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Management/OB Research:

Bridging an Asian-U.S. Model

Timothy A. Judge

University of Florida

Doctoral Graduates of Business Administration at NTU Conference

9 December 2006

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Outline The American model

What causes article to be published? What determines impact once published?

Are American journals publishing more articles by Asian scholars?

Future of American and Asian management research

Questions and answers

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American ModelWhat causes an article to be published?

• Caveat: I most certainly do not have all the answers

• With that in mind…what follows is a summary of what I know

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Recent Decision LetterJournal of Applied Psychology – 9.12.06

Both reviewers indicate that the theoretical underpinnings of your study are weak and have a number of related concerns regarding the theoretical rationale for your hypotheses, ambiguities and confusion in the logic you use to build your arguments, and fundamental inconsistencies between your treatment of constructs and relations and the broader literatures from which they are drawn. These are fundamental theoretical concerns which, when taken together with limitations of your research design, raise serious questions about the potential incremental contribution of your study and paper to the literature.

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American ModelWhat causes an article to be published?

1. Generating an Idea

2. Designing a Study

3. Getting Data

4. Writing a Paper

5. Submitting a Paper

6. Revising a Paper

7. Publishing a Paper

FocusToday

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Publishing an Article1. Generating an Idea

What’s a good idea? A mix of:1. Methodological quality (independent data sources,

reliable measures, eliminates confounds, adheres to measurement principles)

2. Interestingness (novel, thought-provoking, controversial)

3. Hole in the literature (“little or no research has looked at X, Y, and Z”) Note that this can’t compensate for a lack of 1 or 2 (e.g., no

one in OB has studied the length of managers’ toenails)

4. Drawing from outside area

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Publishing an ArticleInterestingness—Davis (1971)

Interesting theories deny certain assumptions of their audience All interesting theories…attack the taken-for-granted worlds of

their audiences

Interesting propositions involve the radical distinction between seeming and being, between the subject of phenomenology and the subject of ontology

An audience finds a proposition interesting not because it tells them some truth they did not already know, but instead because it tells them some truth they thought they already knew was wrong

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Publishing an ArticleDavis (Continued)

Actually, the mediocre in the social sciences (and probably the natural sciences too) can be defined as those who take the textbook rules of scientific procedures too literally and too exclusively. It should be clear from the above discussion that those who lack what is called "the creative spark" are in fact those who fail to take into account the assumption-grounds of their audiences.

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Publishing an ArticleExamples: Interesting Ideas

Compositiona. What seem to be assorted heterogeneous phenomena are in reality

composed of a single element (Plato)

b. What seems to be a single phenomenon is in reality composed of assorted heterogeneous elements (Aristotle)

Abstractiona. What seems to be an individual is in reality a holistic phenomenon

b. What seems to be a holistic is in reality an individual phenomenon

Evaluationa. What seems to be a bad is in reality a good phenomenon

b. What seems to be a good is in reality a bad phenomenon

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Publishing an Article7. Publishing a Paper

Luck is biggest but least important factor When do you stop trying to publish a paper

and move on? There is no clear answer to this, but generally if

something is rejected twice I “downshift”

How can we from our failures? With whom do we work?

Work with people who do it well

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Clear answers to these questions: Focus: What is this paper about? Purpose: What is it trying to accomplish? Theory: More on this in a moment Conceptual clarity: Are constructs defined? Are

relationships between them clearly stated? Success: Can the study do what it sets out to do? Does

it do that? Need: Do the findings make a significant theoretical and

empirical contribution?

Publishing an ArticleWhat Reviewers Want?

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Publishing an ArticleWhat Is a Theory?

Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out. The prediction and the later statement of result may be composed of the same terms in the same syntactic arrangement, the difference being in the degree of confidence. No empirical statement is wholly non-theoretical in this sense, because evidence is never complete, nor is any prediction probably ever made wholly without evidence. The term "theory" will not refer here to statements of these sorts but rather to any explanation of an observed fact which appeals to events taking place somewhere else, at some other level of observation, described in different terms, and measured, if at all, in different dimensions.

– B. F. Skinner (Psychological Review, 1950)

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Publishing an ArticleProcess Is Imperfect

Contribution often unrecognized 41st chair (Descartes)

Recognition to the recognized Matthew effect (Robert Merton)

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

America “bias” – this is narrowing I think

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Making an Impact Now turn to impact once article is

published (impact=peer recognition) Increasingly will become metric of success Merton: two theories of impact

Universalism: idea that success is built by talent and hard work

Particularism: idea that success hinges on status, networks, connections, reputation

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an Impact Separating universalism from particularism

is easier in theory than in practice Is journal quality universalistic (good journals are

indicators of best articles) or particularistic (good journals merely confer symbols of prestige)?

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an ImpactIndependent Variables

Article attributeswhen published, type of article (empirical, review, theoretical), # references, content area

Universalistic: idearesearch plot (refinement, extension, exploration)

Mixed (U&P)journal quality (SSCI impact factor), journal prestige (subjective), article first in issue

Universalistic: methodresponse rate, common methods, longitudinal, number of studies, student sample, reliable measures

Particularistictop-tier publications of authors, prestige of affiliation of first author, gender of first author

Universalistic: writingclarity of presentation, implications clearly described, length

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an Impact Articles published in the top 21

management journals Based on Gomez-Mejia and Balkin (AMJ, 1992)

For each of the 21 journals, we selected the first and last article from the first issue of each journal 1990-1994

Thus, selected roughly 30 articles from each journal (6 articles per year); N=614

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an Impact Impact was measured with the number of

citations that had accrued for each article, January 1990-July 2006, on the ISI Web of Science

Coded article characteristics using two coders

Average number of total citations was 41.84

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an ImpactWhat Mattered Most?

Exploration ideas (vs. refinement) Meta-analyses Quality of writing Only one methodological variable mattered Citation rating (SSCI impact factor) for journal Journal’s subjective prestige Number of top-tier articles by the authors Prestige of affiliation of the first author

Source: Judge, Colbert, Cable, and Rynes (in preparation)

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Making an ImpactIncremental Variance Explained

Primary Review/

Empiric Theory All Articles

Articles Articles Combined(N=342) (N=272) (N=614)

Article attributes: Controls .058*** .048** .053***

Universalistic attributes .089*** .058*** .037***

Mixed universalism and particularism .103*** .138*** .110***

Particularistic attributes .005 .030** .016**

Full model

Multiple R .684*** .686*** .645***

Overall Adjusted R2 .428*** .433*** .399***

Notes: Except for Full Model R and adjusted R2, statistics are unique R2 forvariable set. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

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Making an ImpactConclusion

Universalism and particularism matter Good and bad news Good news – quality of idea and writing appear to

matter So what is good idea?

Methodological trade-off Methodological rigor may get an article accepted

but it does not affect its impact What implications does this have?

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Asia Rising?Presence of Asians in Top Mgmt/OB Journals

Undertook study to determine whether Asian presence in management/OB research is accelerating

Analyzed percentage of all articles published that were authored by individual with Asian surname

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Asia Rising?Methodology

Analyzed publications of Asians in two top management journals Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP)

Asian Americans (American born) were noted included Broken down by Asian scholars outside of Asia

and Asian scholars at Asian institutions

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Asia Rising?Methodology (continued)

Only Asian countries included that published in journals during the time India, Japan, Korea (ROK), Mainland China

(PRC), Singapore, Taiwan (ROC), Vietnam

Only first three authors counted Five two-year periods examined

1985-1986, 1990-1991, 1995-1996, 2000-2001, 2005-2006

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Asia Rising?Academy of Management Journal (AMJ)

02468

101214161820

1985-1986

1990-1991

1995-1996

2000-2001

2005-2006

Asian-TOTAL

Asian-Asia

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Asia Rising?Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1985-1986

1990-1991

1995-1996

2000-2001

2005-2006

Asian-TOTALAsian-Asia

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Asia Rising?AMJ and JAP

02468

101214161820

1985-1986

1990-1991

1995-1996

2000-2001

2005-2006

JAP-Total

JAP-Asia

AMJ-Total

AMJ-Asia

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Asia Rising?AMJ and JAP

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1985-1986

1990-1991

1995-1996

2000-2001

2005-2006

Asian-Total

Asian-Asia

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Asia Rising?First Authorships: AMJ and JAP

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1985-1986 1990-1991 1995-1996 2000-2001 2005-2006

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Asia Rising?Conclusions

Without question Asian presence in top management/OB journals is increasing Trends appear to be somewhat different at AMJ

vs. JAP But important to remember numbers are

converging

Asian independence is increasing Asians employed in Asian universities Asians as senior authors on articles

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Asia Rising?Limitations and Extensions

Only studied two journals and only several time intervals Would be interesting to look at 21 management

journals This could be idea in itself!

Asia not monolithic – but not enough in my analysis to break down by country

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The FutureBridging US/Asian Research

Does culture always matter? Signs of progress

Asian study blind to culture American/Western study that considers cultural

homogeneity as limitation

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Questions or Comments?

These slides and my articles available at:www.ufstudies.net/tim/VITA