Reviews of strategic management research

• Date: 01 January 2017
• Author: Alfonso Gambardella,Constance E. Helfat,Sendil K. Ethiraj
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2606

Strategic Management Journal

Strat. Mgmt. J.,38: 3 (2017)

Published online EarlyView in WileyOnline Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/smj.2606

Received 24 October 2016

INTRODUCTION

REVIEWS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

SENDIL K. ETHIRAJ,1ALFONSO GAMBARDELLA,2and

CONSTANCE E. HELFAT3*

1Strategy and Entrepreneurship Area, London Business School, London, U.K.

2Department of Management & Technology, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

3Strategy and Management Group, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Hanover,

New Hampshire, U.S.A.

SMJ welcomes high-quality reviews of strategic management research that not only synthesize

existing research, but also seek to stimulate new research. As the eld of strategic management

has matured, many new research streams and perspectives have emerged. Reviews contribute

to greater shared understanding and can promote cross-fertilization across different streams of

research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reviews of prior literature serve an important

purpose of integrating often disparate research con-

versations. But effective reviews go further —they

add to the literature by providing fresh perspec-

tives and identifying potentially fruitful avenues

for future research. SMJ welcomes high-quality

reviews of strategic management research that not

only synthesize existing research, but also seek to

stimulate new research.

This special issue on Reviews of Strategic Man-

agement Research showcases high-quality reviews

of several different literatures. As the special issue

editors indicate in their introductory article, each

of the reviews helps to integrate and push for-

ward research in one or more of the following

ways by: integrating multiple theoretical streams of

research, reconciling different views of the same

phenomena, applying a single theoretical approach

to separate but related phenomena, extending and

combining existing knowledge to analyze new

phenomena, and building more precise and system-

atic theory.

Keywords: research reviews; review articles

*Correspondence to: Constance E. Helfat, Tuck School of Busi-

ness at Dartmouth, 100 Tuck Hall, Hanover,NH 03755, U.S.A.

E-mail: constance.helfat@dartmouth.edu

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

As the eld of strategic management has

matured, many new perspectives and streams of

research have emerged. Reviews such as those

in this special issue can help to promote shared

understanding of different research trajectories,

and provide a basis for bringing different streams

of research into closer contact. Cross-fertilization

across different areas of research, if realized, may

promote not only shared interests but also new

understanding of the many facets of strategic

management.

In their introductory article to this special issue,

the guest editors provide a thoughtful analysis

of the state of the eld of strategic management

and the importance of retaining a core identity, even

as the eld benets from a diversity of perspectives.

Reviews clearly have a role to play in facilitating

coherence. We are grateful to the editors of this

special issue for the very large amount of effort

that they put in, from working through the nearly

200 proposal submissions, to handling the many

full paper submissions, to bringing the special

issue to completion. Building on their work, SMJ

intends to publish high quality review articles on

a regular basis, and is looking forward to your

submissions.