Academy of Management Review Special Topic Forum

Formal Approaches to Management Theory

Due Date: January 31, 2007

Guest Editors:
Ron Adner, INSEAD
Laszlo Polos, Durham Business School
Michael Ryall, Melbourne Business School
Olav Sorenson, University of Toronto

Background

Central to any progressive science is the discovery of new theory and the logical development of new theoretical implications. Most theory development and articulation within management and organizational studies have proceeded through the use of verbal argumentation. Many notable exceptions nonetheless exist: Simulations have usefully identified some of the counterintuitive advantages of learning slowly (exploration), demonstrated that ecological competition may not remove inefficient organizational forms from the population, and examined why moderate levels of interdependence between the operations of an organization may form the basis of competitive advantage (replication without imitation). Formal mathematical modeling has uncovered surprising implications regarding such topics as the formation of status hierarchies and for theories such as organizational ecology. And recent logical formalizations have identified several implicit assumptions and new implications for both contingency theory and organizational ecology.

Through this special topic forum we hope to encourage new theory development and the articulation of new implications of existing theory concerning organizational phenomena through the use of formal methods: mathematical models, simulations and formal logical models. We seek papers that confront core management issues and that generate substantive new insights.

Formal approaches to theory building provide tools for translating theoretical ideas into a formal language that requires precise definitions and statements of assumptions. This precise language allows researchers to go beyond intuition to draw on a wealth of analytical and computational tools in understanding the implications of a set of governing assumptions. These tools allow theorists not only to check their logic but also to develop a wide range of testable implications. Specifying assumptions and the relationships between them also facilitates the elaboration and extension of theories and findings.

Formal modeling papers should contain novel results proved using appropriate methods with the necessary assumptions and analytical objects clearly identified. Simulations should produce new theory or elaborate new derivations from existing theory.

Because one of our objectives is to expand the audience for formal theory, prospective authors should write their papers in a fashion that is both rigorous and accessible to the uninitiated. We will favor submissions that present their findings and supporting arguments in a manner that allows readers without specialized training in the formal method to interpret and follow. For example, in addition to the formal proofs, authors should depict their results graphically or include verbal versions of their propositions and the intuition behind them. In this respect, we strongly encourage prospective authors to think creatively regarding how to open their work to a wider audience. Papers deemed inaccessible to the readership of AMR may be returned without review.

Although not exhaustive, the following set of research questions includes issues that one could address through simulation or formal modeling:

• Where do fads and fashions come from?
  
  
• How does endogenous sampling influence decision-making?
  
  
• How do the population dynamics of buyers and suppliers influence one another?
  
  
• How does group composition affect the efficiency and innovativeness of teams?
  
  
• What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for a firm to have a competitive advantage?
  
  
• How do selection processes at different levels (e.g. within and across firms) interact?
  
  
• How does the optimal organization structure vary with the task environment?
  
  
• Where do interorganizational networks come from and how do they affect firm performance?
  
  
• Under what conditions can incumbent organizations successfully adapt to environmental change?

To handle such a broad range of methods and topics, we have assembled a diverse set of editors for the Forum: Ron Adner (INSEAD, ron.adner@insead.edu), Laszlo Polos (Durham Business School, laszlo.polos@durham.ac.uk), Michael Ryall (Melbourne Business School, m.ryall@mbs.edu), and Olav Sorenson (University of Toronto, olav.sorenson@rotman.utoronto.ca).

Submissions

To be considered for publication in this Special Topic Forum, manuscripts must be received by January 31, 2007. (Please do not submit papers for this Special Topic Forum prior to January 1, 2007.) Manuscripts should be submitted through the Manuscript Central submission system (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amr/). From there, you can follow the Web site directions to submit your manuscript for this special topic forum issue. Details concerning AMR's procedures and evaluation criteria are available online and are printed in all issues of the journal in a section titled Information for Contributors. Instructions for manuscript preparation are provided in the Style Guide for Authors, printed online and in each January issue of the journal. Authors must consult both documents and follow them when submitting manuscripts.