From the Editors: That’s important, interesting, and generative: Winners of the AMJ 2021 Best Paper Award and 2022 Research Impact Award.
Abstract
Duplicate record, see https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7302/. )Management scholars have long been encouraged to pursue interesting research that causes us to think differently about topics or offers counterintuitive explanations (Colquitt & George, 2011; Davis, 1971). Laszlo Tihanyi, as editor in chief for AMJ, warned of “the potential trade-offs between writing interesting versus important research” in his second FTE (Tihanyi, 2020: 329). He called for “studying problems that are not merely interesting but are relevant to society,” in other words: important. It is fitting, then, that this FTE celebrates and explores our two latest award-winning papers, “The hidden cost of prayer: Religiosity and the gender wage gap” (Sitzmann & Campbell, 2021), winner of the 2021 AMJ Best Paper Award; and “Health care’s grand challenge: Stimulating basic science on diseases that primarily afflict the poor” (Vakili & McGahan, 2016), winner of the 2022 AMJ Research Impact Award. Each is an exemplar of important and interesting research that is also generative of impact and further study. Following an introduction, we share insights from the authors on how they conceived of and developed their studies, ending with advice to authors who wish to follow in their footsteps in advancing important, interesting, and generative management research.