On Being Global

BAR is the flagship international journal of ANPAD - Brazilian Academy of Management, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious academic societies in Brazil and Latin America. Since 1976, ANPAD hosts conferences on a myriad of topics of interest in business and public administration, management science, and organization studies (hereafter referred to as BPA/MS/OS), with its annual meeting (ENANPAD) attracting over a thousand participants in the fields of marketing, strategy, technology and innovation management, operations, logistics, supply chain management, information management, human resources management, public administration, accounting, finance, organization theories, and theories of teaching and research.

BAR and a number of other peer-reviewed journals in Brazil follow ANPAD's rationale of being home to scholars and studies from all those heterogeneous fields, provided that they contribute to the frontiers of scholarly knowledge and to research traditions in a particular BPA/MS/OS topic. For instance, a study that advances the literature on strategy will be accepted for publication in BAR if it is of similar quality to studies published in reputed journals of strategy - and the same applies to studies coming from all other field-specific scholarly communities acknowledged by ANPAD as representing BPA/MS/OS interests. As such, unlike most global titles on BPA/MS/OS, BAR is an outlet for a diverse community of scholars that typically populate the Brazilian graduate schools of management or similar denominations. With origins in how the Brazilian BPA/MS/OS academia developed by mixing practices borrowed mainly from the USA, UK, France, Spain, Germany and Scandinavian countries, those graduate schools (and the corresponding departments in Brazilian universities) ended up reflecting a constellation of expertise and individual frames of mind. As a result, most Brazilian BPA/MS/OS journals, BAR included, reflect that constellation of inputs and form a unique basket of publication venues, in the sense that they welcome manuscripts whose authors would otherwise submit to field-specific journals.

That constellation of scholarly fields and perspectives is necessarily reflected in BAR's editorial boards - the advisory board, the associate editors board, the board of prospective associate editors, the board of ad hoc reviewers, and the position of editor-in-chief (EIC). The new EIC since May 2^nd, 2018, Dr. Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini, is a scholar on management information systems. He was preceded by Dr. Salomão Alencar de Farias⁽¹⁾ (marketing), Dr. Jorge Manoel Teixeira Carneiro⁽²⁾ (international business and strategic management), Dr. Rogério Hermida Quintella⁽³⁾ (technology and innovation management), Dr. Clóvis Luiz Machado-da-Silva⁽⁴⁾ (organization studies), and Dr. Tomás de Aquino Guimarães⁽⁵⁾ (human resources management). Such a variety of expertise in the EIC position is particularly needed to inform the scholarly community that BAR is an eclectic BPA/MS/OS outlet, but also to refresh the communication pattern from time to time and enable the contact with multiple communities of potential contributors.

Nevertheless, is BAR a truly international journal or a Brazilian journal that publishes articles written in English for incidental global readers? Answering this question is among the most critical issues when designing a journal like BAR, planning for its future, and managing the daily editorial routines. My view is that BAR is a truly international journal with a Brazilian publisher, whereas it is still striving to be regarded as a needed resource for research and teaching in BPA/MS/OS schools worldwide. In a sense, BAR has been adopting a variant of Geddes' (1915) "think global, act local" motto, as all editorial policies and routines do follow the world's best practices in scholarly publication, while the span of academic influence has been most evident in Brazil and in specific global institutions whose members have personal connections or participate in institutional agreements with BAR's editorial members. Such a reality is due to how BAR found its way in academia, given that it was born in a country with no significant membership in the global research league, and also because BAR had to face fierce competition in Brazil too. BAR championed world-class scholarly policies and practices since the beginning in order to have a place among the most prestigious Brazilian titles⁽⁶⁾ and attract quality contributions and consistent readership, while also developing connections with individuals and institutions worldwide to become an internationally reputed title. Membership to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and inclusion in the SCOPUS database (with a current h-index of 10) illustrate part of BAR's standing and prospects in the international community.

Alcadipani (2017) offers an interesting account of what he conceives as precarious imitation, in Brazil, of global practices of scholarly publication - and the undesirable impacts on individuals and institutions. Among the many issues raised by the author, the Brazilian titles would be losing opportunity to foster regional meaning and audience; instead, they would be merely adhering to dominant practices and envisioning global readership with mostly local content. As an editor for BAR, I have access to information that partially support those propositions - but also the opposite. At first sight, one may reach at the conclusion that BAR does not have similar variety of nationalities (in the sense of countries of institutional origin) in the authorship of published manuscripts as compared to other global titles. However, variety of nationalities is not a good measure for global reach, as the impact of published materials may not correspond to that variety. In fact, some prestigious journals have low variety of nationalities among their authors, as dominant nationalities (institutional affiliation) attract global readership. Another caveat is that our first impressions may be wrong; only through gathering objective data we may infer about the countries and institutions that are represented (or not) in BAR. During the next ENANPAD (October 3-6, 2018, Curitiba, PR, Brazil), I will discuss some objective data that, again, partially support the local and the global aspects of BAR in terms of authorship and readership. And a third note is that, in my view, there would be no problem if the Brazilian academy had an outlet to promote its quality research to the world, similarly to reputed journals that not only publish research mostly from a certain group of authors, institutions and countries, but do it explicitly as part of the editorial policies - such as when asking for a scholar's standing and affiliation as part of the editorial screening process. However, I should reinforce that BAR does not have such an intent of focusing on the Brazilian academia, rather promoting good research developed anywhere in the world.

I want to argue further on information that is not available outside the editorial offices. At face value, most authors of published BAR articles are Brazilians or academics working in Brazilian institutions. This is a different measure as compared to whether the global community has BAR in mind when submitting a manuscript for publication or when reading published contents. A large number of manuscripts rejected for publication in BAR come from a diversity of countries in all continents and spanning most field-specific topics that are of potential interest to BAR. Rejected articles will never be known to bibliometric analysts by merely browsing through the journal's published contents. Thus, a large portion of authorship diversity is hidden to passersby. On the other hand, profitable debates using privileged office information include (1) whether BAR receives international submissions of the same quality as those received by other outlets, (2) whether the volume of Brazilian submissions blur perceptions on BAR's international reach, and (3) whether BAR would attract proportionally more submissions from the international community as compared to the Brazilian community if it were not attached to a Brazilian publisher. But back-office phenomena eventually reach the user end and reveal interesting facts. A survey by editorial assistant Mrs. Luciane Kato Kiwara on published BAR documents on marketing topics revealed that BAR has published 40 marketing papers since 2005, eight of them with authors from prestigious universities in the USA (including Rice University, Utah State University, Texas Christian University, and City University of New York), The Netherlands (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Canada (York University), France (Reims Management School, and Bordeaux École de Management), and Spain (Universidad de Murcia, and Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena). More data on the variety of BAR authorship will be published soon.

The five articles we now present to BAR readers in this second issue of volume 15 are an illustration of the variety of BPA/MS/OS topics of interest to BAR and of authorship origin. The issue was assembled by past EIC Dr. Salomão Alencar de Farias with the editorial help of Mrs. Kiwara. It offers studies on consumer behavior, entrepreneurship, innovation management, investments, executive career management, and gender issues on credit granting. We hope the readers enjoy this issue and share with us any impressions on how BAR has been helping them in research and in practice.

Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini

Editor-in-chief

A Word by Past Editor, Dr. Salomão Alencar de Farias

My term as BAR's EIC comes to an end with this number. Since the beginning of 2015, I have been the EIC of the first Brazilian administration journal fully published in English. I hope to have contributed to BAR during all these years especially in preserving BAR's scholarly values and practices and in developing it according to the evolving patterns of academic publication. I now wish good luck to BAR's new EIC, Dr. Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini, in this endeavor.

I would like to thank Dr. Tomás de Aquino Guimarães (former President of ANPAD) and Dr. Rogério Hermida Quintella (former Director of Publications and Communication of ANPAD), who nominated me for the EIC position back in 2015. I also thank Dr. Antônio Carlos Gastaud Maçada (current President) and Dr. Maria José Tonelli (current Director of Publications and Communication) for the support in the transition process to BAR's new editorship. I am honored to have worked with them.

Also, I would like to thank our editorial assistant, Mrs. Luciane Kato Kiwara, who has been continuously contributing to the success of BAR and always willing to help and improve our editorial processes.

I am sure the new EIC will head BAR with professionalism and competence, and enhance the quality standards of the Journal and its internationalization process. I am happy for Carlo's nomination, not only because he is a good friend, but also for his solid academic reputation, and wish him luck in this new challenge.

A Word by the New Editor, Dr. Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini

With immense pleasure I received from Dr. Antônio Carlos Gastaud Maçada and Dr. Maria José Tonelli the invitation to be BAR's editor-in-chief from May 2018 to May 2021. Since BAR's first issue in 2004, I am among the voracious readers of the first fully international Brazilian journal for the scholarly community of business and public administration, management science, and organization studies. The invitation was the outcome of an international competition that attracted a number of candidates, of whom I am now a representative to protect BAR from the bad competition of predatory titles, and to foster the journal's new developments.

Past editors, editorial assistants, board members and the authors of published manuscripts have built BAR's reputation, with the solid support of ANPAD's staff headed by Mrs. Rosângela de Brito e Cunha, its scholarly culture and institutional practices. I am among the many who had a career in other fields (in my case, in Computer Science) and who were generously accepted as part of the ANPAD community - almost two decades ago. As BAR's new EIC, now I have the opportunity to work in favor of that community in a position that is both challenging and fulfilling, and hopefully help BAR to achieve its next intents.

I have a special word to my friend, past editor Dr. Salomão Alencar de Farias. Salomão introduced me to BAR in 2016 as an action editor (those who manage the review process of submitted articles and who have not yet become an associate editor) and was tremendously helpful in all my needs as a contributor to the journal. I had years of experience in other editorial boards⁽⁷⁾ before, but his motivation and support were key to attract my interest in BAR as a unique outlet for the Brazilian and the global communities. Salomão's academic standing and personal kindness are among the most precious benefits one has in being a contributor in this field of administration, management, and organizations, and an additional reason for my commitment to promoting BAR as a needed resource in the graduate schools worldwide.

I hope to count on the help of the large community that make BAR a very successful title. I will be always waiting for the feedback of readers, authors and our highly reputed editorial boards. Please do count on me too.

Notes

• 1
  January 2015 - April 2018.
• 2
  October 2010 - January 2015.
• 3
  April 2009 - October 2010.
• 4
  July 2005 - March 2009.
• 5
  July 2004 - June 2005.
• 6
  The Brazilian scientific periodicals electronic library (SPELL) currently includes 121 peer-reviewed journals on BPA/MS/OS topics - http://www.spell.org.br/periodicos.
• 7
  Past editor-in-chief of Journal of Internet Banking & Commerce, and first editor-in-chief of TPA - Teoria e Prática em Administração. Also, guest editor and associate editor for a number of Brazilian and international journals.

References

• Alcadipani, R. (2017). Periódicos brasileiros em inglês: A mímica do publish or perish global. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 57(4), 405-411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0034-759020170410
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0034-759020170410
• Geddes, P. (1915). Cities in evolution: An introduction to the town planning movement and to the study of civics London, UK: Williams & Norgate.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  02 Aug 2018
• Date of issue
  2018