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Call for papers

Advances in Strategic Management

Style in Strategy and Strategy of Style: Theoretical Developments, Empirical Results, and Research Agenda

Volume Editors: Gino Cattani, Simone Ferriani, Frédéric Godart, Stoyan V. Sgourev

Submission deadline: March 31^st, 2018

Over the past decade, scholarship in management and strategy has been paying increasing attention to the domain of aesthetics, related to judgments of style, beauty, and taste. There is growing recognition that aesthetic considerations are fundamental for successful performance and survival in markets. Thus, mastering aesthetics can be a source of competitive advantage for producers in the creative industries (fashion, film or music to name a few); stylistically sophisticated products may appeal to demanding customers, increasing their willingness to pay, and yielding higher profit margins. There is also empirical evidence that the importance of aesthetics is spreading beyond the creative industries. For example, consumer electronics, traditionally focused on technology, is increasingly embracing aesthetics. Apple's phenomenal success is largely driven by the achieved balance between aesthetics and technology in product design.

The rise of aestheticism in contemporary culture and product design is what motivates the current call for papers, having as its objective the first systematic survey of the interface between the aesthetic and strategic domains.

Companies routinely make aesthetic choices, deciding on the appearance of their products, the shape and colors of the logo, the design of their headquarters or commercial space, or the dress code of their employees. Other examples include the art collections that companies accumulate or corporate  sponsorship of artistic projects or museums. These are manifestations of the relevance of considerations of style and aesthetics to the strategy field.

We are looking for contributions that interrogate the interface between aesthetics and strategy-questioning style, beauty, and taste in a business context-from various theoretical angles, using qualitative or quantitative data and a diverse array of methods. Although we favor empirical contributions, we will consider theoretical and conceptual papers.

Contributions can be embedded in strategic, organizational, sociological, socio-psychological or operational frameworks, covering a broad set of topics that may include, but are not restricted to:

-          tensions and complementarity between aesthetics and technology in strategy formulation and execution

-          the role of aesthetics and stylistic concerns in product design, product differentiation and portfolio construction

-          the establishment, pursuit, and diffusion of aesthetic principles of judgment and evaluation

-          allocation of resources to aesthetically-oriented projects and strategic initiatives

-          crafting of narratives with strategic stylistic signatures, distinctive combinations of content and form

-          the strategic use of style in narratives

-          corporate sponsorships of artistic activities

-          aesthetically-minded reorganization of space

-          strategic design of aesthetic product/service features to convey sensorial information

-          leadership approaches and managerial practices incorporating aesthetic considerations

-          the dynamics of aesthetic and stylistic elements in markets, for example fads and fashion

-          the roles and careers of professionals dealing with aesthetics and style in organizations

This call is not restricted to the creative industries. Aesthetics is vital to work in a great variety of organizational contexts because aesthetic knowledge is embodied in the sensory understanding of the world we live in. We welcome contributions from all empirical contexts where issues of style and aesthetic considerations are relevant to organizational performance.

We are also open to contributions to the more unorthodox theme of aesthetics of scholarship and organizational life. In a famous HBR interview in 2006 ("Ideas as Art"), Jim March espoused an arresting vision of scholarship as containing aesthetic elements that approach it to art, encouraging the pursuit of beauty as well as of truth and justice. In this vision ideas are valued for their "elegance, grace or surprise" and scientific papers are expected to "communicate aesthetic joy" to readers. We encourage submissions that celebrate the elegance of the skills and routines making up organizations - "the letters that are written with style; the pipes that are connected with delicate attention to fit [...] and the abilities that are polished beyond all added usefulness". This call is an opportunity to add elegance to efficiency and to reimagine the "calligraphy of research" - the architecture and layout of papers, the visualization of results and linkages between different parts, to achieve better balance between form and content, and to fulfill an important aesthetic mission.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions are due no later than March 31^st, 2018. All papers submitted must represent original research not previously published elsewhere. All submissions will be subject to in-depth review, and editorial decisions and revision requests will be communicated to authors by June 30^th, 2018. Revised papers will have to be submitted by September 30^th, 2018.The targeted publication date for the volume is early to mid-2019

To submit a paper, send an email to Frédéric Godart (frederic.godart@insead.edu). To ask questions about the content of this AiSM volume or the editorial process, please contact any of the other volume editors as well, Gino Cattani (gcattani@stern.nyu.edu), Simone Ferriani, (simone.ferriani@unibo.it), or Stoyan Sgourev (sgourev@essec.fr). Gino Cattani is the AiSM series editor.

Further information about the AiSM series is available at: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/books/series.htm?id=0742-3322