Global or North American?

Abstract

This article examines the possible impact of the geographical origin of scholars on the propensity of their papers to be published. In particular, the publication acceptance rate of non-North American (NA) scholars for top management journals is compared with that of NA scholars. The article is based on an analysis of the geographical location of 1948 authors of 1091 articles published by seven top management journals, located within NA (Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Group and Organization Management) and outside NA (Organizational Studies, Human Relations, Journal of Organizational Behavior). The results indicate that strong under-representation, perhaps a bias, does exist. The discussion examines factors that might impact this phenomenon and offers some ideas and guidelines to balance this.