Message from Tatiana Kostova, Chair, IM Division, Academy of Management 2008-2009 

Fellow Members of the International Management Division,

On behalf of all officers of the division, thank you for entrusting us with the important task of managing our community in 2008-2009.  It is a great honor and privilege to serve!  I would like to share with you our vision and priorities for the coming year. 

We are excited about the opportunities that we have as a community to make a significant contribution to scholarship.  We believe we are uniquely positioned within the Academy to develop the highest impact management research.  While many of us hold allegiances to other divisions in addition to IMD, it is through the international research which is the focus of this division, that we can have the most notable impact.  The international context that we study presents unique opportunities for novel theory building and research.  It challenges major assumptions and boundary conditions of management theories that have been typically developed for domestic organizations in Western countries.  Re-examining these theories in the international context, under new assumptions and boundary conditions, can potentially lead to major modifications or expansions of the theories or to the creation of completely novel theoretical insights altogether.  That is why it is extremely exciting to be part of the IMD scholarly community and have IMD as our primary affiliation in the Academy.

Below are the main steps and initiatives that we have taken to support our members this year. 

First, the Executive Committee (EC) approved increasing the number and expanding the scope of the awards given by the division (see p. 3).  In 2008-2009, we will give five research paper awards including three newly established specific awards ($500 each) for research in these three areas - Strategy/IB Theories, OB/HR/OT, and emerging/transition/developing economies.  We have increased the level of the IMD Samsung Best Paper Award to $1,500.  We will continue to support and recognize doctoral student research with up to five IMD Promising Dissertation Proposal Awards given to participants in the IMD Doctoral Student Consortium, in addition to the Barry M. Richman Best Dissertation Award.  Finally, we are instituting the first IMD Outstanding Educator Award to recognize excellence in teaching.  

Second, we will be working on improving the communication in the division.  Several visionary and committed colleagues have joined the Communications Committee and have already started working on a new and improved division website, which will be launched later this year.  As you have probably noticed, we have also redesigned the division newsletter in terms of appearance and content.  In addition to the Communications Committee, we have streamlined all division committees and updated their mandates and membership (see p. 2).  We hope that this group of more than forty committed members of the IMD management team will further improve the various aspects of our division activities. 

Third, consistent with the theme of the 2009 AoM conference, I am inviting you to join in on a new “IMD Goes Green” initiative.  Our idea is that in addition to doing research on environmental and sustainability issues, our community should also “walk the talk”.  We challenge each of us to do something concrete and specific within our schools and with our students to support the green movement throughout the year leading to the conference.  The EC will provide opportunities for sharing our individual initiatives and best practices (through the website) and will organize a concluding forum at the 2009 annual conference to report on IMD’s collective achievements in this area.  A newly established “IMD Green Taskforce” will facilitate this effort by offering some initial resources and overseeing our collective efforts throughout the year (see p. 4).