The Journal Of Business Strategies: The First Twenty-Five Years Sanjay S. Mehta Sam Houston State University • Huntsville, TX Donald Bumpass Sam Houston State University • Huntsville, TX Abstract The historical publishing pattern of the Journal ofBusiness Strategies (JBS) is examined. Authors from 171 institutions have written over 262 articles from spring 1984 to fall 2008. Contributions to the journal were studied in terms of numbers of schools represented, number of authors per article, diversity of articles, breakdown of gender of authors, types of citations, and empirical orientation of the articles. Findings indicate that publications in JBS represent a significant scholarly contribu- tion to the field of business strategy. Few differences were detected between JBS and other selected journals. Recommendations to enhance JBS are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis. Introduction The publication of this issue oftheJournal ofBusiness Strategies (JBS) marks the end of twenty-five years of publication. With a journal reaching such an impor- tant milestone, it is appropriate to look at the journal's history as part of its plans for the future (Malhotra, 1996; Hyman & Steiner, 1997; Muncy, 1991). Summary articles of single journals have been written for many well-established business jour- nals. For example, The Journal ofAdvertising (Muncy, 1991), Journal ofAccount- ing Education (Lehman & Street, 1990), Journal of International Business Stud- ies (Inkpen & Beamish, 1994; Chandy & Williams, 1994), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Malhotra, 1996), Journal of Consumer Affairs (Geistfe1d & Key, 1986), Journal ofEconomic Psychology (Van Raaij, 1986), Journal ofMarket- ing Education (Clark & Hanna, 1986), Journal ofBusiness Communication (Koch, 1979; Reinsch & Lewis, 1993), Journal ofMarketing (Grether, 1976; Marquardt & Murdock, 1983), Journal of Finance (Schweser, 1977; Heck, Cooley, & Hubbard, 1986; Schroeder, Langrehr, & Floyd, 1995), Journal of Macromarketing (Finn & McQuitty, 1994), Journal ofApplied Business Research (Urbancic, 1994), Journal ofBusiness and Entrepreneurship (Hyman & Steiner, 1997), Journal ofPurchasing and Material Management (Williams & Oumlil, 1987), Journal ofPersonal Selling 10 Journal of Business Strategies and Sales Management (Swan, Powers & Sobczak, 1991), and Journal ofBusiness Strategies (Mehta, Maniam & Leipnik, 1999). For the fifteen year anniversary of JBS, a retrospective article looked at the first fifteen years of JBS. For the twenty- fifth anniversary it seems an appropriate time to update that earlier effort. This paper will once again trace the evolution of JBS from conception to present. More specifically, the article will provide a detailed look at specific aspects of the oldest business strategy journal. A pluralistic research methodology will be utilizing (i.e., both quantitative and qualitative), as it is a more robust than using either one by itself. This article will provide an update to the previous endeavor, which was done a decade ago. Evaluating the current state and statute of JBS is criti- cal in 2008 for two reasons. First, the original editor of JBS, William B. Green, was recently renamed the new editor after twenty-one years. Second, the journal has had a successful twenty-five year history, a silver jubilee of sorts. History JBS was founded in 1982 at the Center for Business and Economic Research, Sam Houston State University (SHSU). Since its inception, JBS has been published semiannually (i.e., spring and fall) by SHSU. The first issue of JBS was published in spring 1984 under the editorship of William B. Green. The first issue mainly con- tained invited articles from reputable authors to insure that the JBS started off with some quality articles. An important initial objective of JBS was to attract quality articles and to position JBS as a relevant publication appealing to both practitioners and academicians within the business community. Beginning with the second issue, all articles were double blind reviewed by selected members of the Editorial Board. Editorial Board members are reviewed regularly. Twenty-five years later, the editorial review board includes a diverse group of academic and practitioners from disparate disciplines at reputed institutions. Over the years of its existence, the quality of the Editorial Board has been sustained and continuously improved. During the first fifteen years, the outstanding Editorial Board has elevated JBS's reputation and established it as a high quality journal with ever improving manuscripts. If there is one criticism that could be alleged, it is the fact that the Editorial Board has lacked adequate international representation. Susan A. Simmons took over editorial duties in spring 1986 and served through the fall 1986 issue. No significant changes were observed during Simmons' short tenure as the editor of JBS. Most of the articles published during both Green's and Simmon's tenure as editor were focused in the area of management strategy. Volume 25, Number 2 11 In spring 1987, George D. Greenwade became the third editor of JBS. He immediately instituted three major changes. First, JBS took on a glossy look and changed the binding from saddle-stitch to perfect binding so as it would be more appealing to practitioners. Second, the fall 1987 issue contained a cumulative in- dex of previously published articles. This strategy was important to help increase subscriptions to JBS. The practice of indexing previous articles continued for three years. Third, the fall 1988 issue contained the only paid advertisement in JBSs history. Jo Ann Duffy became the fourth editor of JBS in fall 1990. With one excep- tion, the status quo was maintained during Duffy's tenure as the editor. For the first time, biographical sketches of the authors were published in fall 1991. In fall 1992, Roger D. Abshire became the fifth editor ofJBS. During his brief tenure as editor (i.e., two issues), the Center for Business and Economic Research, where the journal was housed, was renamed the Gibson D. Lewis Center for Busi- ness and Economic Development. While this change had a significant impact on the institution, it had no impact on JBS and its editorial staff or board. Jo Ann Duffy was reappointed the editor in fall 1993 issue and she remained the editor through the fall 2007 issue. During Duffy's second tenure as the editor, she implemented three significant changes. Once again, the cover of the journal received a timely update. Second, a web site (www.shsu.edu/~coba/jbs/board.html) was created for readers and researchers to read articles online and order articles from past issues. Unfortunately, the website is not continuously updated and still lacks the ability to search specific words. Third, current business topics were placed in "special issues" of the journal. According to Duffy, "Our first two special issues focused on the significant issue of 'Services Marketing' and 'Banking,' where the journal was able to address needs of practitioners." The success and discrimination of the first two special is- sues was followed by several additional special issues. The next special issue of JBS addressed the timely topic of "Internet Marketing and E_commerce." Due to aggressive marketing of the "Call for papers" by the guest editors, Douglas Kline and Sanjay S. Mehta, the journal received over thirty-five quality submissions. After an extensive review process, it was determined that there were ten articles worthy of publication in the special issue. Due to size and page limitation of JBS, two special issues were devoted to the topics of internet marketing and E-commerce (i.e., five articles in each issue) in fall 2001 and spring 2002. William B. Green was once again appointed the editor ofJBS (i.e., prior to the publication of the spring 2007 issue). As JBS prepares for the next decade, Green's 12 Journal of Business Strategies long-tenn goals are two-fold. First, to attract articles that are appropriate for busi- ness practitioners. Second, identify relevant business topics that justify a "special issue" of JBS. Findings Output During its first twenty-five years, 262 articles from 573 authors have been published in JBS. As shown in Table 1, the average length of the article was 14.56 pages and the average articles per issue were 5.35. However, over the twenty-five years, there has been a noticeable trend toward longer articles (as measured by number of pages per article). For example, in 1984 the average pages per article were 8.80 and 2007 it was 21.33 pages. This increase in number of pages per article reflects a grow- ing emphasis on the literature review and increased rigor in the methodology section. The average length of the article is consistent with others journals (14.56 pag- es for JBS versus 10.5 pages for other journal within business). The mean difference of 4 pages could be attributed to the smaller size (9x7 in) of JBS. Next, the average number of articles published per issue is about the same as other journals (Malhotra, 1996; Hyman & Steiner, 1997). In fact, JBS has attributes similar to other journals, such as number of issues per year and total number of pages per issue. Authorship Many studies use authorship with respect to institutional affiliation or the af- filiation tally to gauge the diversity of authors and/or institutions that have published in a particular journal. It is an appropriate measure because institutions of higher education provide various resources and incentives to encourage greater productiv- ity among faculty. Because authorship with respect to institutional affiliation can en- hance image and reputation of an institution, many serial retrospectives list the most common institutional affiliations of authors (Hyman & Steiner, 1997; Carnaghan, Flower-Gyepsi & Gibbins, 1994; Clark, Hancock & Kaminski, 1987; Clark & Han- na, 1986; Fields & Swayne, 1988; Geistfeld & Key, 1986; Gentry, Allen & Vellenga, 1995; Goldsmith, 1983; Hoverstad, Shipp & Higgins, 1995; Reinsch & Lewis, 1993; Swan, Powers & Sobczak, 1991; Wheatley & Wilson, 1987). While authors from 138 different institutions have published articles in JBS, Table 2 lists the top twenty-seven institutions (i.e., institutions with four or more articles published in the first 49 issues). The table indicates two methods of measur- Volume 25, Number 2 Table 1 JBS Output Per Year from 1984 to 2008 13 Year Number of Articles· Total Number of Pages· Pages per Article 1984 5+5=10 41+47=88 8.80 1985 5+4=9 47+41=88 9.78 1986 5 + 5 = 10 51 + 44 = 95 9.50 1987 5 + 5 = 10 47 + 40 = 97 9.70 1988 6 + 8 = 14 52 + 66 = 118 8.43 1989 8+7=15 77+84=161 10.73 1990 7 + 8 = 15 65 + 67 = 132 8.80 1991 6+8=14 76+71=147 10.50 1992 9 + 8 = 17 85 + 11 0 = 195 11 .47 1993 6+7=13 78+89=167 12.85 1994 6 + 6 = 12 82 + 101 = 183 15.25 1995 6 + 4 = 10 98 + 82 = 180 18.00 1996 5 + 5 = 10 106 + 91 = 197 19.70 1997 5 + 4 = 9 82 + 73 = 155 17.22 1998 4+4=8 72+75=147 18.38 1999 5 + 5 = 10 105 + 83 = 188 18.80 2000 5 + 4 = 9 86 + 88 = 174 19.33 2001 5+6=11 99+91=190 17.27 2002 5+4=9 93+93=186 20.67 2003 5+4=9 72+100=172 19.11 2004 4 + 4 = 8 94 + 88 = 182 22.75 2005 4+4=8 73+68=141 17.63 2006 5 + 4 = 9 91 + 79 = 170 18.89 2007 5 + 4 = 9 104 + 88 = 192 21 .33 2008 4 71 17.75 Total 262 3816 14.56 (mean) * The first number and second number represent the first and second issues respectively. ing institution affiliations of JBS authors: unweighted and equal weighted author- ship. We constructed the unweighted values by assigning weights equal to 1 for first, second, and third authors. The equal weights were constructed by assigning 0.5 and 0.5 for two authors; 0.34, 0.33, and 0.33 for three authors; and 0.25, 0.25, 0.25, and 0.25 for four authors. This technique of using unweighted and equal weighted mea- surement techniques have been previously used (Mehta, Manian & Leipnik, 1999) and provides a consistent method of measurement to identify trends and promote a better understanding of the journal. Five universities with the highest authorship in JBS are: Sam Houston State University, Mississippi State University, New Mexico State University, Auburn Uni- 14 Journal of Business Strategies versity and Louisiana Tech University. Some of these institutions are doctoral grant- ing institutions and all of them are located in the southern half of United States. While this may give the impression that the JBS is only a publication outlet for universities in the South, a look at the entire list, shows that the JBS has published articles from universities located in more than 40 of the 50 states. Sam Houston State University authors have the highest number of publications over the twenty-five year history. While this gives the impression that JBS may be an in-house outlet for Sam Houston faculty, a close examination of articles, shows that 4 of the 10 articles were "intro- ductions to special issues" that were edited by Sam Houston State University faculty members. Table 2 Institution Affiliation of Authors Institution Unweighted Sam Houston State University 10 Mississippi State University 9 New Mexico State University 8 Auburn University 8 Louisiana Tech University 7 University of Texas at San Antonio 7 Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge 6 Lamar University 6 Texas A&M University - College Station 6 Southeastern Louisiana University 6 Kansas State University 6 University of Texas - Tyler 5 Eastern Illinois University 5 Iowa State University 5 Southern Illinois University 5 Florida Atlantic University 5 Clemson University 5 University of North Carolina at Charlotte 5 Indiana University 5 University of North Texas 5 East Carolina University 4 Middle Tennessee State University 4 University of Illinois at Chicago 4 Georgia State University 4 Texas A&M International University 4 University of Arkansas 4 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 4 Equal weights 7.84 5.84 7.25 4.84 6.15 4.50 3.00 2.67 2.50 2.40 2.28 4.25 3.17 2.49 2.25 2.10 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.33 1.97 1.67 1.42 1.34 1.00 1.00 Volume 25, Number 2 Diversity 15 Given its name and longevity, JBS attracts manuscripts from diverse dis- ciplines. Using Hyman and Steiner (1997) categories of academic areas, Table 3 shows the most published disciplines in JBS are management/organization behavior, finance and marketing. Specifically, 58.4% of the articles are about management and organizational behavior, 13.0% are about finance, and 13.0% are about market- ing. Two likely reasons for the high percentage of management and organizational behavior articles in JBS are: (1) its title gives the impression that it is a manage- ment strategy journal; (2) the longest serving editor of JBS, Duffy, has a Ph.D. in Management and is Professor of Management. It could be argued that she tended to favor and accept greater number of articles within the Management sub-discipline. Contrasting these percentages with those from the fifteen anniversary issue, there continues to be a slight increase of publications in the areas of management and organization behavior. This increase can also be partially attributed the JBS's brief partnership with the Southern ManagementAssociation. Generally, since authors tend to do research in their area of specialization or home disciplines (Geitfeld & Key, 1986), it is safe to conclude that most authors in JBS are from management, finance, and marketing-related disciplines. Unfortunate- ly, because biographical sketches of the authors were not published prior to 1991, no further conclusion can be drawn regarding the authors primary area of research and teaching. Table 3 Academic Area of JBS Articles Academic Area Frequency Percent Management! Organization Behavior 15 Marketing 34 Accounting 13 Finance 34 Insurance/ Small Business Entrepreneurship 9 Economics 7 International Business 4 Unknown and Others 8 Total 262 58.40 12.98 4.96 12.98 3.44 2.67 1.53 3.05 100.00 16 Gender of Authors Journal of Business Strategies Another criterion used to evaluate journals is the ratio of male to female au- thors. Similar to other journals, where the ratio of male to female authors is about 4 to 1 (Mehta, Manian & Leipnik, 1999), the ratio for JBS is roughly the same. Table 4 shows the gender of authors in JBS and indicates that out of 573 authors, 465 (81.15%) are male. From the table, it shows the female authors are increasing ac- cordingly because the population growth in female is faster than male. Also, further analysis found that like other comparable journal authors, JBS authors also tend to choose coauthors of the same gender (McDowell & Smith, 1992). Table 4 Gender of Authors in JBS Gender Male Female Co-authorship Frequency 465 108 Percent 81.15 18.85 A growing percentage of articles published in business journals have multiple authors. As noted by Hyman and Steiner (1997), an increasing percent of business and psychology articles published annually are coauthored (Barnett, Ault & Kaser- man, 1988; DuFrene & Nelson, 1990, McDowell & Melvin, 1983; Presser, 1980; Schroeder, Langrehr & Floyd, 1995). This can be attributed to the fact that many recently accredited institutions do not discriminate (i.e., in terms of merit and pro- motion) between single and multiple author articles. Urbancic (1992) also concluded that two thirds of accounting articles from 1978 to 1988 that were written by reputable and well-known accounting authors were also coauthored. Similarly, McDowell and Melvin (1983) found that in the area of economics, there is a positive correlation in experience and the probability of co-authorship. In other words, the higher the experience, the higher the probability of coauthoring. We believe that this trend may partly ~e attributed to the increasing number of schools seeking greater research output from their faculty (i.e., "pub- lish or perish" mentality). Many institutions, especially smaller universities, do not or cannot provide the necessary tools for such productivity (e.g. database, reduced teaching assignment, graduate research assistant). Therefore, co-authors tend to be faculty members from different institutions. Volume 25, Number 2 17 In JBS, only 27% of the articles (71 out of262) had one author, 37.6% (99 out of 262) had two authors, 28.5% (75 out of 262) had three authors, and only 6.8% (18 out of 262) had four or more authors. The percentage of single-authored articles in JBS is significantly lower than in other selected business journals (see Table 5). In fact, the closest journal to JBS is the Journal ofPersonal Selling and Sales Management (JPSSM) with 49.6%; all others are above 50%. On the other hand, the percentage of two author articles in JBS is twice as much as all other journals, except JPSSM (25.2%). This indicates that authors in JBS contribute fewer single author articles and more two author articles than authors who con- tribute to other journals. The average number of authors per article for JBS is 2.10 (370/176). The highest average was in 1991, at 2.5, and the lowest average was in 1987, at 1.4. Table 5 Single and Multiple Authorship in JBS and Selected Serials Author JBS JBE* JM* JM* JAMS* JCR* JMR* MS*JPSSM* JME* Econ* Freq. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. Pet. One 71 27.0 77.6 77.5 77.7 76.6 67.2 70.1 64.0 49.6 90.0 57.7 Two 99 37.6 15.4 14.1 14.3 15.4 18.8 15.8 19.0 25.2 9.0 16.4 Three 75 27.8 3.7 5.4 5.1 4.2 6.4 7.8 9.0 11.1 1.0 7.1 Four 14 4.0 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.9 3.9 2.7 4.7 7.9 0.0 4.4 Five or more 4 1.1 2.0 1.7 1.6 1.9 3.7 3.6 3.3 6.2 0.0 14.4 No. of different 565 299 955 447 520 563 526 300 405 199 13576 authors Mean mentions 2.15 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.7 2.0 1.1 2.0 per author Years published 1984- 1989- 1960- 1984- 1984- 1984- 1984- 1984- 1980- 1979- 1963- 2008 1996 1981 1993 1993 1993 1993 1993 1993 1985 1988 Note: JBE is Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship JM is Journal of Marketing JAMS is Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science JCR is Journal of Consumer Marketing JMR is Journal of Marketing Research MS is Marketing Science JPSSM is Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management JME is Journal of Marketing Education Econ is percentages for top 20 Economics journals *Hyman & Steiner (1997) 18 References Journal of Business Strategies The impact of other researchers and disciplines on research trends can be analyzed by citation analysis (Hyman & Steiner, 1997; Chandy & Williams, 1994; Reinsch & Lewis, 1993). The average number of references used in an article can reveal how much JBS authors draw from other researchers. The formal definitions of the various citations are given in Table 6 below. Table 6 Definitions of Citations* Term Citation Serial Book (Scholarly only) Trade Press/ Magazines/Newspaper Proceedings/Conference Presentation Other * Hyman & Steiner (1997) Definition Publication listed among references at the end of an article Periodical published annually or more frequently that contains articles on various topics One-time publication devoted to one topic (including readings book (essay collection), and handbooks Newspaper or specialty magazine devoted to narrow topic (The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, Business Week) Published conference proceedings or working paper or presentations from academic conference General interest magazine or other source Table 7 shows that JBS authors referenced an average of 23.85 citations per article. While the mean number of citations for JBS is lower than Journal ofInterna- tional Business Studies (35.8) and Journal ofBusiness Communication (32.3), it is higher than Journal ofBusiness and Entrepreneurship (20.6), Journal ofAccounting Education (11.2), and Home Economics Research Journal (16.9) (Hyman & Steiner, 1997). Upon further examination, it is interesting to note that there is an upward trend in the number of references cited from 1984 to 2008 in JBS. At the very least it does indicate that JBS authors are using a greater number of references to support their studies. Volume 25, Number 2 Table 7 References and Number of Articles in JBS 19 Year 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Number of References 33 + 71 = 104 76 + 48 = 124 59 + 60 = 119 90 + 77 = 167 90 + 110 = 200 173 + 178 = 351 134 + 140 = 274 11 2 + 103 = 216 177 + 237 = 414 122 + 196 = 318 230 + 192 = 422 252 + 147 = 399 215 + 227 = 442 187 + 132 = 319 183 + 147 = 330 312 + 173 = 485 137 + 220 = 357 234 + 170 = 404 172 + 275 = 447 155 + 202 = 357 173 + 189 = 362 271 + 190 = 461 275+137=412 263 + 223 = 486 164 8,133 Number of Articles 5 + 5 = 10 5+4=9 5 + 5 = 10 5 + 5 = 10 6 + 8 = 14 8 + 7 = 15 7 + 8 = 15 6 + 8 = 14 9 + 8 = 17 6 + 7 = 13 6 + 6 = 12 6 + 4 = 10 5 + 5 = 10 5+4=9 4+4=8 5 + 5 = 10 5+4=9 5 + 6 = 11 5+4=9 5+4=9 4+4=8 4+4=8 5+4=9 5+4=9 4 262 Average Number of References per Article 10.40 13.78 11.90 16.70 14.29 23.40 18.27 15.43 24.35 24.46 35.17 39.90 44.20 35.44 41.25 48.50 39.67 36.73 49.67 39.67 45.25 57.63 45.78 54.00 41.00 31.04 Comparing citation by outlet type for JBS and other selected serials, Table 8 shows that JBS authors cite a larger percent of serials. Serial citations in JBS are 71.8%, compared to 48.9% for Journal ofBusiness and Entrepreneurship, 55.7% for Journal ofInternational Business Studies, and 55.7% for Journal ofBusiness Com- munication. JBS authors cite a far smaller percentage of books/monograph citations. Books/monographs citations inJBS is 6.9%, compared to 22.4% for Journal ofBusi- ness and Entrepreneurship, 37.4% for Journal of International Business Studies, and 36.0% for Journal ofBusiness Communication. The difference can be attributed to the fact that serial citations may be more valuable to business strategy issues, since scholarly books can become obsolete and outdated rather quickly. 20 Journal of Business Strategies Table 8 Citations of JBS Citations JBS Frequency Percent JBS Frequency Percent Serials Books/ Monographsffrade Press Magazines/ Newspaper Proceedings Conference Presentations papers Dissertations/ theses Other Total Number of Articles Year Published 2934 71.81 281 6.88 239 5.85 536 13.12 1 0.02 95 2.33 4086 100.00 176 NA 1984-1998 2705 68.90 202 5.15 372 9.48 570 14.52 1 0.03 76 1.94 3926 100.00 86 NA 1999-2008 The only other difference noted (see Table 8) is thatJBS articles have a higher percentage (13.1 %) of Proceedings/Conference presentations papers compared to 4.1 % for Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 2.0% for Journal of Interna- tional Business Studies and almost no such citations for Journal of Business Com- munication. JBS has a higher percentage of Trade Press/Magazines and Newspapers (5.8%) compared to Journal ofInternational Business Studies or Journal ofBusiness Communication, which has none. Only Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship has a higher percentage (14.6%) than J13s. This is in part due to the fact that both JBS and Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship are more practitioner-oriented than other journals (e.g., Journal ofInternational Business Studies). Similar to other journals, JBS cites very few dissertations or other publications. Empirical Articles About 48.25% (126 out of262) of the articles in JBS are empirical. While this is an increase from 43.75% ten years ago, but this percentage is still somewhat lower than the other surveyed journals. For instance, the Journal ofBusiness and Entrepre- neurship had about 63.5% empirical articles (Hyman & Steiner, 1997), Journal of Accounting Education had 53% (Lehman & Street, 1990), and Journal ofEconomic Psychology had 66%. Only the Journal of Macromarketing had a somewhat lower percentage (37.5%) than JBS (Finn & McQuitty, 1994). While the empirical articles use various methodologies, most of them are relatively easy to comprehend. This is consistent with the scope of JBS which is orientated to both academicians and practitioners. Volume 25, Number 2 Conclusions 21 A survey of JBS for a twenty-five year period reveals that many authors are affiliated with regional institutions and that a relatively small number of the au- thors published more than one article. It also shows that co-authorship is getting increasing common, a trend noticed by others who have written summary articles (Schroeder, Langrehr & Floyd, 1995). Also, authors are citing an increasing num- ber of references and a larger variety of sources. Also, the number of pages per articles has been constantly increasing. The largest percentage of citations in JBS is serial publications. The diversity of the articles suggests that the articles are mainly about management, marketing and finance. Similar to other academic journals, JBS is dominated by male authors. The mean number of authors in JBS is 2.10, which is comparable with other journals. When William B. Green, the first and current editor, was asked about the fu- ture of JBS, he said "he is confident that the journal will continue to produce quality articles and that it will be successful in the long run." But he also emphasized that JBS must maintain its current focus of both theoretical and practical orientation in order to be of interest to both academicians and practitioners. Recommendations Personal interviews were conducted with a convenient sample of several editorial board members of JBS. Their recommendations and views have been ag- gregated and summarized below. The primary concern expressed consistently by many of the board members was the similarity in the name between JBS and another journal with an analogous name (i.e., Journal of Business Strategy). In our view, either the editorial board must consider a name change or position JBS differently. It is obvious the William B. Green has decided to pursue the latter. Further, the editorial board members felt that JBS must attempt to increase its circulation among both academics and practitioners. One possible solution to help boost circulation would be to consider publishing more special issues, and/or increase the number of issues per year from two to three or even four. Another rec- ommended approach to increasing the readership and dissemination of knowledge is to persuade additional abstracting service to either index the abstract or the entire journal. This strategy could be augmented with greater emphasis on maintaining an updated website that is searchable and offers articles for free. Based on personal interviews with selected editorial board members and the analysis of both past issues of the JBS and other comparable journals, here are some 22 Journal of Business Strategies additional recommendation that warrant consideration. These include but are not limited to: printing the title, author(s), and abstracts of the forthcoming articles in the current issue; printing the call for papers for special issues in the current issue; securing paid advertisement from large publishers or consulting firms in the business strategy area; adding an editorial preface and introduction to each issue. To make JBS appeal to a wider audience, some new sections could be incorporates into the journal, such as book reviews and software reviews. Considering the high cost of printing and circulating a journal, one possible solution to offset these expenditures, would be to increase the annual subscription fee (it is presently at $25.00). Similar to many other journals, an alternative could be to offer a three-tier subscription fee (i.e., individuals, institutions and libraries). To generate additional revenues, another option would be to charge a submission fee for the review process and/or publication fee for all accepted articles. Finally, an annual business strategies conference chaired by the editor would significantly help JBS in generating revenues as well as increasing the visibility of the journal. Some of these recommendations will be easy to implement while others may require some additional resources. For instance, the call for papers for the special issue can either be published in the biannual issues or mailed out to various institu- tions whereas hosting an annual conference or increasing the number of issues per year may undertake additional resources. To determine the feasibility of implement- ing some of the above mentioned recommendations, JBS could hold an annual meet- ing of the editorial board members at one of the conferences which a majority of the board members attend. Finally, to bring about greater notoriety to the journal, Sam Houston State University may want to consider appointing an "external editor" (i.e., someone from another institution) who is well established and known within the field of business strategy. Limitations and Future Research This study has two key limitations. First, because JBS did not publish bio- graphical sketches of the authors prior to 1991, several other summary and compari- sons cannot be undertaken. For instance, the rank of the authors who published in JBS cannot be easily determined. Also, the area of specialization of the authors or area of expertise cannot be determined directly. Second, the study did not attempt to assess how well JBS is received by its readers. 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Acknowledgement We are grateful to Ms. Mary Yiu, graduate student in the Gibson D. Lewis Center for Business and Economic Development, for her assistance in updating the last ten years of articles published in the Journal of Business Strategies. Her assis- tance and suggestions improved the quality of our paper. Biographical Sketches of Authors Sanjay S. Mehta (M.S., Ph.D., University of North Texas) is currently Profes- sor of Marketing at Sam Houston State University and winner of the "2005 Excel- lence in Research" award. He has presented over 125 papers at regional, national, and international conferences and served as track chair, session chair, discussant, and reviewer at many of these conferences. He has published over 75 articles in vari- ous proceedings/journals including: Journal ofAsian Business, The Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly, Journal ofProfessional Services Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Customers Services in Marketing and Management, Southwest Decision Science Institute Proceedings, Southwestern Marketing Association Proceedings, Academy of International Business Proceedings, Academy of Marketing Science Proceedings, American Marketing Association Proceedings, Society ofFranchising Proceedings, Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings, and others. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics and an MBA in Management from Angelo State University. Donald L. Bumpass (BA, MS, PhD, Oklahoma State University) is currently Professor of Economics at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Bumpass has pub- lished over 30 articles in numerous journals including Atlantic Economic Journal, 26 Journal of Business Strategies Review ofIndustrial Organization, American Economist, Antitrust Law & Econom- ics Review, Journal ofEconomic Education, and Journal ofEconomics. His research interests include regional economic development and energy. The Journal of Business Strategies: The First Twenty-Five Years