This issue closes out a very active year for Management and Organization Review. In introducing this final issue of Volume 12, I wish to highlight two initiatives with this letter.
First, I would like to direct attention to the lead article ‘The Critique of Empirical Social Science: New Policies at Management and Organization Review’ co-authored with Deputy Editors Chi-Yue Chiu, Carl F. Fey, Sheen S. Levine, Gerald McDermott, Johan Peter Murmann, and Eric Tsang. As the title implies this article presents an overview of the history of modern empirical social science as the foundation of management, organization, and strategy research and the growing criticism of social science research (first introduced in my 12.2 Letter from the Editor). A growing number of critics claim that current peer-reviewed academic journal publication norms are encouraging and enabling the publication of junk science. Most importantly, the lead article outlines MOR's strategy for counteracting such criticisms going forward, and outlining the new reviewing initiatives that MOR is implementing as of Volume 13 (2017).
The Deputy Editors and I are very clear about the challenge of counteracting and addressing the criticisms of empirical social science research. We are extremely mindful that implementing the reforms outlined in our editorial essay will require buy-in by the entire MOR editorial community, including authors considering submitting their scholarship to MOR. However, because MOR is a relative newcomer, it is more vulnerable to criticism of publishing low validity papers and therefore, must take the lead in promoting, recognizing, and requiring high-quality research.
The reforms are in line with other journals that have been on the leading edge of the movement to satisfy falsifiability requirements. MOR, however, goes a step further by creating several options for authors and papers that ‘show the way’. The first option involves two award badges: The Open Materials Badge will be awarded to authors who deposit their research materials in an open-access repository. The Open Data Badge will be awarded to authors who deposit their data sets in an open-access repository to enable replication studies.
The third option involves a preapproval opportunity and represents an audacious experiment to offer scholars the alternative of submitting a proposal for a study, explaining its theoretical foundation, reviewing the relevant literature, elaborating on a research question, and proposing the source of data, whether existing or new. Essentially, authors submit what constitutes the sections about research question, literature review, and empirical design of a proposed study, but without providing any accompanying analyses, results, or conclusions. If the study is preapproved, MOR commits to publishing the paper as proposed whether the reported findings are positive, negative or null. The complete details of the new reviewing requirements will be released and discussed in MOR 13.1.
In line with introducing and implementing the new reviewing policies, MOR is also offering to run workshops for PhD students and faculty that will cover every aspect discussed in the lead article. The workshops will include opportunities for mentoring faculty and PhD students on their own specific studies. MOR is already in preliminary discussions with schools in China who are interested in hosting such workshops for their region.
Second, the Dialogue, Debate, and Discussion editorial section in this issue features the 1994 speech ‘Haier Is the Sea’ by Chairman Zhang Ruimin to the people of Haier. The four commentaries that deconstruct this speech serve to highlight the Chairman's deep belief in Daoism and how this deep belief shapes his leadership as well as directing the attitude of Haier employees and the values and culture of Haier. It is an example of examining the origin of indigenous roots (found for example, in legends, poetry, or religious beliefs) that serve to create, in the case of Haier, an enabling social organizational environment that is flexible, and open to change and adaptation. Very consistent with Yin Yang.
In closing I would like to note that the state of Management and Organization Review is strong and intellectually vibrant because of the commitment of the MOR editorial community of Senior Editors and their Editorial Review Board members, the Editorial Advisory Board, the authors who submit their papers to MOR, and Cambridge University, the publisher of MOR. My deep and sincere thanks.
