BUSINESS POLICY AND STRATEGY DIVISION

ACADEMY of MANAGEMENT (AoM)

 

Submitted to the Division and Interest Group Relations (DIGR) Committee, AoM by:
BPS Division Review Committee
Tammy L. Madsen, Division Chair,
Joanne Oxley,
Past Division Chair,
Nick Argyres,
Division Chair Elect,
Jeff Reuer,

Program Chair
Rajshree Agrawal,
Assistant Program Chair
Bill Bogner, Treasurer
Tim R. Holcomb, Secretary
Janet Bercovitz, Executive Committee Member
Mike Lenox, Executive Committee Member

Contact Information:
Tammy L. Madsen
Management Department
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
408-551-7165
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

INTRODUCTION

This document reports the results of the Business Policy and Strategy (BPS) Division's 2011 5-year review. A survey of our current members, an assessment of the division's metrics, and an examination of our health and governance related activities inform the report. 'The subsequent sections expand on our findings and offer goals and plans for the division's future development.

DIVISION REVIEW METRICS

We begin by discussing how the division has evolved in terms of size, membership composition, activity engagement, governance, and finances.

State of the Division: The BPS Division is the second largest division by membership, constituting 28% of the Academy of Management. As of July 1, 2010, the Division had 5,401 members, an increase of 1.4% relative to 2009, and a 63% increase relative to 2001. Even though the division continues to grow, the rate of growth is tapering off: the average annual growth rate from 2006-2010 was 2.3% as compared to approximately 8.5% for the previous 5-year window (2001-2005) and 3.3% for the AoM overall (2006-2010). Recent growth largely stems from an increase in non-US members, up 4.4% relative to 2009 (and averaging 5.72% annual growth from 2006-2010). Non-US members now comprise approximately 46.6% of the division as compared to 39% in 2005. These trends are fairly consistent with the AoM's development as a whole. The division's increasing diversity also is replicated in its leadership—half of the elected 12-member BPS Executive Committee comprises scholars at institutions located outside of North America. Another signal of the increasing prominence and scholarly productivity of our international members is that three of the six finalists for the 2010 BPS Outstanding Dissertation Award as well as several recipients of the Division's 2010 Best Paper Awards were affiliated with schools located outside the US.

Membership Distribution. Considering membership type, the division's distribution of academic, emeritus, executive and student members roughly mimics that of the AoM. We observe some marginal differences between the division and the AoM in the proportion of academic members(BPS=69% vs. AoM=65%) and student members (BPS=23% vs. AoM=25%). In addition, the division's average annual growth in student membership lags that of the AoM by 2.1%. The latter is an important metric to track going forward and suggests a future area of study for the division. Currently, the Division offers two doctoral consortia and a separate dissertation workshop for doctoral students. Our second doctoral consortium was introduced in 2007 in response to student demand. However, students may seek additional, and alternative, modes of engagement, independent of the AoM conference.

Activity Engagement. The BPS Division's members are actively engaged in the annual AoM meetings. From 2006 to 2010, 13% of the AoM's annual paper submissions, on average, stemmed from the BPS Division. BPS paper submission growth averaged 4.9% annually for the 5-year period, with a peak of 15.6% growth from 2008 to 2009. While the division's paper submissions are up 25% relative to 2005, the annual average growth in paper submissions lags that of the AoM (4.9% vs. 8.4%). In contrast, the average annual growth rate for symposia submissions was 12.2% as compared to 7.4% for the AoM as a whole. It is difficult to draw conclusions from these variations however, since the annual submission numbers for the AoM 3 and the Division are fairly uneven throughout the 5-year time period. Nonetheless, the general activity reinforces the division's reputation for high quality and robust program content. Unfortunately, the growth in submissions is not mirrored in the number of reviewers and reviewer recruitment remains an ongoing challenge. The division experienced an average annual decline in reviewers of 4% from 2006 to 2010. In 2010, the number of reviewer signups equated to .7 reviewers per submission. This is startling given symposia typically include at least 5 participants and many papers are co-authored. If the division's submissions continue to grow, we may need to shift to a "required" reviewing process for authors and participants in order to maintain the integrity of the program.

Elections. The Division's election process is fully compliant with Academy rules – nominations and elections run through AoM system; participation in the election process has ranged from 27.76% to 38.12% during the past 5 years – and exceeded the AoM average in 4 out of these 5 years. The division actively solicits nominations from the membership and also, seeks out nominees from diverse constituencies (also, see Appendix II). At least 25% of the respondents have nominated a member for a division office at least once in the last 5 years. This has resulted in an increase in member-originated nominees on the ballot in the last 2-3 years: 2 in 2009 and 4 in 2010. Of these 6 nominees, 2 were elected to the Executive Committee (EC) by the members, and 2 others were subsequently appointed to key divisional committee positions.

Finances. Over the last five years the Business Policy and Strategy (BPS) Division has maintained the overarching financial management policy that were established in the mid 1990s. That policy is based on two goals: Maintaining a strong balance of funds and structuring overall spending on initiatives and programs for the members so that they can be sustained over the long term. The Division Executive Committee does this with careful review of historic spending and by projecting forward spending impacts on an ongoing basis. Over the last five years the BPS Division has seen a sharp increase in the number of members and with that in its annual allocation from the Academy. This has allowed the Executive Committee to increase the scope of the activities and programs it is offering to members, and to do so with the confidence that these initiatives will be sustainable financially for the foreseeable future. The BPS Division also manages a set of endowments. Here the BPS Division is committed to building the endowments' principle as permitted by the Academy with the long term goal of having sources of sustainable funding for BPS Division activates and awards that are not dependent of annual member dues.

MEMBERSHIP SURVEY: RESULTS AND IMPLICATIONS

A customized survey was distributed to the current membership in October, 2010; 899 members responded, yielding a 17% response rate (this rate is comparable to that of other divisions conducting 5-year reviews). The sample maps closely to the membership composition (e.g., member type and geographic location) discussed in the previous section. The following section reports the survey results and discusses their implications.

Member Profile

Overall, our members appear to be greatly attached to the BPS division. More than threequarters (77%) of the respondents consider BPS to be their primary division/interest group, with a full 42% claiming no strong allegiances with any other division. Only seventeen percent of the respondents indicated that they identify mostly with a division other than BPS. When loyalties are shared (for both those that cite BPS as primary as well as those that do not), members most commonly identify with the OMT, TIM, Entrepreneurship, and International Management divisions. In addition, 42% of respondents agree or strongly agree that making an impact on the division is important them. This commitment to the BPS division by our members is evidenced by their active involvement. In total, more than one-third of the respondents report having served, at some time, in a volunteer capacity for the BPS division (38% of those declaring BPS their primary division and 22% of those listing BPS as their non-primary division). In the recent 5-year period, 9% of the respondents served on a division committee at least once and 7% served on an Academy-wide committee or task force in one or more engagements.

The ability to gain and share information relevant to research is a key factor in attracting members to the BPS division. Sixty-eight percent of the survey respondents ranked this criterion as first or second in importance. The opportunity to develop and maintain social connections also ranked highly (1st or 2nd for forty-six percent of the respondents). The chance to learn more about executive training and management practice was a much weaker draw.

Not surprisingly, we find that a large percentage of BPS members are also members of the Strategic Management  Society and attend the SMS conference regularly. AIB was another common affiliation for BPS members.

Demographics: The gender split of the respondents is approximately three-fourths male, onefourth female. More than half, fifty-seven percent, are 45 or younger. Interestingly, we find a relatively equal distribution across academic rank with twenty-nine percent Assistant Professors, twenty-one percent Associate Professors, and twenty-four percent Full Professors and Endowed Chairs. Doctoral students (18%) and Instructors (4%) are also represented. The majority of respondents teach at 4-year institutions (58% public, 25% private).

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