Corporate governance is quintessential for the functioning of modern organizations which, regardless of their mission or size, need governance mechanisms to monitor and incentivize leaders. Corporate governance mechanisms include the boards of directors, compensation structures, the incentives and monitoring provided by capital providers and other stakeholders, and the market for corporate control. Corporate governance differs significantly across ownership forms and listing status, with specific sets of incentives that need to be further investigated. In non-listed companies controlled by entrepreneurial families, for instance, governance mechanisms serve to make sure that the overlap between owners, directors and managers does not impair the ability of formal governance mechanisms to properly exert check and balances. Generally, corporate governance is intertwined with corporate decision-making and performance as well as with the institutional, cultural and regulatory context where firms operate.

Entrepreneurship promotes the scholarship and advances in the field of entrepreneurship; that is, in the purposeful activity of initiating, developing, and maintaining an enterprise. Major topics of interest include: new venture opportunities, strategies, and resources; ecological influences on new ventures; the owner-manager; the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development; family business; corporate entrepreneurship; international entrepreneurship; the actors, actions, resources, environmental influences and outcomes associated with the emergence of entrepreneurial opportunities and/or new economic activities in multiple organizational contexts, and the characteristics, actions, and the challenges of owner-managers and their businesses.

Human resources and related management practices are critical to organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage – but also to individual development, performance, and work-related attitudes. Research in this realm focuses upon human and social capital at both individual and collective levels (team, organization, society), their development and management, and how they shape outcomes of interest to organizations, employees, and other stakeholders. It covers a broad range of human resource management practices. Topics of interest include the processes and outcomes related to recruitment, selection, engagement, allocation, compensation, promotion, and retention. The role of the HR function in all HR processes and in the strategic formulation process is considered, as well as its relation with other functions.

Careers are successions of work experiences that evolve over lifetimes. Research in the careers realm explores individual, organizational and institutional level considerations, as well as at the intersection of the different levels. At the individual level, topics include career success, its determinants and outcomes, career mobility and transitions, and spillovers between professional careers and personal lives. At the organizational level, the role of career management practices in attracting, developing and retaining generic and specific human capital is considered, as well as the structure of opportunities. While at the institutional level and in comparative/international career research, the focus is on the effects of cultural differences or institutional factors.

Information Systems analyse the information needs of organisations (business, public administration or no profit; SMEs, multinationals, global cos.) and the digital solutions they can adopt to answer those needs. The analysis can take a benchmarking approach (best practices) or a multiannual approach (describing the life cycle of the ICT solutions in organisations). An industry perspective focuses on specificities deriving from core processes of cos. and industries as well as the integration requirements within the value and supply. chain. The human factor is alwyas a key element for I.S. as the acceptance and adoption degree of a platform or solution determines the success of the innovation project. Proposed research can address the challenges posed by new technologies (IoT, robtos, A.I., 5G, block chain, etc.) to the existing solutions or it can explore new areas of innovation: smart agriculture, smart cities, digital transformation, etc.

International Management focuses on content pertaining to the theory, research, and practice of management in various global settings. It basically captures how issues of general management is altered in a global context. Major topics include: the cross-border management of operations; evolving organizational forms and management practices in cross-border business; the cross-border differential impact of cultural, social, economic, technological, political, and other institutional forces on strategies, organizational forms, and management practices; the international competitiveness of firms, industries, and nations; and comparative management studies involving two or more countries.

 

Operations and Supply Chain Management is focused on the management of the transformation processes that create products or services. These processes are found in all organizations including profit and non-profit organizations. Conceptual, empirical, and methodological contributions are encouraged, as are cross-functional linkages and perspectives. Major topics include: operations strategy, product and service development, supply chain management, project management, and quality management, as well as international, human resources, environmental, and IT issues facing operations.

Organization and Management Theory involves building and testing theory about organizations, their members and their management, organization-environment relations, and organizing processes. The area has a rich intellectual heritage and draws on an array of theoretical paradigms and empirical approaches. It celebrates the development of a deep theoretical understanding of phenomena and embraces methodological pluralism. Major topics include: decision making, information processing, learning, cognition, strategic management of human resources, institutional theory, network theory.

Organizational Behavior is devoted to understanding individuals and groups within an organizational context. The field focuses on attributes, processes, behaviors, and outcomes within and between individual, interpersonal, group, and organizational levels of analysis. Major topics include: individual characteristics such as beliefs, values, personality, and demographic attributes, and individual processes such as learning, perception, motivation, emotions, and decision making, interpersonal processes such as trust, justice, power/politics, social exchange, and networks; group/team characteristics such as size, diversity, and cohesion, and group/team processes such as development, leadership, decision making, and cooperation and conflict; organizational processes and practices such as leadership, goal setting, work design, feedback, rewards, communication, and socialization; contextual influences on individuals and groups such as organizational and national culture, and organizational identity and climate, and the influence of all of the above on individual, interpersonal, group, and organizational outcomes such as performance, creativity, attachment, citizenship behaviors, stress, absenteeism, turnover, deviance, and ethical behavior.

Social Issues in Management and Sustainability address the challenges faced by modern businesses in finding a balance between economic development and social and natural systems. This balance involves an interaction between organizations and their stakeholder and the relevant institutions at both the local and the global level. This area aims at developing an understanding of applied social practices and methods by connecting scholarship to promote sustainable development. Both the micro-level of corporate sustainability (e.g. the behaviour of organizations and the people and groups working in and around them) and its wider macro-level impacts and societal implications are considered.

Strategic Management focuses on studying the strategy of organizations, seeking to understand interfirm performance heterogeneity and value creation and appropriation. Topics in this domain include strategic decision-making processes with  their antecedents and consequences, strategy formulation and implementation, the boundaries of the firm, corporate governance and strategy involving internal development, alliances, and acquisitions among other inter-organizational relationships, non-market strategies, strategic renewal and business models, competitive and cooperative dynamics, industry dynamics, internal resources and capabilities, strategic leadership and upper echelons. Although the typical level of analysis is the organization, this research stream also examines organizational units, groups, teams, or individuals within the organization, organizational ecosystems, product markets, factor markets, geographic units, and industries.

Technology and Innovation Management addresses strategic, managerial, behavioral, and operational issues related to technological change and the management of innovation, drawing on an array of theoretical paradigms and empirical approaches. Major topics include: the management of technology and innovation processes within and across organizations; strategic alliances and R&D collaborations; the management of knowledge workers; innovation diffusion and the development, implementation and use of technologies; technology development trajectories; intellectual capital and property rights; new product development strategies; innovation project management; behaviors and characteristics of science and technology professionals; technological forecasting and policies; the production, use and implications of information technology; impacts of new technologies on organizational forms; platforms and ecosystems.