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JBR Special Issue: Call for Papers
Avoiding/Responding to Global Economic-Management Disasters
Deadline for Complete Papers: 15 January 2010

Submit to JBR Guest Co-Editors:

Angela Hausman (hausman1229@gmail.com) and Wesley J. Johnston (wesleyj@gsu.edu)

The Journal of Business Research announces the call for papers for a special issue on responses to the 2008+ global economic-management disaster. The deadline for submission is January 15, 2010.

Purpose of the Special Issue

The current economic situation is dire and affecting the global economy more universally than any economic downturn since the 1929+ Great Depression. Much of the 2008+ Great Economic-Management Disaster (GEMD) is assignable to a few paths of events culminating in a sharp decline in stock prices in all major stock exchanges, dramatic increases in unemployment globally, firm bankruptcies, 40%+ loss of retirement savings, and lockdowns of flows in capital markets. Fixing these problems is the top priority of leaders from many nations in 2009+. In the long run; however, creating management behaviors that reduce the likelihood of future GEMDs is critical. Since many of the problems are traceable, on the surface, to financial institutions, many suppose long-term safeguards against future economic Armageddon rely on developing more stringent regulation and better oversight to ensure compliance.

However, do factors other than financial management appear in the causal paths that resulted in the 2008+ GEMD? If so, researchers need to identify these factors/causal paths and propose means to increase effective prevention and response to future GEMDs. Gummesson (2004) suggests an over-reliance on financial metrics enforces a short-term orientation and causes organizations to focus on business aspects easily measurable rather than those that have the greatest impact on long-term profitability. “A risk-free and predictable business in a market economy, created by to-the-point metrics cannot exist; it is an oxymoron.” (Gummesson, 2004, p. 140). Former GE chairman, Jack Welch (Guerrera, 2009) calls organizational emphasis on short-run shareholder wealth creation a “dumb idea”. Meanwhile, US President Obama includes innovation as a priority in his stimulus package, thus suggesting innovation might mitigate future GEMDs. These statements suggest that simply fixing financial markets will not prevent future GEMDs. The shifting in US policies and spending priorities are outcomes of the 2008+ GEMD; this shift includes a new emphasis on green technology, education, and universal healthcare. Similar changes are underway in other nations.

This special issue is to provide strategic guidance to companies to ensure not only their future success, but avoidance of economic disaster and adaptation to a post-crisis market. The following represent some of the topics of interest.

• Case studies of companies who remained more successful in the economic collapse to identify factors that helped them weather this storm
• Papers identifying strategic changes needed as companies emerge from the recession
• Papers focusing on issues such as long-term orientation, innovation, or other strategic factors and their ability to insulate companies from market pressures.
• Papers suggesting opportunities and threats to existing businesses as they adapt to changing policies concomitant with the economic stimulus packages or for new business creation based on these policies
• Papers focusing on international or cultural issues affecting companies as a result of the economic crisis
• Papers examining governmental policy toward businesses and specific industries and the resulting effectiveness
• Papers addressing ways that management practices and ethical principles must change to avoid a repeat of the current GEMD
• Papers dealing with the interplay between business, government, and politics that contributed to the current GEMD and what changes are required in these interactions to avoid future economic meltdown
• Papers on managing firm, industry, and multiple-industry-network cultures that nurture the creation and implementation of dynamically new and useful products and services
•  

Gummesson, E. (2004), “Return on relationships (ROR): Value of relationship marketing and CRM in business to business networks”. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 136-48.

Guerrera, F. (2009), “Welch rues short-term profit ‘obsession’”. Financial Times, 12 March, pp 6.

To Submit Papers

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length. Electronic copies of each manuscript should be sent to the special issue editors. For additional guidelines, please see the “Notes for Contributors” from a recent issue of JBR or the JBR website at: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505722/authorinstructions. Suitable articles will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence authors should not identify themselves in the body of the paper. Questions regarding this special issue should be directed to the special issue editors: Angela Hausman (hausman1229@gmail.com) and Wesley J. Johnston (wesleyj@gsu.edu).

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