A reinvigorated vision for BE:ER to sustain a trajectory of excellence

• Author: Dima Jamali,Ralf Barkemeyer,George Samara,Jennifer Leigh
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12261
• Date: 01 January 2020
• Published date: 01 January 2020

Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2020;29:1–2. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer  

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  1© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12261

EDITORIAL

A reinvigorated vision for BE:ER to sustain a trajectory of

excellence

We would like to take the opp ortunity of the first is sue of this new

volume 29 of Busines s Ethics: A European Rev iew to introduce ou r-

selves as the new e ditorial team. As a group of co-ed itors, we com-

bine different regions, different career stages, and different sets of

research intere sts, which in our view is highl y suitable for an outlet

such as BE:ER. O ur explicit aim is to conti nue Professor Dima Jam ali’s

excellent work, a nd we are very pleased that sh e will continue to be

part of our team in t andem with serving her n ation as a member of

parliament. T his will allow us to ens ure continuit y and to build on

the recent inconte stable succe ss trajector y of BE:ER: over the last

five years, it s Impact Facto r has grown more than s ixfold to now

2.9 (2018), and the numbe r of submissions has amplified s teadily to

over 300 per yea r, while keeping a rejec tion rate rangi ng between

7% and 13%.

This upward traj ectory of BE:ER als o means that we are current ly

in a pivotal phase . The increasing r ecognition and i mpact facto r of

the journal wil l need to be reflec ted in the main journal ranking s in

order to be on a par wit h leading journals in the f ield. As part of our

strategic init iatives, the editor ial team will be submit ting application s

with various jou rnal ranking e ntities this yea r and in the followi ng

years to petitio n for new classifications . For those of you unfamiliar,

the journal ra nking process is a n episodic or rat her cyclic one for

various journal lists which for us has resulted in a discrepancy be-

tween our increasingly growing reputation with scholars, authors,

and as indicate d by our impact fa ctor as compare d to our current

classification on lists.

From an operation al perspective, the incr easing number of sub-

missions is putt ing pressure on the journa l. We are using this period

of rapid growth a nd transition t o develop editoria l processes tha t

help us to fully adh ere to our aims and sc ope, to streaml ine edito-

rial decision mak ing and to firmly estab lish a constructive, incl usive,

and developmen tal review process. All of t hese aspects are far f rom

trivial for a jour nal such as BE:ER given its broa d remit and interdis-

ciplinary ch aracter. Our vision is to turn t hese challenges into op por-

tunities, and t he move to a co-editor model will al low us to increase

operational a nd strategic c apacity in ord er to address a num ber of

short- and longer-term init iatives. We are currently in th e process of

updating our aim s and scope and we would like to for malize what we

have already bee n trying to do in the past, in pa rticular with regard

to the scope of contr ibutions and th e development al character of

the BE:ER review pr ocess.

Looking at the sco pe of BE:ER, we cont inue to invite con-

tributions th at address the de cision making of mo ral actors an d

their implications at the individual (micro) level, organizational

(meso) level, and the s ocietal (macro) le vel as well as cross fer til-

ization with core b usiness func tional areas (e.g ., Management ,

Marketing, Governance, Entrepreneurship, International Business,

and Human Resou rces). With an incre ased focus on the s ocietal

role of business in t he recent perio d, BE:ER is also keen to a ttract

innovative scholarship pertaining to both enduring and emerging

topics such as Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Social

Entrepreneur ship, Family Business, and Publi c Policy and of cour se

all relevant inter sections with core func tional business areas. Wh ile

BE:ER has alread y been open to the se types of cont ributions, we

feel the need to ma ke this even more explicit to the ac ademic com-

munity. The journ al continues to be o pen to all method ological ap-

proaches, including conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative articles.

The recent proli feration of Qualitati ve Comparative Analysi s as a re-

search method a lso allows the investigat ion of new causal recipes in

our field and we ar e keen to attract such pap ers to BE:ER.

Regarding the developmental character of the journal, our vision is

for BE:ER to be seen as a well-established academic research journal

that is known for its rigor and quality, yet remaining at the same time

accessible and readable for a wide range of academic and practitioner

audiences. This is why, we have been emphasizing, and will continue to

stress on, proper theory building and argumentation. At the same time,

the editorial team is keen on positioning BE:ER as a developmental

journal in terms of supporting a collegial and constructive peer-review

process, and as a journal that is open to capturing under-represented

views and voices across the world. While remaining open to all kinds

of scholarship from across continents, we are increasingly keen on

presenting constructive developmental reviews to our authors, partic-

ularly those who come from developing or under-developed contexts.

BE:ER has already built a strong pool of Associate Editors from across

the globe, which we will continue to grow to enhance subject matter,

methodological, and disciplinary expertise.

Aside from exp loring and work ing systemati cally on journa l

rankings for t he next phase, the new ed itorial team has envisione d

a bundle of strat egic prioritie s for BE:ER for the com ing year, in-

cluding an act ive supporti ve social media c ampaign, a bes t paper

award, a best rev iewer award, and a las ting impact p aper award.

We are also working ac tively to make sure to h ave a presence at

major conference s through thes e awards but also th rough PhD

and young schola r support workshops. M oreover, we are in active

consultation w ith the editorial suppor t team to potentially change

the name of BE:ER to be m ore reflective of the actual n ature and