Wallace Hopp
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Christopher Ittner
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Kalyan Singhal
Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore
A New Platform for Integrating and Improving Management Research and Practice
Management and Business Review (MBR) is not just a new journal, it is a new kind of journal, one that empowers business to change the world for the better by facilitating more and deeper communication between management professionals, scholars, and students. This bold aspiration raises many questions for discussion, which we will explore in future editorials. But there are three which we feel it important to address in this inaugural issue.
- Why do we need a new journal? There are over 30,000 academic journals publishing research on a vast array of topics, many of which may be of use to the millions of businesses around the world. At the same time, while there are hundreds of business magazines that are written and edited by journalists, few of these include articles by leading-edge management scholars. The handful of publications that do address the interplay between management research and practice cannot possibly disseminate the research insights of over 200,000 business professors, let alone those of professors from other disciplines and of leading management thinkers outside of academia. The situation clearly calls for a new journal which will bring management scholars and practitioners closer together worldwide.
- Why do we need a new kind of journal? The existing business publications are each sponsored by a single university or firm, or have an editorial board dominated by journalists, or both. These characteristics limit their ability to identify and address critical issues in the immense domain of management research and practice.
To explore this domain more thoroughly, MBR is structured like a platform rather than a centralized business. It is co-sponsored by twelve leading business schools, four of which are located outside the United States. It has a large and expanding editorial board that currently includes about 250 members, with leading scholars from dozens of universities, as well as managers and consultants from a plethora of firms. This board is designedly decentralized, with more than thirty department editors currently authorized to accept papers.
We expect this diverse and decentralized structure to generate uniquely varied and interesting content for readers and also to facilitate a review process, run by experts from a range of domains, which supports authors. - How can MBR change the world? Well managed organizations can serve a range of stakeholders, including customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the planet itself, in countless ways. To help organizations to better serve their constituents, MBR is designed to: (a) publish articles that translate leading edge research into useful insights and thereby help managers to elevate their practices, (b) publish overviews and discussions of pressing management concerns to help scholars select impactful foci for their research, and (c) bring the ideas of leading thinkers from academia and industry directly to students to enhance their education and help them to become better managers.
However, because of its platform character, MBR will depend upon the entire business and management community to achieve its goals. We need academic authors to express their vital research findings in clear, concise, non-technical language. We need business authors to describe challenges, experiences, and discoveries from the leading edge of management practice. We need editors to make sound decisions in recruiting and accepting papers. We need advisors to keep us all abreast of important topics. And we need readers, from students to professors to CEOs, to send us feedback on what they have read and what they would like to read. If we all work together MBR will be ever increasingly valuable to readers and authors alike. It will encourage scholars to work on the essential problems of managers and allow managers to transform research insights into practice. Together we will unleash the power of business and management to make ours a better world.
We hope you will join us on this exciting journey. MBR and the world need you.
Wallace J. Hopp is the C.K. Prahalad Distinguished University Professor of Business and Engineering at the University of Michigan. In recognition of his research on manufacturing, supply chain, and health care systems, he has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of IIE, INFORMS, MSOM, POMS and SME. He has served as President of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) and as Editor in Chief of the journal Management Science.
Christopher Ittner is the EY Professor of Accounting and Chair of the Accounting Department at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard University. Dr. Ittner’s research and consulting focus on the design, implementation, and performance consequences of cost management and performance measurement systems. He has served as an Editor for The Accounting Review and sits on the editorial boards of several international academic journals.
Kalyan Singhal is the Doris and Robert McCurdy Professor of Management at the University of Baltimore. He is a 1967 mechanical engineering graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay at Mumbai. He founded the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) in 1989. He also launched the society’s journal Production and Operations Management in 1992 and has since served as its Editor in Chief. He is the publisher of this journal and a Fellow of INFORMS and POMS.
