Business, management and accounting: Internal structure and external connections

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to clarify the internal structure of the discipline of business and management (BMA) and its relations with adjacent disciplines.

Design/methodology/approach

We analyse the thematic profile of the most relevant journals in BMA (Scopus database). We then perform a network analysis, specifically Pathfinder and Nearest Neighbour analyses.

Findings

Our research provides empirical evidence of BMA's cohesiveness, thematic variety and interdisciplinarity. It remains open to a wide range of disciplines, particularly information systems, decision science and finance. BMA constitutes a dome composed of different subdisciplines. Some of these (for example, accounting, management information systems and industrial relations) display little relation to the others, although they do establish links with adjacent fields. In addition, strategic management emerges as a central point, endowing the discipline with consistency by acting as a link to certain subdisciplines that would otherwise be unconnected. Despite its more moderate presence in the discipline, organisational behaviour is the most nuclear category, acting as an anchor and helping to organise and structure BMA.

Research limitations/implications

This analysis provides a static image of BMA. It would be interesting to further the research through a dynamic perspective that would outline the evolution of the interrelations amongst disciplines over time and ascertain where they are heading.

Practical implications

These results shed light on the centrifugal and centripetal forces of BMA and their future development.

Originality/value

This paper analyses the internal structure of BMA through its journals.

Citation

Santos, M.V. and Mayoral, R.M. (2020), "Business, management and accounting: Internal structure and external connections", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 254-277. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-08-2019-0150