultimately facilitate interdisciplinarity in and beyond our field.

Third, while we do not seek papers that are purely methodological in approach, we are interested in interdisciplinary research that draws upon new and creative methods, introducing new ways of thinking and understanding social phenomena from a management perspective and thus would show how other disciplines can gain inspiration from theoretical and methodological repertoires within the management studies field.

Possible questions are not limited to, but include:

• Are interdisciplinary studies actually more impactful than mono-disciplinary approaches and in what way? What design characteristics yield more influential articles? Does interdisciplinarity help us communicate and influence practice more effectively?
• How might different philosophical approaches impact interdisciplinary research?
• How and why could interdisciplinary studies be better suited to study grand societal challenges such as climate change and inequality? 
• How to balance different disciplines’ varying priorities regarding theoretical contribution, practical implication and policy or societal impact when doing such research for a management (or other) audience?
• How can studies that cross within-management silos (e.g., Organizational Behaviour vs. Organization and Management Theory) be used to inform work that spans entire disciplines?  
• What is the lifecycle of an interdisciplinary innovation, both theoretically and methodologically, from genesis to obsolescence? 
• What have been the greatest management ‘exports’ to other disciplines and how can this inform future research? 
• How can bibliometrics and big data tools be used to identify the next big external influences on management research?
• How are similar topics studied differently across different fields and what can be learned from such cross-disciplinary reviews?
• How are theoretical assumptions across disciplines different from each other and how does that translate to different methods, research questions … what can we learn from “looking over the fence”? One example of this could be studies that look at and analyze how language differs across disciplines – language directs how we think and research a topic. For instance, the word management control means something completely different in Organizational Behaviour versus Accounting.
• Are there universal truths across disciplines? Are there things we can agree on or are we confronted with subjective truths? How does interdisciplinarity deal with the accumulation and convergence of scientific knowledge?
• How might conventions considered pitfalls and/or weaknesses in other disciplines be a source of inspiration or support for navigating tensions in management?
• How to address the problem of incommensurability when different disciplines work based on different epistemological and ontological positions?
• How are professions and professional boundaries affected by a multidisciplinary approach to management education? 
• Innovation thrives from creative, multi-disciplinary endeavors content wise. How can multidisciplinarity in methodological approaches shape the nature of innovation?

Keynote speakers

 Professor Pratima (Tima) Bansal

Ivey Business School, Canada

She is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Business Sustainability at the Ivey Business School at Western University (Ontario). She holds honorary doctorates from the University of Hamburg and University of Montreal and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Academy of Management. Her research explores the nexus of time (short-termism), space (globalization) and scale (levels of analysis and size) in business strategy, in order to advance sustainable development. She is also an enthusiastic advocate of progressive qualitative research methods and co-creating research and practice with managers. She founded the Network for Business Sustainability (nbs.net) in 2003 and Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable Value in 2005, each of which she led for over 15 years. She also founded in 2019 and continues to lead Innovation North. Dr. Bansal’s research has been published in top scholarly journals, including the Journal of Management Studies, 2 co-edited books on business and the natural environment, and in magazines, including her column at Forbes.com, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. She served as a Deputy Editor (2016-2019) and an Associate Editor (2010-2013) of the Academy of Management Journal and continues to serve as Chair of the Board of UN PRME and member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management.

***

Professor Marcus Gomes

Cardiff University, UK

 His research explores the relationship between Business and Society by developing a critical understanding of governance, including the role of activism, social movements, business elites and populism in shaping our economies and societies. By examining how actors negotiate and develop governance regimes, he aims to understand the organizing aspects of 21^st century capitalism and explore the power relations that lead to environmental degradation and social inequalities. His scholarship focuses on organization studies and sustainability, particularly affiliated to critical management studies, and is phenomenologically driven, exploring the grand challenges of our societies, such as the promotion of sustainable development and mitigation of the environmental emergency. He holds a PhD in Public Administration and Government from FGV-EAESP (Brazil) and he is current based at Cardiff Business School (2019-Present), the world’s first Public Value Business School, with a clear purpose of driving positive social, economic and environmental impact. Previous he held posts at the University of Exeter Business School (2016-2019) and FGV-EAESP (2011-2016).

He is a Council member for the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS) and co-chair of the Critical Management Studies (CMS) division at the Academy of Management (AoM) for the 2023-28 period. He is also an Associate Editor for the Cadernos Gestão Pública e Cidadania (CGPC) and co-editor for the MayFly books. 

Call for Developmental Proposals

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this JMS conference, we are not asking participants to submit a full paper but rather to submit a developmental proposal for presentation and discussion at the conference. This allows for a full discussion from differing perspectives regarding how the proposed interdisciplinary research might in future be shaped for publication in a management context.

To apply for the conference, please complete this Online Registration Form. In addition, you will be asked to supply a 5-page developmental proposal of your interdisciplinary research idea that you will present at the JMS conference in the form of a developmental paper for discussion. All references and tables should be included within the 5 pages that may be single spaced and must be in 12-point type throughout.

This developmental proposal should specify:

• Why, how and in what way your idea is interdisciplinary
• The originality and significance of your intended topic
• The proposed contribution of the research, giving consideration to which research conversations you propose to join within a management studies context.
• Your intended methodological perspectives or epistemological positions.

Contributions should be submitted no later than midnight (British Summer Time) on 30^th November 2023.

Confirmation of acceptance (or not) of proposals will be notified by 15^th December 2023.

Presentations will be due 19^th February 2024.

Authors of papers presented at the conference will be invited to develop their papers for possible publication in a follow-up special issue of the Journal of Management Studies related to the topic of the conference. A formal call for papers for this JMS special issue on interdisciplinary research will appear within the twelve months following the conference. Presentation at the conference does not guarantee publication of the proposed article nor will submissions to the special issue be limited to those that present at the conference.

Call for Participation

There is no conference fee, and we encourage a variety of modes of participation, from presentation of research to the contribution of debate by taking on the role of discussant. We specifically encourage early career scholars to submit their work, as a special PDW will immediately precede the conference on 4^th March 2024, for which a separate call will be circulated.

Financial Support

The Karen Legge Bursary Scheme operated by the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS) offers financial support to attend in-person events organized by the Journal of Management Studies (JMS) through the provision of a limited number of bursaries. This is a needs-based scheme; recognising that limited financial means can be the result of many factors, we therefore encourage in particular applications from PhD students, Early Career Researchers, and those from under-represented groups (including but not limited to, gender, identity, ethnicity, etc.), and/or geographic areas. Details of the bursary and the application form will be made available to successful applicants.

Conference Organizing Committee

The conveners of the conference are Caroline Gatrell (University of Liverpool), Hannes Leroy (Rotterdam School of Management), Mark Healey (University of Manchester), Johann Fortwengel (King’s College London), Brian Boyd (University of Northern Arizona), Mirko Benischke (Rotterdam School of Management), Beatrice D’Ippolito (University of York), Christopher Wickert (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and the editorial management team of Margaret Turner, Joanne Cheseldine, Aleksandra Zolczynska, Gemma Parkinson, and Alice Williams.

References

Aguilera, R. V., Aragón-Correa, J. A. and Marano, V. (2022). ‘Rethinking corporate power to tackle grand societal challenges: Lessons from political philosophy’. Academy of Management Review, 47, 637-45. 

Baudoin, L., Carmine, S., Nava, L., Poggioli, N. and van den Broek, O. M. (2023). ‘Imagining a Place for Sustainability Management: An Early Career Call for Action’. Journal of Management Studies, 60, 754-60. 

Breslin, D., Gatrell, C. and Bailey, K. (2020). ‘Developing insights through reviews: reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the international journal of management reviews’. International Journal of Management Reviews, 22, 3-9.

Budhwar, P. and Cumming, D. (2020). ‘New Directions in Management Research and Communication: Lessons from the COVID‐19 Pandemic’. British Journal of Management; 31, 441–43.

Cheng, J. L. C., Henisz, W. J., Roth, K. and Swaminathan, A. (2009). ‘From the editors: Advancing interdisciplinary research in the field of international business: Prospects, issues and challenges’. Journal of International Business Studies, 40, 1070-74.

Cornelissen, J. P. (2008). ‘Metonymy in language about organizations: A corpus-based study of company names’. Journal of Management Studies, 45, 79-99. 

de Bakker, F., Crane, A., Henriques, I. and Husted, B. W. (2019). ‘Publishing interdisciplinary research in Business & Society’. Business & Society, 58, 443-53. 

Dunning, J. H. (1989). ‘The study of international business: A plea for a more interdisciplinary approach’. Journal of International Business Studies, 20, 411-36. 

Haley, U. C. V., Cooper, C. L., Hoffman, A. J., Pitsis, T. S. and Greenberg, D. (2022). ‘From the editors. In search of scholarly impact’. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 21, 343-49.

Kniffin, K. M. and Hanks, A. S. (2017). ‘Antecedents and near-term consequences for interdisciplinary dissertators’. Scientometrics, 111, 1225-50. 

Markóczy, L. and Deeds, D. L. (2009). ‘Theory building at the intersection: Recipe for impact or road to nowhere?’. Journal of Management Studies, 46, 1076-88.

Ogbonnaya, C. and Brown, A. (2023). ‘Editorial: Crafting review and essay articles for Human Relations’. Human Relations, 76, 365-94.

Padgett, J. F. and Powell, W. W. (2012). The Emergence of Organizations and Markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Simeone, L. (2020). ‘Characterizing strategic design processes in relation to definitions of strategy from military, business and management studies’. The Design Journal, 23, 515-34.