SMJ Special Issues
Special Issues are an important part of the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). Special Issues primarily examine emerging or important but understudied topics in the field of strategic management, which may involve new or substantial reorientation of theories, research questions, methods, or areas of empirical research.
Interested in submitting a proposal for a Special Issue? Review these Special Issue policies then email the SMS Office at smj@strategicmanagement.net.
All Special Issue manuscripts considered for submission must be sent to SMJ's online submission site. For information as to the form of submission, including style and other submission guidelines, please click here.
Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Strategy and Management
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2025
In a world full of unpredictable events, it is often difficult to determine which solutions, resources, or partners might be needed in the future. Unexpected events frequently produce change and uncertainty that disrupt individual and organizational routines. Consequently, it is often challenging to invest in extensive systematic search and execution, and firm strategies often may be best understood as emergent or “serendipitous”, wherein formalized plans arise not as advanced directives but rather as tools for rationalizing and justifying current action.
Given the opportunities and challenges highlighted above, the goal of this special issue is to explore the role of chance, luck, and serendipity in managing organizations and strategy by exploring new theories and broadening and reorienting existing theories and areas of empirical research. We welcome deductive, inductive, or abductive studies using quantitative or qualitative data, as well as strong conceptual papers. We are open to different levels of analysis, including individuals, teams, firms, industries, and regions.
The goal of this special issue is to explore the role of chance, luck, and serendipity in managing organizations and strategy by exploring new theories and broadening and reorienting existing theories and areas of empirical research. We welcome deductive, inductive, or abductive studies using quantitative or qualitative data, as well as strong conceptual papers. We are open to different levels of analysis, including individuals, teams, firms, industries, and regions.
The Special Issue submission window will open on October 1, 2025, and the deadline for submission is November 1, 2025 (no exceptions or extensions). No manuscripts will be processed before the submission window opens.
Published Past Special Issues
- New Directions for the Resource-Based View
- Question‐Driven and Phenomenon‐Based Empirical Strategy Research
- Strategies for Platform Ecosystems
- History and Strategy Research Opening Up the Black Box
- Value Creation and Value Appropriation in the Context of Public and Non-Profit Organizations
- The Interplay of Competition and Cooperation
- Strategy Processes and Practices: Dialogues and Intersections
- Reviews of Strategic Management Research
- New Theory in Strategic Management
- Replication in Strategic Management
- Question-Based Innovations in Research Methods
- Strategy and the Design of Organizational Architecture
- The Age of Temporary Advantage?
Past Special Issues Awaiting Publication
Resource Allocation and Strategic Management
Resource allocation is a fundamental element of strategic management – whether at the corporate level, business level, or functional level; whether in an established firm or a new firm; whether in the context of a defined competitive environment or an emerging one. Despite its importance, the topic is remarkably understudied. Even when it is examined, resource allocation is often in the background of studies on other strategy topics, or invoked in a general sense, but not the focus of articles. Treating resource allocation as a background feature both underplays its importance and impedes learning about this critical management function. Treating resource allocation in broad terms oversimplifies the specific choices facing managers.
Strategies for Orchestrating Innovative Solutions to Grand Challenges
Increased attention to grand challenges has elevated the need to envision and orchestrate innovative solutions and technological adaptations for addressing them. Grand challenges are complex societal problems whose solutions are perceived to be time-urgent, critical, and impactful for addressing unmet needs in society. Today, there are at least three distinct views about the roles and responsibilities of firms, governments, and related stakeholders in orchestrating the efforts toward innovative solutions to grand challenges. The goal of this special issue is to explore the importance and value of firms and actors operating within markets to tackle grand challenges, with a focus on the strategic orchestration of innovative solutions. This issue will focus on theory-driven or theory-building research providing robust and rigorous empirical evidence about these themes.
SMJ Online Journal Access
SMS Journals are published in partnership with Wiley, and articles can be found on the Wiley Online Library. SMS Members receive complimentary access to all SMS Journal articles.