Message From the Chair, Professor Emma Parry FBAM
As we come towards the end of 2023, I’d like to wish all our members and community a very happy holiday season. I hope that you have all had a happy, healthy and fruitful year.
Reflecting on my first year as Chair of the British Academy of Management, it is good to see that our community is more active than ever. It is great to see the progress that we have made. Our membership continues to grow and is larger and more international than ever before. BAM members range from those at the very beginning of their academic careers (around one-quarter are doctoral researchers), through to those leading business schools and entire universities, as well as some practitioners.
Our 2023 Conference hosted by the University of Sussex was also our largest ever, with 1200+ papers submitted; 900+ presented; 1107 delegates; and well over 400 individual sessions, including paper presentations, symposia, workshops, keynote panels and more. We continue to be committed to offering virtual access to our main conference to those who cannot join us in person, for whatever reason. A big thank you to our hosts at the University of Sussex Business School, and we look forward to coming together again at Nottingham Business School in September 2024 – the Call for Papers has been issued recently.
We have maintained our commitment to supporting scholarly excellence through our journals and grant schemes. Submissions to our journals continue to grow with nearly 1500 papers already submitted during 2023 – up 12% year to date. Our Editors maintain the highest standards and are working incredibly hard to curate excellent and trustworthy research for the world – and the evidence is there in soaring downloads – over 1.3 million by the end of October 2023. Our new Management Knowledge and Education section in BJM has launched and we look forward to leading conversations there. Our BAM and Partner grants proved popular once again and we are delighted to be supporting a wide variety of projects, and to have launched a revised grant scheme with SAMS (Society for the Advancement of Management Studies).
Developing our community is also important to us and we have continued to expand our development programme provision, with a new programme for those who have just received their Professorship. Our Special Interest Groups and Networks flourish, and I’m delighted to see the enthusiasm for creating workshops and other events for their members.
We continue to advocate on behalf of our community with external audiences and to support Business and Management academics and their institutions in addressing the challenges that we face. With this in mind, our main focus this year has been the development of our new five-year strategy, to be launched in 2024. In this strategy we have based our new priorities on the issues that are crucial in creating sustainable futures for our community and for BAM. Look out for this in the new year and for an exciting new chapter in our community’s history.
None of this has happened by itself. A most sincere ‘thank you’ to all our wonderful volunteers: our Executive and Council, our SIG Committee members, our reviewers and presenters – and our conference volunteers. Membership of BAM is - and will continue to be – active and engaged. We also thank those from our partner organisations – IAM, SIMA, ACEDE, ANZAM, AFAM, IFSAM, CABS and the CMI. We look forward to building on these relationships in the future.
On a personal note, I would like to thank the BAM team, and all of you who have helped and supported me during my first year as Chair, whether this is by volunteering, providing your insights and ideas, or through your kind and supportive words. It is much appreciated! I have enjoyed getting me know so many of you, and look forward to meeting more of you in 2024.
Emma
Professor Emma Parry FBAM, FAcSS, AcademicFCIPD