Abstract
Bridging industry-academia gaps and practices has always been a matter of debate in various forums, conferences and panel discussions. On one hand, academic scholars always aim to solve industry practices through their research, while on the other hand, corporate practitioners struggle to share their experiences in academic journals. One of the main reasons for their struggle is that academic journals emphasize on the scientific methodologies in what they publish, and non-academic practitioners do not feel comfortable with it. However, a good article is a bit of everything (Cropanzano, 2009), and I do not say that emphasizing methodologies is not the right practice. Instead, it is pertinent to understand how industry practitioners can find ways to contribute their experiences and expertise. One of the ways industry practitioners have is writing papers without much or no methodology involved, that is, non-empirical papers. Therefore, a clear understanding of the types, styles, structures and some general do’s and don’ts of writing non-empirical papers are important to be clarified. These contributions on one side will help industry practitioners to share their experiences and voice with academic audience and on the other side, academic colleague will have industry opinions beforehand for their research and teaching.
The objective of this editorial is to motivate corporate practitioners to enhance their understanding of writing non-empirical papers in some easy steps and translating their experience into an academic paper.
What Are Non-empirical Papers?
The first question that comes to our mind is: Are non-empirical papers just without data and analysis? Or these are based on any different techniques, types and styles? The answer is, there are different types/methods of writing non-empirical papers such as: Literature reviews, conceptual papers, perspectives, viewpoints, case studies, commentaries/notes and experience letters. Methodologically non-empirical papers are those based on secondary data and information. Hence, in general, these papers are based on the analysis of already available data information. However, some of these are short papers written to address a specific issue or narrate an incident. Below are some categories (type) of non-empirical papers with some examples (Full reference of the examples given in the reference section) to enhance understanding of non-empirical papers.
Literature review papers are based on a specific review methodology. Literature review papers are written to review already published literature to understand the current state of research and explore the future research avenues in that area. To understand more about literature review papers, I suggest reading Webster and Watson (2002), Fisch and Block (2020), Paul and Criado (2020), Paul et al. (2021) and Rana, Sakshi, and Singh (2022b).
Case studies research are also based on the methodologies already set in the prior literature. These are used primarily in two ways (a) to write a teaching case with the teaching note (see Corey, 1998) or (b) writing case-oriented research. I suggest reading Eisenhardt (1989) and Ragin (1997) to initiate understanding about case-oriented research.
Conceptual papers are different from literature review papers and hence, are based on different methodologies. Authors, often (a) mix and confuse conceptual papers with literature review papers (b) think there is no specific method required to write conceptual papers. I would like to clarify that there are research designs available for conceptual methodology and these papers should have a methodology section. Most of the discussion of conceptual papers is built on the debate started by Whetten (1989) by giving seven criteria of a conceptual paper. Four research designs (theory synthesis; theory adaption; typology and model-based conceptual papers) are offered by Jaakkola (2020). Four ways to write conceptual papers (envisioning; explicating; relating and debating) are suggested by MacInnis (2011). The methodology sections are well explained in the papers by Rana et al., (2020); Rana, Verma et al. (2022c) and I also suggest reading Conceptual Papers by Palmatier et al. (2018) and Hulland (2020). Conceptual papers should provide an integration of literature, offer integrated conceptual framework, can include the testable prepositions, and should highlight the directions for future research (Gilson & Goldberg, 2015).
Perspective papers aim at bringing hidden problems, tensions, missions and reflections by interpreting the data from authentic/credible sources. The main objective of these contributions is to advance the understanding of a particular domain and act as guidelines by giving pros and cons; theory and application; progression and challenges of a particular domain. As the category states, there can be multiple ways to solve a problem or apply a particular strategy. Hence, the focus of perspective papers remains on discussing these different ways of solving the problem or applications. These papers may or may not have a methodology section. For further understanding of perspective papers, I suggest reading Daft and Lewin (2008), Priyashantha et al. (2021), Panda and Joy (2021), Kumar et al. (2021) and Pratap and Gupta (2022).
Commentary/note/critique/viewpoints/interviews/letters are often given on a specific call, on any situation, a particular essay, research, specific person and context. These are short and crisp, more derived from writer’s understanding, thought process and personal arguments. These contributions do not require any methodology section. As an example, you can see Swan (2015) and Oxford Analytica (2017). These types of contributions generally come from the experts in the field or special invitations by the publication outlets/editors.
Why We Need to Understand More About Non-empirical Papers?
The landscape of academic practices is changing across the globe. Academic world is now more inclusive and embracing inclusivity and diversity. Growing focus on programmes such as Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) and Executive Fellow Programme in Management (EFPM) are bridging the knowledge gaps and opening opportunities for industry practitioners on contributing their services to academia. Non-empirical papers are one of the effective ways of translating experiences from their corporate journey (e.g., Sarin, 2012) and invite academic scholars to explore further upon the same. Guidelines for writing non-empirical papers are available in the literature (see Palmatier et al. 2018; Webster & Watson, 2002). Yet the effectiveness and impact of these papers depend on the skills and knowledge of the writer/s (MacInnis, 2011; Jaakkolla, 2020). This understanding is also important to get familiar with the ongoing academic practices and enhance job prospects in academia. Considering the future job roles of professors of practice, it becomes important aspect to thought upon how to organize your experiences, evidences and subject matter content together. At the same time, non-empirical papers are going to play a vital role for academic colleagues. Academic scholars often struggle to have topics that are based on corporate problems and experiences. Non-empirical (especially perspective) paper offers industry problems, ways to solve these, and act like a direct voice of practitioners in that field. Hence, these contributions offer a wider and important scope for future research. I strongly suggest both academic and industry-practising colleagues to read these papers.
Perspective and Case Sections at FIIB Business Review
The description of the journal states, FIIB Business Review seeks to build a knowledge network of management academicians, policymakers and practitioners by establishing a dialogue through a mixed publication framework that provides insightful perspectives on emerging managerial themes, management research of value to professional managers and academics, and management cases on contemporary managerial issues. Our aim is to: (a) Promote applied research in emergent themes that improve the practice of management and (b) serve as a vehicle of communication, between those who study management and those who practice it, by publishing articles that are both research- and practice-based. We publish both perspective and case research contributions in every issue and hereby invite industry practicing colleagues to share their experiences and expertise with the audience worldwide through these contributions.
Where Else You Can Publish Non-empirical Papers?
Literature review and conceptual papers are generally published by almost all the business management journals (unless specific scope is there). Also, there are specific publication outlets that publish only review (e.g., Review of Management Literature) or case-based research (Asian Journal of Management Cases, South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, Emerald Emerging Case Studies). Teaching cases are considered by case clearing houses such as Ivey Publishing and Harvard Case Studies; there are also institutional repositories such as Babson, Columbia, Darden, IIM Ahmedabad, ISB Hyderabad and INSEAD.
However, not many journals welcome perspective papers. Some of the journals that warmly welcome perspective papers (but are not limited to) are FIIB Business Review, Vikalpa, Vision, Organization Science, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, AMS Review, Perspectives in Public Health, Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Academy of Management Collections.
How to Write a Perspective Paper?
Non-empirical papers come with their own set of challenges as these papers suffer from a lack of commonly accepted samples. Therefore, the authors should be given autonomy to decide upon their structure and style (Rana, Raut, et al., 2022a), because authors only can anticipate how their studies should proceed. But, to make it meaningful it is important to take care of what is expected from these papers. Whom are you writing this paper for? What offerings are you going to give through this contribution, and why the perspectives highlighted are important to be considered? There are a few important aspects that perspective writes should give due consideration to. I summarize these as follows:
Relevance of the topic presently and in future Relationship with the data, literature and ongoing practices Relate arguments with concepts and theories Link across disciplines/possibilities Draw new perspectives and possibilities Provide multi-level insights Broaden the scope of thinking and guide future research and practices Provide implications of the perspective Solve puzzles and inconsistencies Pay attention to depth (language clarity, linkage between the sections, data presentation) Maintain a logical flow and structure in an organized way by having main and sub-sections Use only the credible data sets and sources Analyse and interpret the information and data to your best abilities Avoid cross-referencing and opting models from already published studies Give justifications and references for your arguments Provide caption and sources of all the figures and tables Take care of the author guidelines of the target journal
And most importantly read a few already published perspectives before you write one. I am hopeful that this editorial will motivate my industry practitioner colleagues to have more clarity on how they can share their experiences and expertise with the academic journals, and my academia colleague use perspectives and other non-empirical papers for their research topics/arguments. With this, I am pleased to introduce issue 11.4 of FIIB Business Review. The following are the contributions included in the issue.
Perspective
The sole contribution in this section, ‘Resolving the COVID Vaccination Debate by Understanding Diversity and Standardization’ by Shaomin Li and David Selover offers a fresh perspective on the COVID-19 Vaccination debate. Looking at it through the lens of diversity versus standardization, the authors recommend that governments should adopt the twin approach to develop and extract the maximum benefits from vaccines.
Case
In the case section, the contribution ‘Managing the Crisis: Learnings from “Zero Risque”’ by Sapna U. Malya, highlights how organizations can use technological innovations to overcome crisis and diversify by capitalizing on consumer needs.
Review
Management Research is a diverse area touching many disciplines. ‘Trends in Multidiscipline Management Research: Past, Present and Future of FIIB Business Review’ by Rahul Pratap Singh Kaurav and Piyush Gupta reflects upon emerging research themes and publication trends through the lenses of a multi-disciplined management journal. It serves as a useful guide for scholars.
Research
The first contribution in this section is ‘Forecasting Buying Intention Through Artificial Neural Network: An Algorithmic Solution on Direct-to-Consumer Brands’ by Bikram Prasad and Indrajit Ghosal. The authors developed a predictive model based on the attributes of the buying behaviour of the consumers (artificial neural network) which will help firms in framing business strategy by gaining insights into market architecture and choice of customer. In the second contribution entitled ‘Factors Affecting the Adoption of Social Media in Marketing of Higher Education: An Empirical Analysis’ by Surej P. John, Richard Walford and Joseph Purayidathil examined the persuasion process involved in social media marketing (SMM), in the higher education sector using information adoption model. Findings of the study suggested that social media content quality is a significant predictor of online users’ transportation, identification and parasocial interaction effects. In the next contribution entitled, ‘Analysing the Adoption of Intelligent Agent Technology in Food Supply Chain Management: An Empirical Evidence’, Subhodeep Mukherjee and Venkataiah Chittipaka identified and analysed the factors impacting the adoption of intelligent agent technology (IAT) in the food supply chain (FSC) thus offering a new and vital paradigm for adopting this innovation in the FSC, thereby increasing the overall efficiency in hotel industry. In the last contribution of the section entitled, ‘The Impact of Dynamic Capability on Business Sustainability of Organizations’, Sheshadri Chatterjee, Ranjan Chaudhuri, Demetris Vrontis and Sumana Chaudhuri, Sumana Chaudhuri examines the impact of dynamic capability on an organization’s business sustainability, with social customer relationship management (SCRM) as the moderator. Findings suggests that organization’s dynamic capability has considerable impact on business sustainability.
I am very thankful to all the readers, contributors, reviewers and my team members (especially senior editors and Shruti Chandra), for having continued a thriving journey of FIIB Business Review, sharing contemporary, important and rigorous research content with its users. I also thank all those who reached out to us with their compliments and suggestions.