Editorial

Abstract

And SO! it goes

The publication of this issue marks two important points in the SO! journey. We say good-bye to Joel Baum. And, after the first 12 months of collectively serving as coeditors, we set the stage for the next generation of the journal. So, we write this editorial to celebrate both the past and the future.

SO! long and thanks for all the dish

Joel has now sailed off into the sunset, and in true Hitchhikers’ guide fashion, we wish to thank him for everything he did over the years to build SO! and nurture the community of strategic organization scholars. In the last year, mostly behind the scenes, Joel diligently continued to serve as a Consulting Editor: However, this issue includes among the last articles shepherded through under his watchful eye (with one final JB article to appear in Strategic Organization 11(2)). He has been a great resource to our team, and we are sorry to see him go. We wish him safe sailing and urge him to always keep a good supply of towels handy.

SO! WHAT award for scholarly contribution

The first issue of the year is also the occasion to announce the journal’s annual “SO!WHAT” awards. These were first presented in 2008. One is given for the most outstanding article and one for the most outstanding essay published in SO! 5 years earlier. Award winners are selected by the coeditors, after considering citations in the Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar, downloads from so.sagepub.com, as well as qualitative evidence of the publication’s impact on subsequent research. Recipients receive a certificate commemorating the award and a 5-year subscription to SO!

We had the privilege of selecting this year’s winners, selected from within Volume 6 (2008):

Best article

Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research

Guilhem Bascle, SO! 6(3)

Abstract: This article offers a framework to understand how endogeneity arises and how to control for it with instrumental variables to estimate causal relations with observational data. It builds on the state-of-the-art research in applied and theoretical econometrics to highlight the importance of endogeneity and review the methods that can be used to address it with instrumental variables. This article also discusses when the Heckman two-step procedure can be used, as well as the tests, methods, and assumptions that researchers should check when using instrumental variables. To ease implementation of the instrumental variable techniques, the author offers the STATA commands of the exposed tests and methods. Further, an empirical example is provided along with the utilized STATA codes. In the end, this article serves as a “toolkit” allowing scholars not only to understand whether endogeneity is present in their empirical setting but also to assess the empirical validity of their work when using instrumental variables.

Best essay

Strategy as practice?

Chris Carter, Martin Kornberger, Stewart Clegg, SO! 6(1)

How the authors describe their purpose: In this essay, we seek to advance the current debate in the field of strategy in several respects: First, we discuss the intellectual genesis of the strategy as practice approach and describe its institutionalization. Second, we examine critically the extent to which the strategy as practice approach has advanced our understanding of strategizing and organizing. Finally, we introduce a perspective that makes strategy more critical. Building on performative, symbolic, processual, and critical theory, such an approach is sociologically and philosophically more robust than the “first wave” of the strategy as practice literature.

We congratulate the authors of the “best article” and the “best essay” for their terrific work and urge our readers to give these useful and provocative pieces a second look.

Recalling SO!’s editorial policy

Our authors deserve timely feedback and expect that editorial feedback and decisions will be constructive, informed, and challenge them to improve their work. Here is how we ensure that this occurs.

Authors whose work is not sent out for editorial review, either because it does not fit the journal’s aims and scope or because it is not developed sufficiently for our one-revision editorial policy, receive a letter explaining the decision from the coeditors within 10–14 days.

Manuscripts accepted for full review are sent (double-blind) to three editorial board members who focus on the substance and rigor of submissions, providing discipline and method neutral feedback that challenges authors to strengthen their work while maintaining their voice. Authors receive reviewer feedback and a decision letter from the coeditors within 60–90 days.

It is gratifying to continually receive responses from our authors indicating that we are meeting these standards. We are indebted to our editorial board for enabling us to provide our authors the highest possible quality feedback on their work and to continue to do so within our target time windows despite the continually increasing volume of submissions.

The chart in Figure 1 illustrates the editorial outcomes for submission during a 12-month period. Notable among these figures is the continued high rate at which submissions are returned to authors by the coeditors without being sent out for blind review. All submissions are carefully screened by the coeditors before being sent out for review. Because our publication decisions are made after no more than one major revision, a policy we adopted to ensure a prompt review process, the quality and development stage of initial submissions greatly affects their likelihood of being accepted for full editorial review.

Figure 1

Editorial outcomes October 2010–2011.

Also notable is the continued high rejection rate relative to the rate at which revisions were invited and articles were accepted. SO!’s editorial board members continue to be willing to accept only the very best work—We look forward to receiving yours.

10th anniversary SO! special issue

The 10th anniversary SO!APBOX special issue is available online at http://soq.sagepub.com/content/10/3.toc. This forum includes 15 provocative SO!APBOX editorials penned by members of our outstanding international editorial board. In the tradition of prior essays, these clearly chart new waters in the field of strategic organization. They offer thoughtful, informed reflection on interdisciplinary bridges, research topics and directions, and methodological issues that are critical to the further development of Strategic Organization—the journal and the field.

SO! Who? Teppo joins us

As we turned to the future with the new editorial team on board, it became clear that submissions are up and, in order to give each submitted article the attention it deserves, we realized we needed to add a fourth coeditor. We are therefore delighted to announce that Teppo Felin has joined our team. In the spirit of this journal, Teppo has worked diligently to bridge the fields of strategy and organizational theory, and we look forward to his contributions.

In addition, to ensure a high-quality and timely review process for our authors, we maintain a working, international editorial board of slightly more than 100 leading scholars and researchers sufficiently broad in expertise to carry out all the journal’s reviewing; SO! uses no ad hoc reviewers. Each year, we refresh the board, creating opportunities for 10–15 new top-notch scholars to contribute to SO!’s further advance, and we thank our past board members by releasing them from further duty. We wish to thank the following members for their service to the journal as they step down from our editorial board:

Bruno Cassiman, University of Navarra, Spain

Stanislav D Dobrev, University of Utah, USA

Rodolphe Durand, HEC Paris, France

Peter Roberts, Emory University, USA

Frank T Rothermael, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Ken G Smith, University of Rhode Island, USA

We also invite you to welcome the following new editorial board members to the team:

Kevin Boudreau, London Business School, UK

Robert David, McGill University, Canada

Alfonso Gambardella, Bocconi University, Italy

Samina Karim, Boston University, USA

Candace Jones, Boston College, USA

Yasmin Kor, University of South Carolina, USA

Fabrice Lumineau, Purdue University, USA

Corey Phelps, HEC Paris, France

Hart Posen, University of Wisconsin, USA

Phanish Puranam, INSEAD, Singapore

Jasjit Singh, INSEAD, Singapore

Paul Tracey, University of Cambridge, UK

Gianmario Verona, Bocconi University, Italy

Open call for article and essay submissions

SO! continues to welcome article submissions that have a strong interdisciplinary base and reflect a clear understanding of the related strategic and organizational literatures. Empirical and theoretical articles published in SO! are conducted soundly and rigorously within their genre and discipline. Preferred submissions identify a compelling strategic organization topic and a strong conceptual framework for tackling it. We do not accept for review literature reviews or propositional inventories.

In addition to regular refereed articles, we also welcome proposals for SO!APBOX editorial essays. A soapbox is a platform used by a self-appointed, spontaneous, or informal orator, or more broadly an outlet for delivering opinions. These editorial essays are a forum for thought-provoking informed opinion and reflection, forging interdisciplinary bridges and new research directions, debating methodological traditions, and staking out the field of strategic organization.

Submission and review processes for articles and editorial essays are described on the inside-back cover of journal and in more detail at SAGE Journals Online at so.sagepub.com

As we take SO! forward, we are impressed by the founding team’s achievements and committed to SO!’s mandate of encouraging high-quality scholarship bridging strategy and organization and providing a forum for provocative editorials that speak insightfully to critical issues and debates within the field. We believe that the reputation of SO! is now sufficiently well established to enable it to embark on several new initiatives and are currently considering an annual special issue focused on topic areas within the field that appear to deserve special attention. We will be talking with members of the editorial board regarding their ideas. If you have innovative ideas for a special issue topic, please approach an editorial board member who can champion the cause.

Stay tuned for further announcements. Mostly, though, keep those articles coming!

Russ Coff, Teppo Felin, Ann Langley and Tim Rowley Coeditors