Emerald Management Review:
Why have the leading journals in management (and other social sciences) failed to respond to climate change?

Abstract:

Purpose - To study the possible reasons why the leading journals in management do not cover the subject of climate change (global warming).

Design/methodology/approach - The study comprised an extensive review of the management literature in which data was collected from the 30 leading English-language management journals for 1986-2006, using the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change'. Compares the results with those obtained from similar exercises involving the top 30 journals in the fields of economics, sociology, and political science. Attempts to place the results in context by identifying how many articles have appeared in this subject in all social science journals and contrasts this result with the number of papers published in all science journals.

Findings - The results indicated that, not only have the most cited management journals barely published an article on this topic (only nine articles in several decades), the same applies to the journals in economics, sociology, and political science. Proposes five possible explanations for this low coverage of climate change by journals in management, economics, sociology, and political science: that climate change has only recently been confirmed; that there is a time lag between the scientific discovery, its interpretation in the social sciences, and its eventual publication in top journals; that climate change is a practical problem and not a conceptual one; that it is a reflection of political bias; and that promotion incentives are skewed in business schools towards incremental additions to knowledge. Concludes that the best explanation is the unsatisfactory time lag between the scientific discovery and its eventual publication.

Originality/value - Adds considerably and usefully to an understanding of how the social sciences literature views radical developments such as climate change.

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Article Type:

Research paper

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