EDITORIAL

Academic publications primarily aim to disseminate research that can bring theoretical contributions and/or new methodologies, that can advance knowledge. However, we know this is not an easy task. When it comes to bringing about innovative solutions for complex scenarios, this difficulty grows.

In its latest issues, the Academy of Management Journal, a respectable publication in our area of knowledge, has been proposing to debate the need for the business academic community to get involved in the pursuit of new forms of facing socially relevant problems, such as urban poverty that could promote a more inclusive society. George, Howard-Grenville, Joshi and Tihanyi (2016) point out that the pursuit of decent jobs which allow economic growth, responsible consumption and production, well-being or gender equality, among other major challenges that humanity is facing today, is directly linked to business research, whether through empirical or theoretical works. This is not exactly a new vision, since improving the life conditions of human beings has always been the paramount goal of research. The question is that the fragmentation in knowledge production is such that we seem to have lost this sense. Joining efforts in pursuit of the common good is no trivial task, and man is wolf to man, we know this. We face ethical questions in research, power struggles between groups for dominance over areas, to mention a few questions that inhabit research institutions. In underdeveloped countries, the lack of resources and basic education conditions for a fruitful development of research are also a relevant aspect to be considered. In addition, we have a diversity of opinions when it comes to defining the concept of common good or what means the survival of the planet. Whatever way we look at it, as George et al. (2016) point out, there is no plan B because there is no planet B, remembering Ban Ki-Moon's remark in the 2014 People's Climate March.

RAE has a pluralist perspective, with the publication of articles by researchers from different countries and regions, in various languages. Because of its historical role in developing the field of business research in our country, we believe that RAE should highlight the importance of challenges both in Brazil and in our Latin American region, which in fact are not too different from the questions pointed in the Academy of Management Journal. Therefore, it is worth encouraging the submission of articles based on sound research which deal with major national issues, such as productivity, decent work, sustainable production and consumption, innovation and infrastructure, inequality and poverty reduction, violence reduction, gender equality, health and well-being, and education, all of which are related to the UN principles of sustainable development (United Nations, 2015).

We hope you like this issue's articles, review and recommended bibliography.

Enjoy your reading!

Maria José Tonelli | Editor-in-Chief
Professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo - São Paulo - SP, Brazil

REFERÊNCIAS

• George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Academy of Management Journal, 59 (6), 1880-1895. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4007
  » http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4007
• United Nations. (2015). Sustainable development goals http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/
  » http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Mar-Apr 2017