Editor’s Notes

Team

In 2015, 139 scholars from 23 countries were on FBR’s masthead serving on the editorial team (11) and the three boards—Advisory (9), Review (107), and Research Applied (12). The Research Applied board is new for FBR and perhaps quite unique for a scholarly journal. Members of this board are some of the most thoughtful practitioners and/or practical scholars who act as boundary spanners between FBR and practitioners eager to learn from leading edge knowledge published in FBR. Members of Research Applied board read the articles accepted for publication in FBR and prepare practitioner-friendly précises. These executive summaries are used by the Family Firm Institute (FBR’s parent association), and SAGE (FBR’s publisher), to disseminate the research to wider audiences. For a selected number of articles, podcasts with author interviews are prepared as well. The précis and podcasts are available online alongside the articles.

While FBR’s editor is a 3-year appointment, and associate editors are appointed for 2 years, members of all FBR boards are appointed annually. All FBR appointments are renewable. After completing two highly successful terms as FBR’s associate editors, three members of our editorial team rotated out this year. They are Becky Reuber, Trish Reay, and Carlo Salvato. While Carlo and Trish joined the Review Board, Becky is on the Advisory Board of FBR and Chaired the Best Paper Selection Committee this year. All three editors have continued to process the manuscripts that were under “their care” when their terms ended. New associate editors who joined the team this year are W. Gibb Dyer, Daniel Holt, Nadine Kammerlander, and Alessandro Minichilli. The strength of FBR relies on the exceptional diligence and integrity of its superb editorial team!

Our nine Advisors are equally amazing. Not only do they take turns with the Best Paper Selection Committee, they are always available for counsel and generous with their support and encouragement to our editorial team. Michael Carney and Becky Reuber joined the Advisory Board as Jess Chua and Kelin Gersick rotated out in 2015.

Every fall, the editorial team carefully goes through the contributions of its review board members and ad hoc reviewers to determine the changes needed. With the establishment of the new Research Applied Board, several changes were made in 2015 that have helped strengthen the journal. At FBR, we are distinctly privileged to have an amazing level of support from the scholarly community. While some journal editors worry about getting enough reviewers to read the manuscripts submitted, we have to keep an eye on making sure all members of our review board and interested ad hoc reviewers are duly engaged during the year.

Process

During 2015, 205 submissions with first authors located in 39 countries were received. This number is lower than the 245 submissions in 2014. The slight drop in submissions is partially a factor of the timing of special issue due dates. ² In general, FBR seems to have stabilized in terms of the number of submissions being received annually. About 24% of the submissions came from the United States, followed by 10% from Spain, and about 7.5% each from Germany and Italy.

Thanks to the hard work of our editors and reviewers, and partially due to the editorial review of the proposals submitted for the special Process and Variance Methods in Family Business Research issue to appear in March 2017, the average turnaround time from first submission to final decision was about 26 days, as compared with 38.5 days in 2014. Of the 188 manuscripts processed to decision in 2015 (others are in process at the moment), 112 decisions were sent out in less than 30 days; 67 in 31 to 60 days; and 9 in 61 to 90 days. At FBR, our intention is to ensure that the review process is constructive and developmental for all authors regardless of the outcome. Thus, each received submission, including those that are desk rejected, receives careful reading from at least two scholars ³ in the field before a decision is made. At FBR, the average reviewer turnaround time was 18 days, even though our reviewer invitation letter asks for reviews to be turned in 21 days.

One of the more challenging yet rewarding tasks of our editorial team is the selection of Best Reviewer Award winners. This award is reserved for members of the review board. For the first time, this year, we announced the winners of this award at the FBR meetings during the Academy of Management conference in August, though the awards were presented at Family Firm Institute’s annual conference in October. To qualify for these awards, a reviewer must have completed at least three reviews with a minimum rating of four out of five, or at least two reviews with a rating of five out of five. In addition, the average turnaround time must not exceed 21 days.

Frank Barbera was the top reviewer of the year. He reviewed five manuscripts and received a perfect score of five from three different action editors. His average turnaround time was 14 days. Other excellent reviewers recognized this year were Yannick Bammens, Andrea Colli, Alfredo de Massis, Dmitry Khanin, Aaron McKenny, Salvatore Sciascia, Philipp Sieger, and Tensie Steijvers. It is interesting to note that our top nine reviewers are from eight countries, indicating not only the wide geographic interest in FBR but also the boundary-less nature of exceptional reviewing.

Content

Eighteen articles coauthored by 49 scholars from 15 countries were published in Volume 28 (2015) of FBR. Multiple authored articles continue to dominate the field as there was only one single authored article published this year. Eight were two-authored articles (44.5%), another five by three authors (27%), three by four authors, and one was the work of five authors. There is a refreshing expansion of methods employed in research. The year 2015 saw perhaps the first experimental design based work (Hatek & Roessl, 2015), visual ethnography (Smith, 2015), and a study based on biblical theology and linguistic analysis (Drakopoulou Dodd & Dyck, 2015). A healthy mix of conceptual, theory building, and testing works appeared this year. A balance of qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to understand the unique dilemmas of small privately held to large public firms. Mentoring/advising was the focus of three articles and behavioral topics such as career advancement, communication, diversity management emerged; while the traditional focus on financial and socioemotional performance and innovation continued. In short, this volume is a nice combination of continuity and new explorations, in our collective attempts to build deeper understanding on issues important to enterprising families.

FBR’s Best Paper Selection Committee chaired by Becky Reuber was formed of Joern Block, Michael Carney, and Justin Webb. Michael-Tsabari, Labaki, and Zachary’s (2014) article presenting a cluster model to capture entrepreneurial behaviors over generations won the best paper award, while Campopiano, De Massis, and Chirico’s (2014) article on philanthropy in small- and medium-sized family firms was chosen for honorable mention. Warm congratulations to the winners and our deep gratitude to the awards committee.

FBR’s editorials focus on practical issues related to manuscript preparation and publication processes. At times, we discuss career related issues that are brought up by our readers. The editorial in the March issue is typically an annual report and overview of the past year. Three topics of focus in the editorials of 2015 were the following: ethical publishing (Payne & Ireland, June 2015), referencing in scholarly articles (Pearson & Sharma, September 2015), and reviewing from an editor’s perspective (Carr & Voordeckers, December 2015). All recent editorials of FBR are available through the Editor’s Choice web page. We are encouraged by the number of downloads of our editorials as each month one or more appear in the Top 10 Downloaded of FBR. If you think of topics we must focus on, please let us know.

Since 2008, FBR has published one special issue a year. In 2014, we published two topical issues on “Temporal Dimensions” (March 2014) and “Social Issues Related to the Family Enterprise” (September 2014). As a consequence, the backlog of regularly submitted and accepted articles was building up. So, no special issues appeared in 2015. But the first issue of 2016 is FBR’s First Review Issue and work is under way for the next two special issues to appear in March 2017 (Process and Variance Methods) and March 2018 (Second Review Issue).

For your continued interest in and support of Family Business Review, on behalf of our editorial team, thank you!