Abstract
In outlining our editorial values one year ago, we noted that “we are committed to impact and influence beyond publication, impact factors, and journal rankings. We aim to contribute to the development of novel and workable solutions to the urgent challenges that the world presently faces” (Bapuji, Brown, et al., 2020, p. 791). Between our writing these words and their appearance in print, COVID-19 changed the world in a way none has imagined before, revealing to us new problems at the intersection of business and society and the differential effects of such problems on individuals, business, and societies (Bapuji, de Bakker, et al., 2020).
To focus on the urgent challenges, we initiated special issues on COVID-19, refugee crises and stakeholder engagement and inclusion. Special issues and similar formats address important themes, but the discussion and debate remain within the boundaries of academia, with limited scope for the stakeholders of management research to directly contribute to the debate. Furthermore, the lead time for a special issue or academic research is too long to respond swiftly to emerging challenges. To address this issue and better align academic research with its broader stakeholders, we decided to create a new space: Business & Society Commentary.
Contributions to the Commentary section address an important topic of interest to business and society scholars. They are expected to generate debate on an issue of wide importance, direct attention to a new, emerging or overlooked phenomenon, challenge existing norms and rules, and generally invigorate the mind of the reader. The contributions should be substantial yet concise, that is, about 1500 words. They will not be reviewed in the double-blind style, but they will be subject to editorial review and oversight. Prospective authors need to have their proposals approved before submission to avoid overlaps; the editors will typically group several commentaries around a focal theme.
Through this new space, we would like to complement the peer-reviewed research with pathbreaking new thoughts and observations on contemporary issues that concern the domain of business and society. Three characteristics distinguish a Business & Society Commentary from other formats, that is, non-research articles, typically found in academic journals. First, the Commentary format is open to both academics and non-academics so that both parties can illuminate business and society topics with their experience, expertise, and insights. Second, we will publish an accepted Commentary rapidly—online first, later on followed by publication in print in a regular issue of the journal. We will curate sets of commentaries that address a particular theme and then publish them together, with an accompanying note from the editors. Third, all commentaries will be published open access. Further, brief summaries of the commentaries will be presented on Business & Society Blog (www.businessandsociety.org), with an option to generate discussion via reader comments.
To kickstart this new section, we decided to spotlight a topic that has been constantly gaining traction in both business schools and among its stakeholders: Impact. Underlying this growing conversation on impact is the desire to better understand the purpose of academic research. The changes since COVID-19 have raised questions about what role academic research plays in the society and for whom. These questions further underscored our original editorial value of impact and influence and showed that there is no better time than now to think about impact, particularly by bringing a diverse set of voices.
Although impact and influence are the latest vocabulary, discussions on our role in the society and the usefulness of our research are not new. A large stream of academic work has dwelled on the rigor-relevance gap in our research and the ways to address it, but its progress has been marred by a lack of theoretical and empirical foundations that could provide understanding of what relevance is and how it could be achieved (Kieser et al., 2015). With this first set of commentaries, we aim to generate a rich conversation on what impact is, why we should strive for it (if at all), how to achieve it, how to measure it, and when to prioritize it.
Our initial set includes six commentaries. In the first, Andrew Jack discusses the experience of the Financial Times with business school rankings and their evolution to include societal impact, the challenges in creating the rankings, and the need for better scholarly engagement with measurement of impact. In the second, Herman Aguinis and Kelly Gabriel argue that impact does not happen automatically or accidentally, but academics need to develop personal impact development plans and offer a useful template for scholars. In the third, Tima Bansal and Garima Sharma draw on their impact journey to note three different approaches to impact and suggest that researchers need to see impact not just on but also with managers. In the fourth, Andrew Crane and Sarah Glozer reflect on the increasing individualized quantification of scholarly impact and dwell on the inequalities they exacerbate, by drawing on their experience with the ThinkList of business and society scholars. In the fifth, Laura Spence and Paul du Gay offer involvement as a precondition for impact and discuss the various challenges related to involvement, drawing on their own experience. Finally, Jelena Brankovic questions the very notion of rankings as an impediment to performance, but more so for scholarly pursuit and thus impact.
Together, this initial set reflects our intention to bring diverse stakeholder voices as well as voices from within academia, both business academia and other fields. Several new commentaries on impact will follow.
If you would like to contribute a Commentary on Impact or any other topic, please approach the co-editors. We will review your ideas and provide feedback on its suitability.