As I complete my third year as Editor-in-Chief of MOR and begin planning for my second term, I wanted to take the opportunity to express my appreciation and thanks for your support of MOR. Although MOR has expanded its editorial context to all transforming economies, China remains the core constituency of the journal.
The first three years have been an intense learning experience for me. I have mentored or collaborated with an untold number of PhD students and faculty on their research and many papers are in process without me as co-author.
This issue of MOR will be in print in time for the 2016 IACMR Conference in Hangzhou (June 14–19, 2016). In my mind this conference takes the bi-annual conference to the next level and the editors and I look forward to receiving many new submissions to MOR.
The Inaugural MOR Research Frontiers Conference that was hosted by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (December 2014) has resulted in the edited book, China's Innovation Challenge, published by Cambridge University Press. The Chinese translation, edited by Professor and MOR Senior Editor Zhi-Xue Zhang, is being published by Peking University Press. Both versions will be available at the 2016 IACMR conference in Hangzhou.
However, as I have highlighted in my most recent Letter from the Editor, empirical social science research is being challenged as never before. At the 2016 IACMR conference, MOR has organized a Symposium - Game Changing Requirements for Publishing in Social Science: New Policies You Need to Understand. The symposium will feature Professors Anne Tsui, Eric Tsang, Xiao Ping Chen, and several MOR Senior Editors.
Special Issues. We have two Calls for Papers that I'd like to draw your attention to. Due to many requests to extend the deadline, we will now be accepting submissions to the MOR special issue ‘Celebrating and Advancing the Scholarship of Kwok Leung (1958-2015)’ through September 1, 2016. Guest editors Michael Morris, George Chen, Lorna Doucet, and Yaping Gong will begin a rolling review of submissions already received this summer. In addition, this issue of MOR includes a new Call for Papers, ‘Coopetition and Innovation in Transforming Economies’, with guest editors Jay B. Barney, Giovanni Battista Dagnino, Valentina Della Corte, and Eric W. K. Tsang.
Pre-proposal Processing for Perspective Papers. Beginning immediately, MOR is inviting pre-submission of proposals for Perspective Papers. The idea is to give author(s) an opportunity to propose and outline a Perspective Paper on a theme that they believe could open up agendas of research of interest to the wider MOR community and beyond. The purpose of the pre-proposal process is to enable the MOR Editorial Team to gain sufficient insight into the core theme of a paper that the proposing author(s) hope to craft and publish in MOR.
Perspective Papers almost always involve a review of the relevant extant literature, but the paper must have a point of view, perhaps a critical counter argument, new interpretation, propose alternative or competing theories for the phenomenon under discussion, or open unexplored research directions etc.
Proposals must be sufficiently detailed and persuasive, but not exceed 6 pages double-spaced with standard 1-inch margins and in Times Roman 12-point font. The proposal must include the following information with the specific sub-heads listed below.
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1. The phenomenon or the new idea. Why is this theme of interest? What are key issues that the extant literature is not addressing? With the advent of growing interest in scholarship relating to West Meets East, important questions are bubbling up around foundational topics such as ‘bounded rationality’ or ‘rational choice’, or what concepts and theories emanating from the East that might reflect or inform new organization forms, practices, or solutions.
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2. Relevant scholarship communities. Which intellectual community would be informed and challenged to rethink prior research and empirical approaches and why?
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3. The intellectual challenge. How will the paper communicate the Intellectual Challenge? For example, how will relevant literature and past studies be selected? Will the paper be based on a re-analysis of prior studies by applying, for example, meta-analyses methods? Integrate past stand-alone conceptual frameworks?
An invitation to submit a Perspective Paper, based on the review of the pre-submission, is a statement of interest and encouragement on the part of MOR. It is not a guarantee of publication. The invitation very likely will also include some editorial guidance and may also raise questions that will require further amplifications. The review of Perspective Papers will be overseen by the Editor-in-Chief or one of the Deputy Editors. Perspective Papers accepted for publication in MOR will be followed by 2 or 3 invited commentaries. Authors of perspective papers will not be invited to respond to the commentaries.
Lastly, I wanted to share with you that at the 2016 IACMR bi-Annual Conference we will inaugurate the Hermann and Marianne Straniak Stiftung – MOR Best Paper Award, which recognizes original Asia indigenous management scholarship in business and economic philosophy in the context of East informs West. The award of $5,000 will be made annually. It is my hope and, that of Hermann and Marianne Straniak Stiftung, that this award will encourage scholars in the social sciences and humanities to advance indigenous management scholarship that has the potential to inform management thinking and practice in the West.
