Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Management Reviews
Theorising Organisational Coevolution in a Complex World
Full paper submission window: 1st – 31st March 2026
Special Issue Guest Editors:
Johan Kask, University of Inland Norway, Norway – [email protected]
Dermot Breslin, Queen’s University Business School, Northern Ireland, UK
Gianpaolo Abatecola, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
Paavo Ritala, LUT University, Finland
IJMR Associate Editor: Dr Maciel Queiroz
Why is the special issue relevant?
Scholars across multiple disciplines in business and management research (e.g., strategy, innovation, industrial marketing, entrepreneurship, and technology studies) are increasingly called upon to advance our understanding of how interrelated, interdependent organisations "coevolve" and adapt to each other and to the focal "ecosystem," "market," and "field" they inhabit (Adner & Kapoor, 2016; Granstrand & Holgersson, 2020; Möller et al., 2020; Phillips & Ritala, 2019; Sandhu & Kulik, 2019; Volberda et al., 2014). Yet, despite a common interest in researching processes of organisational coevolution, there have been inconsistencies in how the phenomenon has been conceptualised and operationalised (Busseniers, 2017; Breslin et al., 2021; Burgelman & Aaltonen, 2024; Oh et al., 2016). Theorising processes of coevolution thus has vast potential as an emerging frontier for cross-disciplinary research at the intersection between strategy, organisation, transition studies, entrepreneurship, industrial marketing, as well as innovation and technology studies.
Coevolution has been a prominent construct in the broader management and economics fields for a long time (e.g., Lewin & Volberda, 2009; Murmann, 2013). However, we believe that rigorous research on the topic has been subdued due to the focus of mainstream management scholarship on constructs such as business and innovation ecosystems that involve coevolutionary arguments (Aarikka-Stenroos & Ritala, 2017) but often fail to fully foreground them. We argue that 1) to date, isolated islands of conversations about coevolution and ecosystem are detached from each other (Abatecola et al., 2020), or discuss coevolution in "languages" that cannot fully understand each other, 2) that the terms "coevolution" and "ecosystem" are often used in a metaphorical manner rather than with strong theoretical underpinnings and explanatory power (Ganco et al., 2020; Hakala et al., 2020; Phillips & Moser, 2024), and 3) that scholars from different areas of research across the aforementioned management disciplines should come together and contribute to a joint effort to extend and integrate the body of knowledge beyond the emerging, metaphoric and idiosyncratic current state.
Therefore, despite the increased interest and advancements on coevolution in recent decades and years, the integrated "full story" remains, in our view, untold and at the same time greatly needed. More fundamental understanding of coevolution would help scholars and practitioners to explain and, in some sense, anticipate (co-)evolutionary processes of social and technology-intense innovation, including dynamics at innovation/entrepreneurial ecosystems (Geels, 2005; Hekkert et al., 2007; Ritala & Almpanopoulou, 2017), technology transfer ecosystems (Good et al., 2019), platform ecosystems (O'Mahony & Karp, 2022), industry-specific emerging ecosystems (Overholm, 2015; Tsoutsos & Stamboulis, 2005) and coevolution at the firm, technology, and industrial levels (Geels, 2002, Murmann & Frenken, 2006).
Bridging research from different viewpoints would help us to tear down the "language barrier" and help extend our theories and understandings of how coevolution of organisational ties relates to dynamism, change and risks (Cristofaro et al., 2024; Kriz et al., 2022). Undeniably, a fast-growing body of research on organisational coevolution, organisation-to-ecosystem coevolution, coevolutionary relationships, evolution of technologies, and ecosystem management has over the past few years been accumulated in many separate areas of research across general business, management, innovation and technology, and transition studies.
We believe time is right to take a theoretical and systematic stance on coevolution as a field of research. We need to move beyond understanding coevolution metaphorically or with a very light theoretical underpinnings towards a more overarching understanding what coevolves, why, and how. Also, we need to utilise the learnings from research streams such as ecological economics (Hodgson, 2010), innovation and technology management (Jovanovic et al., 2022) or in studies of organisational forms (Lewin & Volberda, 2005) to build a more comprehensive picture of coevolution. This calls for interdisciplinary theorising within the "big tent" of management scholarship. Although strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology management and transition studies often share interest in ecosystem, evolution, technological adaptation, path dependence and related topics, they have followed separated trajectories of theory development "in relative isolation from one another" (Hodgson & Lamberg; 2018, p. 170), meaning that they hardly cite references across the disciplinary boundaries. Thus, conceptually focused literature review papers can play an important role in spanning theories across the isolated niches (Alegre et al., 2023; Fan et al., 2022) in order to synthesise and extend our understanding of coevolution phenomena. We strongly believe in an expanded multi-tier theoretical framework, where abstract meta and mid-range theories fit together and contribute in a joint effort to expanding and broadening this body of knowledge. The way we see it, such amalgamations help us make a superior foundation for robust theory building and offer potent tools and models for future research on ecosystem management and inter-organisation coevolution within ecosystems.
To this end, we call for a collaborative and concentrated effort to address challenges related to theorising inter-organisational coevolution and the management of evolving ecosystems through systematic literature reviews, generative narrative reviews, cross disciplinary integrative reviews, and bibliometric analyses that integrate and generate new theoretical insights. Building on these and other review approaches, we hope to instigate new theory and theorising around coevolution, including revisiting the classic intellectual foundations of the construct—including, for instance, complex adaptive systems or ecological studies—as well as work including more contemporary developments and "local theorising."
In line with this aim, we invite submissions that make a significant contribution to theory within the scope of this special issue, including but not limited to the following:
- Critically reviewing the phenomenon of coevolution within diverse research domains
- Problematising current conceptualisations of organisational coevolution
- Integrating competitive or complimentary theoretical approaches to organisational coevolution across disciplines
- Theorising coevolution as a process within and between ecosystems and more broadly, as a process taking place in complex adaptive systems
- Conceptualising coevolution for cross-disciplinary research
Fit of the Special Issue with the aims and ethos of IJMR
Given the nature and importance of this increasingly popular topic, we believe that this effort holds warranted potential to advance research within the theme and scope of IJMR.
First, the special issue will present the state of knowledge on the theme of organisational coevolution within a range of disciplines. By critically evaluating the conceptual underpinnings of competing paradigms, the issue aims to advance current and future research in the area (Breslin et al., 2020).
Second, and in line with IJMR's aims and ethos, the special issue targets papers that make a significant contribution to theory, acting as a strategic platform for new directions in research, and making a difference to how scholars might conceptualise research in their respective fields. This focus on theory will attract a variety of literature review papers using a variety of methods, from domain-specific systematic literature reviews to cross-disciplinary bibliometric analyses (Fan et al., 2022).
Third, in line with IJMR's aims, the special issue is targeting a wide generalist and multi-disciplinary readership, including technology-oriented and innovation-oriented scholars. It thus aims to bring together studies from across research disciplines that have published works on coevolution and tried to theorise ecosystems from a coevolutionary approach, sowing the seeds for new approaches through a cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts.
Finally, our multi-national team of guest editors, with past and current editorial experience from high-impact journals reflects the international readership of the IJMR and is committed to enhancing its international reputation (Breslin et al., 2020).
Editorial team
Johan Kask is a full professor at CREDS—Center for Research on Digitalization and Sustainability at University of Inland Norway, Norway. He has extensive experience with evolutionary approaches, industrial network studies, socio-technical transition work and coevolution and has published in journals such as Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Environmental Innovation & Societal Transitions, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, and European Journal of Marketing. Professor Kask is Co-Editor for Journal of Small Business & Enterprise Development and sits on the editorial review board of Industrial Marketing Management. Since 2017, he has chaired the European Academy of Management's standing track on "Organisational Coevolution and Ecosystems".
Dermot Breslin is the incoming Mary McAleese Chair in Connected Leadership at Queens Business School, Northern Ireland, UK. His research focuses on leading and managing organisational change and has been published in Organizational Research Methods, Academy of Management Perspectives, Organization Studies, Work Employment and Society, Human Resource Management Journal and the International Journal of Management Reviews. He has extensive editorial experience and is currently Special Issues and Reviews editor for the Human Resource Management Journal. He has previously acted as Associate Editor (2012-2017) and Co-Editor-in-Chief (2017-2022) for IJMR. Professor Breslin sits on the editorial boards of International Small Business Journal, The International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, and the Journal of Management Studies, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Management, Dean of the British Academy of Management Peer Review College and Trustee of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.
Gianpaolo Abatecola is a full professor of management at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. A former co-chair of the "Research Methods and Research Practice" SIG at the European Academy of Management, he is also a founding co-chair of the standing track about "Organisational Coevolution and Ecosystems" in this SIG since 2010. He does research into organisational coevolution, managerial decision making, and behavioural strategy, which has been published, among others, in Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Industrial Marketing Management, European Management Journal, Journal of Knowledge Management and Management Decision. Professor Abatecola also has significant editorial experience, currently serving as a Senior Associate Editor for Management Decision and a Co-Editor for the Journal of Small Business & Enterprise Development. His research and reviewing activities have received awards by Emerald, EURAM, and Publons.
Paavo Ritala is a full professor of strategy and innovation at the Business School at LUT University, Finland. His main research themes include networks, ecosystems, and platforms, the role of data, algorithms, and digital technologies in organisations, business model innovation, and circular and regenerative economy. His research has been published in outlets such as Journal of Management, Research Policy, Academy of Management Perspectives, Technovation, and Long Range Planning. Professor Ritala is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of R&D Management (2021-) and serves on the editorial review board of Journal of Product Innovation Management.
Author engagement
To advertise the special issue and encourage submissions, the guest editors will attend the European Academy of Management, Academy of Management, British Academy of Management, and R&D Management annual conferences in 2025 so interested authors can connect with the team prior to submitting a manuscript.
Timeline for the Special Issue
- Initial of Call for Papers: April 2025
- Submission window: March 1 to 31, 2026
- Desk rejection decision: May 2026
- First round of reviews due: July 2026
- R&R Paper Development Workshop: September-October 2026*
- Second round of reviews due: January 2027
- Third round of reviews due (if needed): June 2027
- Publication of special issue: Autumn 2027*
* We will organise a workshop to help authors who receive a first-round "Revise and Resubmit" decision further improve their papers. Participation is encouraged but not mandatory for re-submission to this Special Issue. The workshop will be held virtually.
** Post-Publication, we plan to organise an author panel at one of the main management conferences to promote the accepted papers in the special issue.
Submission guidelines
Manuscripts should follow the Author Guidelines set out by IJMR available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14682370/homepage/forauthors.html
Additionally, see also the Editorials at the site below: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14682370/homepage/editorials
Manuscripts should be submitted online via http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/IJMR highlighting that you wish to be considered for the Special Issue 'Theorising Organisational Coevolution in a Complex World.'
References
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