Academic Development Workshops

Date: Tuesday, June 16

Time: 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Location: on campus

Fee: free of charge, limited seats available, registration required

In order to increase value to its members, EURAM is launching a new series of academic development workshops to help members strengthen publication and research skills. The workshops not only target early-career scholars but are also open to management researchers at all career stages. Don’t miss out and make sure to arrange your travel accordingly!

Workshops:

Workshop Topic

Name of the Facilitator(s) and Affiliations

Description

Abductive Theory Construction in Management Research: Its Poles, Perils, and Potentials

FULL

Peter Fleming, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Abductive theory building holds much promise for management research. Unlike induction and deduction, abductive theorizing begins with a surprising fact or ‘mystery’ that cannot be accounted for in extant knowledge stocks. However, emergent debates about its utility in management research risk becoming polarized, with some scholars promoting abduction as undisciplined guesswork on the one hand (or what Peter terms uncoupled abduction) and others calling for more disciplined programmatic rigor on the other (or what Peter terms as tightly coupled abduction). Both poles are problematic! In this workshop, Peter will explore a middle ground termed loosely coupled abduction. It benefits from both creative curiosity and programmatic rigour without succumbing to their respective disadvantages in theory construction.

Who will benefit: This presentation may benefit academics and higher degree research students working with qualitative research.

Visual Qualitative Methods in Management and Organization Research

FULL

Stefanie Gustafsson, University of Bath, UK

This professional development workshop introduces visual methods, with a particular focus on participant drawings, as a way to access experiences of work and organising and foster inclusive research participation. Building on research in management and organisation studies that highlights the visual dimension of organising and organisational research (Meyer et al., 2013) and earlier work with participant-generated drawings (Vince & Warren, 2012), this workshop is aimed at researchers new to these methods. It will provide an accessible overview of visual methodologies in management and organisation studies, including different ways of generating visual data (such as participant-generated drawings, researcher-generated images and found visuals) and practical strategies for collecting, analysing and representing visual materials. We also consider how visual data can be mobilised for theory development, for example by connecting visual patterns to concepts of career, identity, emotions and inclusion (Gustafsson & Swart, 2020). Throughout the session, we reflect collectively on the methodological questions raised by visual work, asking how these methods might diversify what counts as data, redistribute voice in research encounters and open up more participatory, reflexive forms of qualitative inquiry.

References:

Gustafsson, S., & Swart, J. (2020). ‘It’s not all it’s cracked up to be’: Narratives of promotions in elite professional careers. Human Relations, 73(7), 897–924.

Meyer, R. E., Höllerer, M. A., Jancsary, D., & van Leeuwen, T. (2013). The visual dimension in organizing, organization, and organization research: Core ideas, current developments, and promising avenues. Academy of Management Annals, 7(1), 489–555.

Vince, R., & Warren, S. (2012). Participatory visual methods. In G. Symon & C. Cassell (Eds.), Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges (pp. 275–295). London: Sage.

Developing Theoretical Insights from Underrepresented Contexts: Macro and Micro Opportunities

Pitosh Heyden, Monash University, Australia

Anna Carmella Ocampo, ESADE, Spain

Research conducted in underrepresented contexts is praised for expanding geographic diversity, yet often treated as theoretically derivative. Scholars often test established constructs in new countries without interrogating their underlying assumptions, document cross‑national differences without explaining their theoretical significance, or present contextual distinctiveness as empirical novelty rather than conceptual opportunity. When contextual diversity becomes a validation exercise for established frameworks rather than a source of theoretical generation, scholars may systematically overlook mechanisms, boundary conditions, and organizational phenomena that only emerge where prevailing assumptions break down.

The workshop acknowledges that scholars working in underrepresented contexts face at least three interrelated capability challenges. Substantive challenges stem from paradigmatic training and institutional incentives that privilege WEIRD assumptions over context‑generated theorizing. Legitimacy challenges involve translating contextual insights for international reviewers, addressing data‑quality perceptions, and navigating the liability of foreignness in peer review. Practical challenges include limited visibility in scholarly networks, unclear collaboration pathways, and the hidden curriculum surrounding what constitutes a genuine theoretical contribution.

This pre-conference workshop provides a unique platform for transforming research embedded in underrepresented contexts, from perceived liability into genuine theoretical advantage. Rather than asking whether established theories “travel,” we focus on how distinctive institutional arrangements, governance structures, and cultural configurations can reveal novel mechanisms that advance management knowledge. In doing so, the workshop will seek to demonstrate how to position context as a site of mechanism discovery rather than a backdrop for replication. This includes key considerations for deriving more theoretically-insightful conclusions from non-WEIRD samples.

The workshop addresses how some of these challenges result in potentially interesting ideas being rejected at mainstream journals. For instance, how to avoid pitfalls around construct‑in‑country designs that change settings but not explanations and/or comparative studies that document differences without theoretical grounding. For early‑career researchers and PhD students, mastering these positioning skills is increasingly essential in competitive publishing environments where the central question is not whether a context is interesting, but whether the framing makes it matter.

The workshop integrates three components: a 60‑minute framing session introducing principles and exemplars for converting contextual insights into theoretical contributions; a 60‑minute design clinic offering structured feedback on participants’ research positioning; and a 45‑minute panel on publication strategies and reviewer engagement. Participants leave with actionable frameworks for transforming contextual distinctiveness into theoretical strength.

Scaling The Societal Impact of Academic Research: How to Become an Evidence-Based Policy Whisperer

Agnieszka Slomka-Golebiowska, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland

Andreas Hoepner, University College Dublin, Ireland

Policy makers and many scholars wish for academic research to have societal impact, ideally at scale. Such knowledge transfer is time consuming, laborious and requires skilled diplomacy rather than just a “decision maker” style write up of research results. Nevertheless, engaging with those who draft policy on a monthly and sometimes weekly basis for years can significantly advance evidence based outcomes for society. Professors Hoepner and Slomka-Golebiowska have both been serving on the European Commissions’ Platform on Sustainable Finance, where they acquired first hand knowledge transfer experience and observed failures (e.g. CSRD, CSDDD) and successes alike. Notably, within just a few years the EU’s Green Taxonomy has raised capital expenditures exceeding € 1 trillion to date and the EU’s Paris-Aligned Benchmarks lead authored by Hoepner are adhered to around the world by assets worth more than € 200 billion. In the workshop, the professors will discuss which roles and tactics academics can apply in scaling their societal impact and why whispering substance may often be more effective than shouting symbolic campaign slogans.

Understanding Boards and Governance: What Matters to Researchers, Policymakers and Governance Professionals

Silke Machold, University of Leeds Beckett, UK

The problems with the ‘publish or perish’ culture are well documented, and yet there are no signs of this phenomenon abating. Data from OpenAlex show that there are about 631,700 scholarly works on corporate governance, and in the first two months of 2026 alone, there were 70% more publications than in the whole of 2006. But have we really seen significant advances in knowledge on how organisations are governed, or what good governance means? Do policymakers have improved intelligence on systemic governance weaknesses? And are directors better able to identify whether and how boards add value?

In this academic development workshop, we will interrogate the principles and components of what makes good research, with research on boards as the backdrop. Instead of narrowly focusing on how to get published, we will discuss how to ensure rigour, originality and significance in research. Open research practices (including FAIR data), co-production, public engagement in research, inclusive research, as well as scholarly communication strategies will be explored. We will also discuss the barriers to good research – and how to overcome these. By the end of the workshop, participants will have shared knowledge on research practices that make meaningful contributions to knowledge and practice.

Conducting and Publishing High-Quality Review Studies in Management (3pm to 5pm)

FULL

Julian E. Schenkenhofer, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany

This workshop is designed to help participants understand how to conduct and publish high-quality review studies in management research. Review articles play a crucial role in shaping academic fields: they synthesize fragmented knowledge, clarify theoretical debates, and identify promising avenues for future research. Yet many scholars have received little formal training in how to design and write them.

In this interactive session, participants will learn the key principles behind impactful review papers, including different types of review methodologies (e.g., systematic reviews, theory-driven reviews, and bibliometric approaches). The workshop will discuss how to identify a compelling review question, structure a review manuscript, and develop theoretical contributions that go beyond simple summaries of existing literature.

Participants will also gain practical insights into the publication process for review studies in management journals. We will discuss common pitfalls, editorial expectations, and strategies for positioning review articles so that they make a meaningful contribution to the field. The workshop will combine short conceptual inputs with practical guidance and discussion. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of when and why to conduct a review study, how to design one rigorously, and how review papers can become a valuable part of their research portfolio.