2016 News and Announcements from the Coeditors

So! long, thank you and welcome!

The first piece of news is that Russ Coff is stepping down after 3 years with the coeditorial team. We are very sad to see him go, but congratulate him on his new responsibilities as President of the Strategic Management Society. As all who have benefited from his counsel and commitment know, he is a great colleague and he has been a fantastic coeditor, indeed a model for us all, providing highly pragmatic and useful advice to authors and generally making decisions well within our target average timeframe of 60 days or less (something we aim to pursue and emulate). He has been phasing out his editorial activities in 2015, and most of the manuscripts he has been handling have moved through the system and will appear (if accepted) at the latest in 2016. Thank you, Russ!

We are also pleased to announce that Robert David of McGill University and Gianmario Verona of Bocconi University have joined the editorial team as of January 2016. We have moved to five coeditors to handle the increasing workload. Robert David is Associate Professor of Strategy and Organization at McGill University and has expertise in organization theory and entrepreneurship. Gianmario Verona is Professor of Management and Technology at Bocconi University and has particular expertise in technology and innovation management, dynamic capabilities, and the resource-based view of the firm. Both are methodologically versatile, having published work using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Welcome to SO! and a special thank you for joining us from Teppo, Ann, and Tim!

In addition to the changes in coeditorship, we also thank editorial board members who have stepped down in 2015 after several years of service: Tunji Adegbesan, Marie-Laure Djelic, Hart Posen, Ray Reagans, Myles Shaver, Andrew Shipilov, Zeki Simsek, and Jasjit Singh. And we welcome new editorial board members: John Amis, Richard Arend, Jean-Luc Arrègle, Stefano Brusoni, Donal Crilly, Giada Di Stefano, Kimberly Ellis, Koen Heimeriks, Aaron Hill, Martin Kornberger, Jean-Baptiste Litrico, Andrea Prencipe, Matthew Semadeni, Frank Wijen, and Tammar Zilber. We look forward to working with you.

The 2015 SO!WHAT awards for scholarly contribution

We are delighted to announce this year’s SO!WHAT awards for scholarly contribution. These awards were launched in 2008 to recognize the most outstanding article and the most outstanding essay published in SO! 5 years earlier. Award winners are selected by the coeditors, after considering citations in the Web of Science and Google Scholar, downloads from http://soq.sagepub.com, as well as qualitative evidence of the publication’s importance and impact on subsequent research. Recipients receive a certificate commemorating the award and a 5-year subscription to the journal. SO!WHAT Award-winning papers back to 2008 are posted in a separate section of the journal website, and are available free to download and enjoy.

This year’s winners, selected from Volume 9 (2011), are as follows:

Ravasi, D. and Phillips, N. (2011) “Strategies of Alignment: Organizational Identity Management and Strategic Change at Bang & Olufsen,” Strategic Organization 9(2): 103–35.

This article draws on case study evidence to show how organizational identity and strategy are related. As explained in the abstract, “the study’s findings highlight the internal identity work—or identity management—that organizational leaders engage in to preserve the congruence between internal identity beliefs and top managers’ strategic investments and projections.” Clearly situated at the confluence of organization theory and strategic management, this article reflects well the mission of SO!

This year, we are naming joint So!apbox essay winners, both part of a So!apbox forum on climate change published in 2011:

Hoffman, A. J. (2011) “The Culture and Discourse of Climate Skepticism,” Strategic Organization 9(1): 77–84.

Knox-Hayes, J. and Levy, D. L. (2011) “The Politics of Carbon Disclosure as Climate Governance,” Strategic Organization 9(1): 91–9.

These two essays calling attention to an important issue of our time from different perspectives are clearly just as (if not more) relevant today as they were when they were originally published.

Congratulations to all award winners!

Forthcoming Special Issues and other features

SO!’s first thematic Special Issue on “Strategic Responses to Institutional Complexity,” guest edited by Patrick Vermeulen, Charlene Zietsma, Royston Greenwod, and Ann Langley, will appear in 2016 and is shaping up to include four or five articles and two So!apbox essays. Articles for a second Special Issue call on the topic “Organizing Crowds and Innovation,” guest edited by Teppo Felin, Karim Lakhani, and Michael Tushman, are currently under second review, and the selected manuscripts will be published in 2017. At the time of writing, manuscripts are being received for a third Special Issue on “Strategic Management Theory and Universities,” guest edited by Donald Siegel and David Teece. We have been very gratified by the interest in these Special Issues and believe they will make a substantial contribution. If you have ideas for future Special Issues, do not hesitate to contact one of the coeditors.

In 2016, we will also be publishing a Special So!apbox Essay Forum on the Strategic Organization of Strategic Management Scholarship with a set of essays discussing the organization of our field. Again, we are open to ideas for future So!apbox fora.

In addition, we have pursued the creation of virtual Special Issues that collect together existing articles from the journal’s archive under thematic headings. The latest virtual Special Issue—the SO! Social Issues Collection—is now online. This showcases some of the journal’s most interesting articles and essays on social issues in strategy. We expect to see increasing interest in topics such as these in the journal’s pages in coming years.

Editorial review process

The coeditors of SO! would like to reaffirm their commitment to our expedited and developmental review process that only allows a single revision on all submitted manuscripts. This means that we either reject or conditionally accept manuscripts based on the reviews of the first revision. Sometimes we offer a conditional acceptance with a fairly long list of conditions, but we as coeditors take on the responsibility to accompany the author through the process at that point. We believe that this policy is fairer and better for authors, avoiding the uncertainty and angst of multiple revisions, and achieving more rapid publication than we see in most journals in the field. It is not uncommon for papers to be published online within 15–18 months of initial submission if the stars are aligned. Our single revision policy also avoids overburdening our dedicated reviewers and editorial board members. However, while a single revision process leads to faster outcomes, it also means that submissions lacking the basic ingredients are more likely to be rejected. Authors need to ensure that their initial submissions are theoretically and methodologically sound (and aligned!), and that their articles’ contributions are clearly articulated.

In the review process, we ensure that feedback to authors is constructive, informed, and challenges them to improve their work. Authors whose manuscripts are not sent out for editorial review, either because the manuscript does not fit the journal’s aims and scope or because the manuscript is not developed sufficiently for our one-revision editorial policy, receive a letter explaining the decision from the coeditors, usually within 14 days. Manuscripts accepted for full review are sent (double-blind) to three reviewers. We make every effort to provide a detailed and constructive decision letter within 60–90 days.

For new submissions between October 2014 and September 2015, 41% of papers were returned to their authors by the coeditors without being sent out for blind review, 43% were rejected after blind review, and 16% were invited to revise and resubmit their work for further consideration after review. Our overall acceptance rate for manuscripts is around 8%.

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 topic within the domain of strategic organization and provide a strong conceptual framework for tackling it.

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.

The 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 http://soq.sagepub.com. Do not hesitate to contact one of us if you have queries.

Once again, watch our website for further announcements, and keep the manuscripts coming!