Editorial

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1258
• Published date: 01 September 2013
• Date: 01 September 2013

Editorial

This is impact factor season. Just past the midyear mark,

the Institute of Scientif‌ic Information releases the impact

factors for all the journals in their list. Publishers receive

the impact factor for the journals in their stables and start

contacting their various editors with questions, concerns,

or congratulations. The editors in turn have meetings with

their associate editors to f‌ine tune strategy for the next

season. And we are no exception. I am setting up a strategy

meeting as we speak!

As for strategy, I scanned the list of high impact articles

in just about all the management journals published by

Wiley-Blackwell to get a sense of what I should be focusing

on in terms of future CJAS publications. Of the ten most

cited articles, nine were conceptual, theoretical, or review

articles. They were all idea driven. They competed in the

market place for scholarship and have been inf‌luential over

the rest. Among the papers further down the line, a vast

majority were evidence driven and empirical. This suggests

that ideas inf‌luence research more than evidence, notwith-

standing their symbiotic relationship.

Ideas trigger opportunity to seek empirical evidence.

Attempts to empirically validate the veracity or usefulness

of an idea can be undertaken by many, depending on how

appealing an idea is or how useful it can be if found true.

Thus the effect of an idea is expansive. It is capable of

spawning a large volume of empirical research. That is

perhaps why we receive and publish more empirical pieces

in CJAS. The empirical papers for their part test the theory

in different contexts and with different samples. Their

contribution is more toward establishing the worth of an

idea. So typically for each theory or conceptual paper, there

are many empirical studies that together constitute the

literature in the domain. When it comes to inf‌luence, the half

life of a conceptual or theoretical paper or that of a review is

much longer than the half life of an empirical paper.

Clearly it calls for a differential strategy for editing

manuscripts that are idea driven and for those that are

evidence driven. We edit the former for effectiveness and

the latter for eff‌iciency. The number of pages in a volume

is constant. When an idea is complex, it may take more

journal pages for comprehensive (competent) development

and effective expression. We expect their citation potential

to be higher. A well-expressed idea will give rise to several

empirical papers verifying their value variously. When it

comes to empirical papers, we employ Occam’s Razor—

tighten the articulation, focus the message, and control the

expression. In essence, we optimize the pages using guidance

from the editorial team.

In line with this thought process, in this issue we offer a

selection of papers that test the theories and indeed evaluate

their worth. Our f‌irst paper attempts to address empirical

inconsistencies in the relationship between strategic planning

and f‌irm performance among European f‌irms. It resolves the

inconsistency by suggesting a mediated model where rational

strategic planning brings about strategic employee alignment

which in turn inf‌luences f‌irmperformance. The second is also

interested in mediated f‌irm performance but focuses its

attention on the electronics industry in China. It shows that

linkage, production, and investment capabilities inf‌luence

product innovation, which contributes to f‌irm performance.

The third looks at analyst coverage and how it translates into

more informativestock prices in both developed and develop-

ing countries documenting similarities and differences. The

fourth is an experimental study located in Canada that shows

how personalized communications enhance the customer-

company relationship toward producingfavourable marketing

outcomes. The f‌inal paper documents the impact of AACSB

accreditation on four Canadian Business Schools resulting in

value addition in terms of enhanced reputation, change,

management eff‌iciencies, and focus on research, among others,

with the context inf‌luencing the impact.

Until next time,

Vishwanath Baba

Editor-in-Chief

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

30: 141 (2013)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1258

Can J Adm Sci

30(3), 141 (2013)Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 141