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Arbitrary decisions in ranking studies: A commentary on Xu, Yalcinkaya, and Seggie (2008)

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Abstract

This commentary evaluates the problems associated with creating rankings of individuals and institutions in International Business. It argues that the many—potentially arbitrary—decisions involved make the creation of rankings a hazardous affair.

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Notes

  1. One could argue that some core IB journals have a bias as well and might e.g. publish more articles in management than in marketing. However, they are generally accepted as core IB journals and are open to IB issues generally (incl. international marketing). The two marketing journals only refer to international marketing in their editorial policies.

  2. Twenty-three of these articles were JIMar book reviews; 64% of the book reviews published in JIMar between 1996–2006 were written by MSU academics. Presumably book reviews were excluded in the analysis of Xu et al.; I do not know this for sure as Xu et al. only mention the exclusion of letters, editorials and commentaries. Even when looking at full articles only, however, MSU publishes nearly three times as many articles in these journals than numbers two and three, i.e. 29 vs. 13 and ten.

  3. Please note that unlike Xu et al., Thomson ISI’s Web of Science combines the different campuses of the University of Texas. The fourteen publications in JIM and IMR include six publications by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin and three each by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas at El Paso.

  4. An analysis of articles published in all four “core IB journals” included in the article Xu et al. (JIBS, JWB, MIR, IBR) cannot be done easily as MIR is not included in the Thomson ISI database in the 1996–2006 period and IBR has only been included since 2005.

  5. Again please note that unlike Xu et al., Thomson ISI’s Web of Science combines the different campuses of the University of Texas. The 27 publications in JIBS, JWB and IBR include ten publications by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin, seven publications by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at Dallas, six publications by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at San Antonio, and two publications each by authors affiliated with the University of Texas at El Paso and Arlington.

  6. One recent example of a ranking study that utilizes this database is Mudambi, Peng, and Weng (2008).

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Anne-Wil Harzing

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  1. Anne-Wil Harzing
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Correspondence to Anne-Wil Harzing.

Additional information

I would like to thank the APJM Editor-in-Chief Mike Peng for inviting me to write this commentary, Shichun Xu, Goksel Yalcinkaya and Steven Seggie for providing me with the impetus to articulate some concerns that have been growing in my mind in the past years, and David Griffith for kindly responding to my email when I raised some of the concerns in this commentary. For a full discussion of the broader issue of academics rankings and evaluation, see “Everyone can be a winner: The sense and nonsense of academic rankings” [pending publication].

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Harzing, AW. Arbitrary decisions in ranking studies: A commentary on Xu, Yalcinkaya, and Seggie (2008). Asia Pac J Manage 25, 685–689 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-008-9088-1

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