Business Policies
2007 AOM BPS PROGRAM UPDATEBy Joseph T. Mahoney, BPS Program Chair, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCRAFTING THE 2007 BPS PROGRAM
The year 2007 marks a 50-year period since the last Academy of Management meeting in Philadelphia. Who at that 1957 meeting, I wonder, imagined the growth in the Academy that would take place? Indeed, expansion of the Business Policy and Strategy Division continues as a record 720 submissions were received for the 2007 BPS Program to be held in August. Last year’s record number of paper submissions was surpassed, resulting in a new all-time high of 655 paper submissions for this year’s program. Further, last year’s BPS Program Chair Russ Coff’s emphasis calling for more Symposia submissions was strongly heeded as the number of Symposia submissions almost doubled (from 33 to 65 submissions). Another milestone for the BPS Division is receiving submissions from over 1,000 unique authors. The rapid expansion of the Strategy field internationally is especially noteworthy as our BPS Division now has over half (52%) of its submissions from authors outside of the United States. Importantly, over 1,000 reviewers contributed, and authors and reviewers from 46 countries participated. These data indicate exciting changes taking place in the Business Policy and Strategy Division! The reviews are in! We are currently working on the BPS program and many thanks are due to former BPS Chair Javier Gimeno for developing the centralized system that has since been adopted throughout the Academy. Since many reviewers were new to the process, we utilized this system by assigning 4-6 reviewers to each paper submission because we wanted to increase the likelihood that each submission received more high quality feedback. This procedure also minimized the need for emergency reviewers. Over 3,000 reviews (91%) were completed on schedule. Our BPS Division continued taking the time to assign reviewers individually and I thank Anne Marie Knott and Cathy Maritan for their expert help.I relied heavily on the reviews in making decisions about submissions since the volume of input was very large and the bottleneck was my brain. In a frequent number of cases, however, there were mixed reviews and in these cases I read the reviews, examined the manuscripts and made assessments. At best, a Program Chair can make a difference at the margin, but in large measure the quality of the BPS Program is determined by the quality of the collective efforts of its members. Thanks are due to the many individuals who have provided their diligent efforts. Thanks are due to Shawn Riley, my doctoral Research Assistant, who put in many hours of his time and efforts in putting the Program together.Discussants Have an Important Role. For this year’s BPS Program, all 67 BPS Paper sessions will be served by a discussant. Since the typical session is likely to have a young scholar in that session, a skilled discussant who can offer suggestions for improvement is most valuable both for that scholar and for the audience. I also will ask each discussant to facilitate interactions between presenting scholars and the audience. Discussants will have little opportunity to give a common complaint. Like my predecessor, I hope that a standard introductory discussant comment --- “these papers have nothing in common” --- will not apply this year. Much thought was given on how to place the 268 BPS papers into the 67 BPS Paper sessions. In addition, substantial efforts were made to place the 98 BPS Visual Papers into nine coherent groups and to include some prestigious scholars into each of these nine Visual Paper sessions. The BPS Division also worked with the Interactive Chair to place our 99 BPS Interactive Papers into coherent groupings and to assign expert Facilitators for these research areas. It should be noted here that the 67 BPS Paper sessions were organized entirely by topic, without the knowledge of who would be in a session until after the session was put together. We hope that this procedure will lead to sessions with balanced strength and coherence. Following the lead of last years’ BPS Program Chair, Russ Coff, we tried to minimize scheduling sessions on a given topic at the same time.A Team Effort. After the Major League Baseball Team the Amazing New York Mets of 1962 lost a record 120 games in a single season -- a record that still stands -- the manager Casey Stengel walked into the clubhouse and said: “Gentlemen, this was a team effort.” If the Program has a record number of problems I am comforted to have this comment to give. However, this subheading is not meant for sharing the blame, but rather for giving of praise to the many who have given freely of their time and energy for the collective good. First, I thank the BPS Executive Committee for their great support and advice throughout this process. Annette Ranft (Newsletter) and Robert Wiggins (Web-master) really helped me get the word out when needed. Russ Coff, Cathy Maritan, Anita McGahan, Joanne Oxley and Jim Westphal were especially helpful as colleagues and friends throughout the process. From the Academy of Management, Mr. Jimmy Le was incredibly responsive to anything the BPS Division needed.While the BPS Program takes much time and energy, it has been a wonderful opportunity to work with many diligent and caring people. The experience has also been rewarding as I have gained a greater appreciation of the landscape of the Business Policy & Strategy Division. Speaking of knowledge of the BPS landscape, I emphasize my appreciation to Cathy Maritan for the countless hours of expert help that she provided with intelligence, warmth and grace. Let me close by thanking all of you who submitted papers and symposia to the BPS Division, served as Reviewers, and volunteered as Discussants and Session Chairs. Together, we have created an excellent Program for the 2007 Academy of Management Conference in Philadelphia. Take care and hopefully we will all meet safe and sound this August in the City of Brotherly Love!
The year 2007 marks a 50-year period since the last Academy of Management meeting in Philadelphia. Who at that 1957 meeting, I wonder, imagined the growth in the Academy that would take place? Indeed, expansion of the Business Policy and Strategy Division continues as a record 720 submissions were received for the 2007 BPS Program to be held in August. Last year’s record number of paper submissions was surpassed, resulting in a new all-time high of 655 paper submissions for this year’s program. Further, last year’s BPS Program Chair Russ Coff’s emphasis calling for more Symposia submissions was strongly heeded as the number of Symposia submissions almost doubled (from 33 to 65 submissions). Another milestone for the BPS Division is receiving submissions from over 1,000 unique authors. The rapid expansion of the Strategy field internationally is especially noteworthy as our BPS Division now has over half (52%) of its submissions from authors outside of the United States. Importantly, over 1,000 reviewers contributed, and authors and reviewers from 46 countries participated. These data indicate exciting changes taking place in the Business Policy and Strategy Division! The reviews are in! We are currently working on the BPS program and many thanks are due to former BPS Chair Javier Gimeno for developing the centralized system that has since been adopted throughout the Academy. Since many reviewers were new to the process, we utilized this system by assigning 4-6 reviewers to each paper submission because we wanted to increase the likelihood that each submission received more high quality feedback. This procedure also minimized the need for emergency reviewers. Over 3,000 reviews (91%) were completed on schedule. Our BPS Division continued taking the time to assign reviewers individually and I thank Anne Marie Knott and Cathy Maritan for their expert help.I relied heavily on the reviews in making decisions about submissions since the volume of input was very large and the bottleneck was my brain. In a frequent number of cases, however, there were mixed reviews and in these cases I read the reviews, examined the manuscripts and made assessments. At best, a Program Chair can make a difference at the margin, but in large measure the quality of the BPS Program is determined by the quality of the collective efforts of its members. Thanks are due to the many individuals who have provided their diligent efforts. Thanks are due to Shawn Riley, my doctoral Research Assistant, who put in many hours of his time and efforts in putting the Program together.Discussants Have an Important Role. For this year’s BPS Program, all 67 BPS Paper sessions will be served by a discussant. Since the typical session is likely to have a young scholar in that session, a skilled discussant who can offer suggestions for improvement is most valuable both for that scholar and for the audience. I also will ask each discussant to facilitate interactions between presenting scholars and the audience. Discussants will have little opportunity to give a common complaint. Like my predecessor, I hope that a standard introductory discussant comment --- “these papers have nothing in common” --- will not apply this year. Much thought was given on how to place the 268 BPS papers into the 67 BPS Paper sessions. In addition, substantial efforts were made to place the 98 BPS Visual Papers into nine coherent groups and to include some prestigious scholars into each of these nine Visual Paper sessions. The BPS Division also worked with the Interactive Chair to place our 99 BPS Interactive Papers into coherent groupings and to assign expert Facilitators for these research areas. It should be noted here that the 67 BPS Paper sessions were organized entirely by topic, without the knowledge of who would be in a session until after the session was put together. We hope that this procedure will lead to sessions with balanced strength and coherence. Following the lead of last years’ BPS Program Chair, Russ Coff, we tried to minimize scheduling sessions on a given topic at the same time.A Team Effort. After the Major League Baseball Team the Amazing New York Mets of 1962 lost a record 120 games in a single season -- a record that still stands -- the manager Casey Stengel walked into the clubhouse and said: “Gentlemen, this was a team effort.” If the Program has a record number of problems I am comforted to have this comment to give. However, this subheading is not meant for sharing the blame, but rather for giving of praise to the many who have given freely of their time and energy for the collective good. First, I thank the BPS Executive Committee for their great support and advice throughout this process. Annette Ranft (Newsletter) and Robert Wiggins (Web-master) really helped me get the word out when needed. Russ Coff, Cathy Maritan, Anita McGahan, Joanne Oxley and Jim Westphal were especially helpful as colleagues and friends throughout the process. From the Academy of Management, Mr. Jimmy Le was incredibly responsive to anything the BPS Division needed.While the BPS Program takes much time and energy, it has been a wonderful opportunity to work with many diligent and caring people. The experience has also been rewarding as I have gained a greater appreciation of the landscape of the Business Policy & Strategy Division. Speaking of knowledge of the BPS landscape, I emphasize my appreciation to Cathy Maritan for the countless hours of expert help that she provided with intelligence, warmth and grace. Let me close by thanking all of you who submitted papers and symposia to the BPS Division, served as Reviewers, and volunteered as Discussants and Session Chairs. Together, we have created an excellent Program for the 2007 Academy of Management Conference in Philadelphia. Take care and hopefully we will all meet safe and sound this August in the City of Brotherly Love!
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