1. 1 1 The Surrey Business School www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs Research Idea Life Cycle  Birth – focus is on the antecedents and/or outcomes of a new construct.  Growth – focus is on moving beyond main effects – mediating and moderating processes.  Maturity – organizing and synthesizing research findings – meta analysis.  Decline – redirections of scientific inquiry to more fundamental but complex questions.

2. 2 2 The Surrey Business School www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs The Concept of Contribution  To contribute is to ‘join with others in a common cause, give ideas, suggestions.’ Types of contribution  contribute knowledge to a scientific discipline - theoretical contribution.  apply that knowledge to the practice of that profession - practical contribution.

3. 3 3 The Surrey Business School www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs Sources of Contribution  Substantive gap – lack of managerial understanding of ‘how’ to…  Theoretical gap – insufficient explanation or prediction of some phenomenon – the ‘why’.  Empirical gap – lack of studies or inconsistent findings of some phenomenon – the ‘where’ and ‘when’.  Contextual gap – generalizability.

4. 4 4 The Surrey Business School www.surrey.ac.uk/sbs Which Journal?  All disciplines Academy of Management Journal; Academy of Management Review; Administrative Science Quarterly …  Human Resources Personnel Psychology; Human Resource Management …  Organizational Behavior Journal of Applied Psychology; Journal of Organizational Behavior; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes …  Strategic Management Strategic Management Journal  International Business Journal of International Business Studies; Journal of World Business …  General Management Journal of Management; Journal of Management Studies … ＊ follow the journal’s style guide ＊ clear and succinct writing style