Debating the Future of Management Research

The Editors of JMS invited four leading scholars in research on management and organizations to have an open discussion on the current state and future prospects of management research. Our four contributors discuss, among other things, the growing influence of economics, psychology, and sociology on current management research, and the danger of an increasingly fetishistic and formulaic approach to management research that they believe may lead to stale and narrow contributions. Such an approach carries a risk in the long run of seriously dampening the intellectual vigour and impact of management research. Our contributors conclude their discussion with a number of recommendations for management researchers. These recommendations include asking bigger, better, and more challenging questions compared to the orthodoxy in our management research and engaging in modes of research that are not only intellectually challenging but that also have the potential of making a real impact on management practice.