Mark Gavin SMA President

I trust that most of you have wrapped up your summer and begun a new academic term. Best wishes for an exciting and productive 2011 – 2012 school year! I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage you to attend the 2011 SMA conference and to catch you up on a few other goings on at SMA.

Annual Conference

We will be meeting in lovely Savannah, GA for the first time. The conference will be held from November 9 – 12 at the Hyatt Regency Savannah. The hotel sits downtown, directly on the banks of the Savannah River, and offers immediate access to River Front Plaza, the Historic District, and numerous dining and nightlife choices. I suspect this location will be a hit. We have a record number of submissions this year, and Tim Barnett (Mississippi State University) and his team of track chairs have put together a great program consisting of high quality paper sessions, symposia, and other sessions. And then there are the sponsored breaks, the receptions and the various social activities that we’ve all grown accustomed to. Thanks to Tim, his track chairs, the reviewers, the authors/presenters, the session chairs and the discussants for their contributions in putting together an outstanding program. Of course, the Professional Development Institute (PDI) has become a big part of the SMA program, and this year is no exception. Ben Tepper (Georgia State University) has put together a wonderful set of workshops and activities. Everyone will be able to find something of interest. Importantly, last year’s new format will be continued in which PDI offerings are sprinkled throughout the regular conference sessions (Thursday through Saturday). This means that conference goers can take advantage of these workshops and activities without having to arrive a day early, as has been the case in past years. Please look elsewhere in this newsletter for additional details concerning both the conference program and PDI activities. A big change this year is the expansion of the Doctoral Consortium. The Consortium has been in high demand for years, and there are always more applicants than there is space. In response, and to allow the consortium to be more targeted to its audience, the Doctoral Consortium has been split in two. Kelly Zellars (University of North Carolina – Charlotte) is coordinating the Late Stage Doctoral Consortium and Tyge Payne (Texas Tech University) is coordinating the Early Stage Doctoral Consortium. Each consortium will admit up to fifty students, and the program for each will be different, delivering content that is relevant to its different constituents. Many thanks to Kelly and Tyge, as well as to Gary Castrogiovanni (Florida Atlantic University), who is overseeing the entire consortia program in its new format. Of course, year in and year out, this conference would not be what it is without the efforts of Geralyn Franklin (University of Dallas), who finds great cities and negotiates wonderful hotel contracts, and Joy Karriker (East Carolina University), who handles every (and I do mean every!) aspect of the on-site arrangements. The amount of work these two do to put on a quality conference is mindboggling, so please thank them when you see them in Savannah. They deserve it! I hope after reading all this, you’ll be as excited as I am about November in Savannah.   

Journal of Management

SMA’s journal, the Journal of Management, has undergone an editorship transition. Talya Bauer’s (Portland State University) editorship came to an end and Deborah Rupp’s began this past July 1. You can find additional information about some of Talya’s accomplishments during her term as well as some of the details of Deborah’s elsewhere in this newsletter. Suffice it to say that Talya leaves JOM in great shape. As one indication of its health, it has a 2010 5-year impact factor of 6.206, placing it 6th of 101 journals in the Business category, as ranked by Thomson Reuters. Between top-notch editors and their editorial teams, the reviewers and authors, as well as our continuing partnership with Sage Publications and the sales, marketing and production efforts they bring to bear, the SMA has something special in JOM. It continues to grow in prestige and impact. The SMA is indebted to all those who have helped this happen over the years. And while there are many individuals who have helped and continue to help JOM be what it is, please give a big thanks to Talya, Deborah and Cynthia Nalevanko (Sage representative and point person in relationship to SMA) when you see them next. 

One other development related to JOM…for those of you who are inclined toward reducing your environmental impact (or at least running out of space on your shelves), the SMA now offers an electronic-only option for receiving JOM. Yes, you can now opt out of receiving a hard copy of the journal. For more information about this option, please visit http://southernmanagement.org/paperless/.     

EAMI Partnership

The SMA made its first foray into the international arena when it partnered with the Eastern Academy of Management-International (EAMI) to cosponsor the 14th EAMI Conference, which was held June 26 – 20, 2011 in Bangalore, India, in conjunction with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). Like many organizations, the SMA has expressed interest over the last several years in taking a more international perspective. Already benefitting from international membership and international attendance at the SMA conference, the value of the SMA itself participating in international events has become a consideration. The details of the SMA’s participation in this particular event are provided elsewhere in this newsletter, and I encourage you to read about it. This was a great opportunity to get our feet wet in a low-cost manner by partnering in an established
conference, as opposed to initiating our own international conference. The SMA was given responsibility for the Research Methods track, and
also sponsored a set of submission awards as well as a reception. The SMA was represented at the EAMI conference by a contingent of officers and members. It was clear that our participation was well received. While this was a one shot deal for the SMA with no ongoing commitment, no doubt that our future participation in the EAMI conference and/or other international activities will continue to be a point of discussion.

Mark Gavin
SMA President