The etiology of top‐tier publications in management: A status attainment perspective on academic career success

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of personal and institutional input variables, composed of elements describing status‐based antecedents, job/organizational context antecedents, and individual level antecedents, which may contribute to the production of significant (top‐tier) research outputs in the management discipline.

Design/methodology/approach

The development and empirical examination of this model were done with two main goals in mind. First, the nature and degree to which certain factors lead to the production of top‐tier research productivity in the management discipline were explored. Second, it is hoped that information about these relationships could then be used by institutions and individuals so that they could better understand what it takes to adequately prepare faculty members to achieve increased productivity or, alternatively, to decide whether the goal of top‐tier research production is consistent with individual and institutional resources. As such, the results of this investigation should have interesting and potentially important implications for both academic status attainment and career success.

Findings

Hierarchical moderated regression analyses of 440 faculty records revealed that the status of current affiliation of the faculty member, editorial board membership, faculty rank, and the availability of doctoral students were related to top‐tier research productivity.

Research limitations/implications

The findings from this study have important implications for the careers of management faculty at AACSB‐accredited business schools. Faculty at higher status institutions appear to enjoy a number of cumulative advantages due to increased social, human and cultural capital that support the production of top‐tier research. Additionally, faculty with doctoral student support and those with memberships on editorial boards seem to possess the resources and connections necessary to produce top‐tier research on a consistent basis. Future research should investigate institution‐specific inducements to research productivity (e.g. research support and remuneration) and the exact causal nature of the editorial board/productivity relationship.

Originality/value

Prior research has investigated status effects using broad categories as predictors, whereas this research uses interval values representing research‐based assessments of institution status rankings. Additionally, this research creates and tests a comprehensive causal model of research productivity antecedents.

Citation

Valle, M. and Schultz, K. (2011), "The etiology of top‐tier publications in management: A status attainment perspective on academic career success", Career Development International, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 220-237. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431111140138