Journal headquarters has returned to the United States and we’ve hit the ground running. Fortunately, I was not stopped at border control for running a subversive journal nor for the 4 kilos of caciocavallo riding safely in my luggage.
We just recently posted a new publication by Drew Carton of Wharton: “The Six Dimensions of Strong Theory.” It’s a paper I had the pleasure of handling directly, with a team of some of the best theorists across multiple fields as reviewers. These types of papers are really hard to get right, but Drew is one of the few people who can pull it off adroitly. So we sat down on my first morning back and talked about the paper and theory in our field more generally. I hope you’ll watch the video and read the paper (which is open access). Strong theory is about balancing many dimensions that represent inherent tradeoffs.
There was a rumor going around in my first year here (2023) that Organization Science doesn’t publish theory papers, and perhaps the source of this was a lack of clear communication on my part. Or it could have been from someone who was very displeased with my appointment. I hope publishing this paper clarifies that we care deeply about theory, or more accurately, strong theory. Drew’s take on theory is not the only one, or even necessarily the right one, if there is such a thing. It’s an excellent piece, though, and certainly far better than I could ever have done. I hope everyone will take the time to read it and consider it for your doctoral syllabi.
I’ll be back next week. I took a lot of photos of roses in Italy, particularly those thrive in unlikely places, such as against this millennium-old wall. There’s probably some clever reference to Weber and cages in this photo but really it’s just about stopping to notice beauty. It seems like we need that more than ever this month.
—Lamar
