The Special Issue on Migration is Live!

While Butterburger avoids an unwanted migration to Oz.

Hello folks. It’s been an exciting few weeks here at Organization Science headquarters, and not just because I’m flying through Newark today. Mostly this is because our Special Issue on Migration and Organizations launched earlier this week. But it is also because the cat and I were engulfed by a tornado within minutes of finishing an interview with our esteemed special issue editor Zeke Hernandez. Which of course I blame on Zeke, or maybe the ghosts of rejections past. Our building was miraculously undamaged. The rest of the neighborhood was not so lucky, but no one was hurt around us except for the century-old trees that fallen across the residential streets and onto houses (although my son claims he’s traumatized by all the screaming fourth-grade girls). The only upside was that I got to (quietly) sing the Monty Python lumberjack song to myself while we all cleared streets full of limbs, shingles, and trees with nary a 36” chainsaw to be found. Here’s a nice shot from the St. Louis Arch of the tornado forming five miles to the West on top of our neighborhood. It was a big one, but fortunately only EF1 at that point (wind speed: 160 kph) before peaking around 240 kph a few minutes later toward the East. No manuscripts were lost in the process.

But far more important is our special issue on Migration and Organizations, hot off the press. Migration is at the heart of critical policy debates worldwide. At Organization Science, we are proud to introduce a special issue dedicated to migration, showcasing cutting-edge research that reveals the pivotal yet often overlooked role migrants play in shaping organizational outcomes, innovation, and economic development. Whether moving voluntarily or due to displacement, migrants serve as essential drivers of innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge transfer across geographic and organizational boundaries. Crucially, the contributions migrants make—ranging from entrepreneurial ventures to scientific collaboration—are profoundly shaped by institutional contexts such as immigration policies, gender parity, and organizational structures.

The special issue, edited by Exequiel Hernandez, Raj Choudhury, Elena Kulchina, Dan Wang, Mary Zellmer-Bruhn, and Tarun Khanna, is small but of exceptional quality, and their introductory perspective is no different. They make a compelling case for how and why organizational scholars can contribute to debates around migration, just as their own research does. I was fortunate to inherit this special issue, with papers that I would be proud to publish in any issue of our journal. We’re all grateful to the authors and editors for their contributions to making this happen. I hope the issue inspires many of you to ask if you might contribute to this debate. Whether from climate change, government policies, economic conditions, or conflict, migration will be one of the most important challenges facing the world moving forward, and continue to present opportunities for organizations, markets, and societies alike.

Here are the papers in the special issue, and keep reading below them for video interviews with authors and editors.

Why Should Organizational Scholars Study Migration? by Exequiel Hernandez, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Elena Kulchina, Dan Wang, J. Myles Shaver, Mary Zellmer-Bruhn, Tarun Khanna

Bridging the overlooked intersection between migration studies and organizational research can enhance understanding of migration's causes and effects while providing novel theoretical insights for both fields.

Migration and Global Network Formation: Evidence from Female Scientists in Developing Countries by Caroline Fry, Jeffrey L. Furman

Female migrant scientists effectively broker international connections for colleagues in their home countries, particularly when supported by high gender parity in both their home and host institutional environments.

Uncertainty and Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Brexit by Camilo Acosta, Astrid Marinoni

Immigration uncertainty, as exemplified by Brexit, significantly reduces the entry of immigrant-founded ventures, particularly discouraging both low-quality and high-quality startups, thereby potentially diverting entrepreneurial talent to employment or other countries.

Centralization and Organization Reproduction: Ethnic Innovation in R&D Centers and Satellite Locations by William R. Kerr

Firm centralization significantly enhances organizational reproduction in satellite locations, making the ethnic composition of inventors at these sites closely reflect their parent headquarters, especially when actively managed through collaboration and internal mobility.

Migration and Innovation: How Foreign R&D Hires Shape Firm-Level Exploration in Their Host Country by Wolf-Hendrik Uhlbach, Paul-Emmanuel Anckaert

Newly hired foreign R&D workers significantly boost firm-level exploration by introducing novel knowledge from their home countries, particularly benefiting firms with limited international search orientation or shorter-tenured incumbent R&D teams.

Refugee Hiring and Organizational Performance by Grazia D. Santangelo, Vera Rocha, Wolfgang Sofka

Hiring refugees positively impacts firm performance through refugees’ high effort and willingness to accept lower wages, particularly when job insecurity amplifies their incentives to maintain employment.

Fast Friends: The Impact of Short-Term Visits on Firms’ Invention Outcomes by Hyo Kang, John C. Eklund

Short-term international employee visits enhance firms' inventions through improved internal knowledge sharing and scientist collaboration, especially with moderate knowledge differences and larger cultural gaps.

In Search of a Soft Landing: How Premigration Work Attainments Influence Identity Transformation Processes of Refugee Entrepreneurs by Joris Amin, Elco van Burg, Wouter Stam

Highly educated refugee entrepreneurs' success in reconstructing work identities depends on their identity flexibility and attribution style regarding past career achievements, with internally attributed success unexpectedly constraining adaptability and hindering integration.

Take Me Home, Country Roads: Return Migration and Platform-Enabled Entrepreneurship by Wesley Wu-Yi Koo, Charles Eric Eesley

Reducing barriers for rural migrants to return home significantly enhances rural online entrepreneurship through knowledge transfer and increased local demand, highlighting the critical role of domestic returnees in driving economic development.

Conversations with Migration Scholars

In preparation for the special issue introduction, I had the pleasure of speaking with several of the authors about their work, and I’ve posted these interviews below. Their comments offer some great insights into their papers as well as the topic area more generally.

Zeke Hernandez also found time to speak with me about the issue and broader topic, which is dear to his heart and a focus of his research and policy work. You can buy and read his great book, The Truth About Immigration, to learn more. We managed to nearly finish the interview before Butterburger leapt onto my lap, evidently because cats sense tornadoes before editors can and like to be carried with haste to the basement.

Caroline Fry

Exequiel Hernandez

Grazia Santangelo, Vera Rocha, and Wolfgang Sofka

Joris Amin, Elco van Burg, and Wouter Stam

Coming Soon. . .

In the next few weeks, we’ll have a series of major announcements and initiatives to share with you. First will likely be our new guidance on artificial intelligence for authors, reviewers, and editors. This initial guidance will need to evolve as the technology advances and we learn more about how scholars are using it. I know there are major initiatives now to gather better data on this. Our goal is to provide improved clarity for everyone on what we see as acceptable use and transparency.

We’ll also be rolling out our new data and methods transparency policy. The rollout has been long delayed by technical implementation, but we think it will be ready to go August 1. I’ll provide detailed guidance and opportunities for questions in advance. We were careful to build the policy through a committee with diverse methodological expertise, and to have an excellent policy from our friends at Administrative Science Quarterly as guidance. There’s no perfect policy, but we all agreed that the status quo could be substantially improved upon.

Finally, we’ll introduce a new initiative called The Organizational Wellspring, with topic-based streams of research published in the last three years. Our hope is that this will help introduce newer papers into the doctoral curriculum and help more junior scholars disseminate their work. Jino Lu and Shirley Tang have done amazing work in helping guide this initiative, as have the editors who agreed to curate the streams.

That’s it for now. As always, thanks for reading and for contributing to the advancement of science and practice in the many ways that you do.

-Lamar