Abstract
In striving for academic relevance and recognition, editors exert a significant influence on a journal’s mission and content. We examine how characteristics of editors, in particular the diversity of editorial teams, are related to journal impact. Our sample comprises 2244 editors who were affiliated with 645 volumes of 138 business and management journals. Using multi-level modeling, we relate editorial team characteristics to journal impact as reflected in three widely used measures: Five-year Impact Factor, SCImago Journal Rank, and Google Scholar h5 index. Results show that multiple editorships and editors’ affiliation to institutions of high reputation are positively related to journal impact, while the length of editors’ terms is negatively associated with impact scores. Surprisingly, we find that diversity of editorial teams in terms of gender and nationality is largely unrelated to journal impact. Our study extends the scarce knowledge on editorial teams and their relevance to journal impact by integrating different strands of literature and studying several demographic factors simultaneously. Results indicate that the editorial team’s scientific achievement is more decisive than team diversity in terms of journal impact. The study has useful implications for the composition of editorial teams.
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Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant No. 01PY13014).
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Journals in the sample
Academy of Management Annals
Academy of Management Journal
Academy of Management Learning & Education
Academy of Management Review
American Business Law Journal
Asia–Pacific Journal of Human Resources
Asia–Pacific Journal of Management
Australian Journal of Management
Business & Society
Business Ethics Quarterly
Business History
Business History Review
Business Horizons
California Management Review
Career Development International
Corporate Governance: An International Review
Culture and Organization (formerly Studies in Cultures, Organizations, and Societies)
Decision Sciences
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
Electronic Markets
Enterprise and Society
Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice
European Journal of International Management
European Journal of Marketing
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
European Management Journal
European Management Review
Family Business Review
Group and Organization Management
Group Decision and Negotiation
Human Relations
Human Resource Development Quarterly
Human Resource Management (US)
Human Resource Management Journal (UK)
Human Resource Management Review
IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
Industrial Marketing Management
Information & Management
Information and Organization
Information Technology and Management
Interfaces
International Journal of Advertising
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
International Journal of Forecasting
International Journal of Management Reviews
International Journal of Market Research
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
International Journal of Research in Marketing
International Journal of Selection and Assessment
International Journal of Technology Management
International Small Business Journal
International Transactions in Operational Research
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing (The)
Journal of Business and Psychology
Journal of Business Ethics
Journal of Business Logistics
Journal of Business Research
Journal of Business Venturing
Journal of Business to Business Marketing
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of Economics & Management Strategy
Journal of Engineering and Technology Management
Journal of Forecasting
Journal of Information Technology
Journal of Interactive Marketing
Journal of International Business Studies
Journal of International Management
Journal of International Marketing
Journal of Knowledge Management
Journal of Macromarketing
Journal of Management
Journal of Management & Organization
Journal of Management Information Systems
Journal of Management Inquiry
Journal of Management Studies
Journal of Managerial Psychology
Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology
Journal of Operations Management
Journal of Organizational Behavior
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management
Journal of Organizational Change Management
Journal of Product Innovation Management
Journal of Productivity Analysis
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management
Journal of Retailing
Journal of Service Research
Journal of Services Marketing
Journal of Small Business Management
Journal of Sport Management
Journal of Supply Chain Management
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Journal of World Business (Colombia)
Leadership
Leadership Quarterly
Long Range Planning
Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
Management and Organization Review
Management Communication Quarterly
Management Learning
Management Science
Managing Service Quality
Marketing Letters
Marketing Science
Marketing Theory
MIS Quarterly
MIS Quarterly Executive
New Technology, Work and Employment
Nonprofit Management and Leadership
OMEGA - International Journal of Management Science
Organization
Organization & Environment
Organization Science
Organization Studies
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Organizational Dynamics
Organizational Research Methods
Personnel Psychology
Personnel Review
Project Management Journal
Psychology and Marketing
Public Relations Review
Quantitative Marketing and Economics
Research in Organizational Behavior
Research Policy
Review of Industrial Organization
Small Business Economics
Strategic Management Journal
Strategic Organization
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Technovation
Tourism Management
Appendix 2
See Table 3.
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Petersen, J., Hattke, F. & Vogel, R. Editorial governance and journal impact: a study of management and business journals. Scientometrics 112, 1593–1614 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2434-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2434-7