Scholarship and Publishing:
Are There Best Practices?
S. Tamer Cavusgil
The John W. Byington Endowed Chair in Global Marketing
Michigan State University
Internationalizing Doctoral Business Education in Business
A Ph.D. Seminar
29-31 July 2004
East Lansing, Michigan
An Art that can be Mastered
• Just as in teaching, there are skills in
successful publishing
• Can learn from the masters, as well as
from your own experiences
• “Luck is the residue of planning,
preparation, and discipline”
• Crafting manuscripts for publication
should be rewarding in itself; need to
“enjoy the process!”
Target Suitable Journals
Character of publication outlets varies
greatly:
• Topical coverage
• Empirical vs. qualitative papers
• Managerial vs. academic focus
• Refereed vs. open submission vs by
invitation
• Target audience/readership profile
• Acceptance rate
• Frequency of publication…
Do this BEFORE you…!
• Have your methodology reviewed prior
to collecting data
• Decide on a target outlet before you
write the paper
• Peruse recent issues of the target
journal to gather impressions of length,
formatting, etc., before submission
• Have your manuscript reviewed before
you submit it to a journal
Knowing Where to Submit…
Academy of Management Review
Academy of Management Journal
Advances in International Marketing (Elsevier)
Asian Journal of Marketing (Singapore)
Business Horizons (Indiana University)
California Management Review
European Journal of Marketing
Industrial Marketing Management (Elsevier)
International Business Review (Elsevier; EIBA)
International J. of Research in Marketing (EMAC)
Journal of Business Research (Elsevier)
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS)
Knowing Where to Submit…
(cont.)
Journal of Consumer Research (ACR)
Journal of International Business Studies (AIB)
Journal of International Marketing (AMA)
Journal of Macromarketing
Journal of Marketing (AMA)
Journal of Marketing Research (AMA)
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing (AMA)
Journal of World Business
Long Range Planning (Pergamon)
Management International Review (Germany)
Sloan Management Journal (MIT)
Strategic Management Journal
Thunderbird International Business Review (Wiley)
JIBS Editorial Team
Editor-in-Chief
Arie Y. Lewin, Duke University, USA
Associate Editors-in-Chief
Henk W. Volberda, Erasmus University, The Netherlands
S. Tamer Cavusgil, Michigan State University, USA
Donald Lessard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Joan Enric Ricart, IESE Business School, Spain
Jiing-Lih Farh, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, PR China
Departmental Editors
Economics, Finance and Accounting
Raj Aggarwal, Kent State University, USA
Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School, USA
Jose Manuel Campa, IESE Business School, Spain
Bernard Yin Yeung, New York University, USA
Marketing, Consumer Behaviour and Supply
Chain Management
G. Tomas M. Hult, Michigan State University, USA
Guliz Ger, Bilkent University, Turkey
Business Dynamics and Strategy
J. Myles Shaver, University of Minnesota, USA
Brian Silverman, University of Toronto, Canada
Nicolai Juul Foss, Copenhagen Business School,
Denmark
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard University Business
School, USA
Organization and Management
Anand Swaminathan, University of California,
Davis, USA
Charles Galunic, INSEAD, France
Terri Scandura, University of Miami, USA
Culture, Conflict and Cognition
Kwok Leung, City University of Hong Kong,
PR China
Rick Larrick, Duke University, USA
International Political Economy and
Comparative Capitalism
Lorraine Eden, Texas A & M University, USA
Mary A. O'Sullivan, INSEAD, France
Entrepreneurship and New Ventures
Phil Anderson, INSEAD, France
Mike Lubatkin, University of Connecticut, USA
and EM Lyon, France
Strategic HR and Industrial Relations
Mari Sako, Saïd Business School, University
of Oxford, UK
Mary Ann Von Glinow, Florida International
University, USA
Technology and Innovation
Tom Murtha, University of Minnesota, USA
JIBS and JIM
• Journal of International Business Studies
is published quarterly by the Academy of
International Business; an association of
3,000 professionals worldwide
• Journal of International Marketing is
published quarterly by the American
Marketing Association, an association of
25,000 professionals
• Journal of International Business Studies
is guided by an editor, associate editors,
departmental editors, and editorial board
(~40), and ad hoc reviewers (~300)
JIBS and JIM
(cont.)
• Annual submissions are over 300
(JIBS) and 100 (JIM)
• About 20 percent are desk rejected
• About 20 percent are asked to revise
• About 10% (JIBS) / 18% (JIM) are
eventually published
• Moving toward electronic manuscript
handling
JIBS Domain is IB including…
• Multinational and transnational business
activities, strategies and managerial
processes that cross national boundaries
• Joint ventures, strategic alliances,
mergers and acquisitions
• Interactions of such firms with their
economic, political and cultural
environments
JIBS Domain is IB including
(cont.)
•Cross national research involving innovation,
entrepreneurship, knowledge based
competition, judgment and decision making,
bargaining, leadership, corporate governance
and new organizational forms
•Inter-disciplinary contributions, challenging
the paradigms and assumptions of single
disciplines or functions, are especially
welcome
JIM
Daniel C. Bello
EDITOR
Diana Zaharieva
ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR
Editorial Review Board
G. Tomas M. Hult
Michigan State University
Saeed Samiee
University of Tulsa
Lyn S. Amine
St. Louis University
Subhash C. Jain
University of Connecticut
Catherine Axinn
Ohio University
Johny K. Johansson
Georgetown University
Bodo B. Schlegelmilch
Vienna University of Economics and
Business Administration
Paul W. Beamish
University of Western Ontario
Kostas Katsikeas
Cardiff Business School
Jean J. Boddewyn
Baruch College
Warren J. Keegan
Lubin School of Business
Muzaffer Bodur
Bogazici University, Istanbul
Gary A. Knight
Florida State University
Frank Bradley
University College, Dublin
Masaaki Kotabe
Temple University
Roger J. Calantone
Michigan State University
Philip Kotler
Northwestern University
S. Tamer Cavusgil
Michigan State University
V. Kumar
University of Houston
Michael R. Czinkota
Georgetown University
Tage Koed Madsen
Odense University
Adamantios Diamantopoulos
Loughborough University
Naresh K. Malhotra
Georgia Tech Institute of Technology
Susan P. Douglas
New York University
Lars-Gunnar Mattsson
Stockholm School of Economics
Dale Duhan
Texas Tech University
Hans Mühlbacher
Universität Innsbruck
Hubert Gatignon
INSEAD
Aysegül Özsomer
Koç University
Robert T. Green
Thammasat University, Bangkok
Jaqueline Pels
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
David Griffith
Michigan State University
Nigel F. Piercy
Warwick Business School
Hartmut Holzmüller
Universität Dortmund
John K. Ryans
Kent State University
John Hulland
University of Pittsburgh
Bernd Schmitt
Columbia University
Jagdish N. Sheth
Emory University
Aviv Shoham
University of Haifa
Barbara Stöttinger
Vienna University of Economics and
Business Administration
Nader Tavassoli
London Business School
Vern Terpstra
University of Michigan
Hans B. Thorelli
Indiana University
Jean-Claude Usunier
University of Lausanne
P. Rajan Varadarajan
Texas A&M University
Lawrence S. Welch
University of Melbourne
George S. Yip
London Business School
Shaoming Zou
University of Missouri, Columbia
Proper Positioning
• Does your paper have a non-ambiguous purpose
as primarily:
– Empirical
– Methodological
– Conceptual / thought piece
– Replication
– Case study
– Literature review or meta analysis?
• Does it fit nicely with a literature stream?
• Does it represent a programmatic evolution?
• Does it have a modest, rather than ambitious,
promise? (The narrower the better!)
New or Novel Contribution?
• Fresh insights, explanations
• Crystallize thinking
• Offer new constructs or
conceptualization
• Prescriptions for management
• Explain industry or executive behavior
• Add to a debate
Now, the Crafting Part…
• Your skill as a story teller: Take the reader
through the steps
• Don’t be a mystery writer! Convey your
message early and simply; grab the reader’s
interest
• Be meticulous with respect to structure,
organization, flow, style, referencing,
grammar…
• Get help from professional editors to improve
readability
• Make ample use of tables, charts, illustrations
• Is the length commensurate with
contribution?
Those Gatekeepers!
• Until accepted, you have written the
paper for 3-4 gatekeepers!
• Try to anticipate their potential
objections
• Acknowledge key contributors to
research stream
• Be prepared for harsh and inconsistent
reviews; don’t take it personally
• Rejection is not failure if you learn from
it!
Discipline in the Revision Process
• Invitation to revise: Cause for
celebration!
• Revision = Success at major journals
• Be prompt; revision at a top journal
should be a top priority!
Top 10 Reasons for Rejection
10. Wrong journal!
9. Topic too trivial
8. Results too obvious
7. Analysis is flawed
6. Measures are weak
5. Inappropriate method
4. Weak empirical support
3. Inadequate conceptualization/theory
2. “Half-baked” ideas
1. Marginal contribution
Useful Reading…
“From the Editor: Reflections on Research
and Publishing,” P.R. Varadarajan, Journal
of Marketing, Vol. 60 (October 1996), 3-6.
“Guidelines for Conducting Research and
Publishing in Marketing: From
Conceptualization Through the Review
Process,” J.D. Summers, Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 29
(Fall 2001), 405-415.