New vision and purpose for <i>Strategic Change</i>: Branching out into the future, rooting from our legacy

It is always exciting when a strategic change takes pace, particularly when it is a deep and ambitious one, and I would like to take the opportunity of this issue of Volume 32 of Strategic Change to introduce myself as the new Editor-in-Chief, the new editorial team, and the strategic changes that are happening at the journal. Strategic Change is changing starting from its name; from 2023, we are no longer “Strategic Change: Briefings in Entrepreneurial Finance,” but we went back to our original name Strategic Change. We firmly believe this name better represents our dedication to studying the management and organization of strategic change. The change in the name is not a cosmetic one but rather a profound strategic change for our journal. Together with a newly established team of associate editors and a new editorial board, we have revisited the aim and scope of the journal to be more aligned with what the journal has been publishing, its legacy, and its reputation. Our articles are focused on the decision-making of change, generalized in the different disciplines, which can speak to this phenomenon. The journal is interdisciplinary, bridging management, economics, strategy, organization, entrepreneurship, and finance to support better decision-making and business performance. The new editorial team includes a group of associate editors exhibiting diverse regional affiliations, career stages, and research interests. This composition is highly suitable for an outlet such as Strategic Change. Our explicit aim is to build upon the excellent work done by the previous editors, Professor Carlo Milana and Professor Helen Lawton-Smith, and guide Strategic Change into a future of impactful research. We are grateful as they have led the journal through robust and consistent growth, which allowed it to receive its first Impact Factor (JIF 2.8, Emerging Science Citation Index, Clarivate, 2023). The rising success of Strategic Change signifies that we are presently at a critical stage. The growing recognition and influence of our journal must be mirrored in the primary journal rankings. As part of our strategic efforts, our editorial team plans to submit applications to multiple journal-ranking organizations this year and in the succeeding years, seeking new classifications in various countries. For those unfamiliar with this process, journal ranking is a periodic, almost cyclical process for different journal listings. For Strategic Change, this has caused an inconsistency between our rapidly growing standing among scholars and authors, as evidenced by our impact factor, and our existing ranking in these lists. From a functional perspective, over the past few years, the journal has predominantly focused on Special Issues. To effectively uphold our strategy, it is crucial that we strike a balance. While we intend to continue sourcing and publishing Special Issues centered on specific themes, we also plan to actively seek submissions for regular issues to support our editorial vision effectively. We expect a phase of expansion and change and are working to create editorial procedures that enable us to stay true to our objectives and scope, enhance our editorial decision-making efficiency, and firmly institute a supportive, formative, inclusive, respectful, timely, and developmental peer review process, which puts the humans, authors and reviewers, at its core. Given Strategic Change's focus and interdisciplinary nature, these elements are anything but simple. The shift toward an associate-editorial model will enable us to boost our operational and strategic capabilities to undertake several initiatives. Over the next issues, I will invite Associate Editors and members of the editorial board to write editorials to introduce themselves, launch future research directions, provide methodological guidance, and steer the direction of the journal. In addition, we plan to expand our team by recruiting more Associate Editors. These new members will enhance our global reach and bring a further variety of expertise. As we also commemorate four decades of Strategic Change, it is important to look back at the inaugural editorial by David Hussey in 1992. This editorial outlined an ambitious vision for what was, at the time, the Journal of Strategic Change, seeking to propel the practical application of strategic management into the 21st century. It emphasized the need for a harmonious blend of strategy formulation skills with those of organizational behavior and management. The journal was envisioned as a dynamic forum for ideas and information, fostering open debates on strategic change and providing updates on research. Breaking down traditional roles and embracing mutual interdependence among players were highlighted as essential components in managing strategic change amidst increasing turbulence. The journal aimed to break down cell walls, combining different fields and balancing conceptual articles with practical ones, often featuring business cases written by senior managers. Igor Ansoff (1992) wrote the first article published in this journal, calling for a holistic perspective on strategic change. Ansoff, among the fathers of strategic management, critiqued the simplistic approach of viewing strategic management as a linear system. Instead, he stressed the significance of incorporating political, psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives to fully comprehend the complexities of strategic change. He commended the journal's intent to accommodate papers written from all these scientific views and urged it to go beyond merely accommodating these disciplines. He called for the journal to take leadership in encouraging research that integrates these various scientific perspectives into a holistic, multidisciplinary view of strategic change. He believed that Strategic Change had the opportunity to promote mutual understanding among the many scientific disciplines vital to managing strategic change and to promote the integration of these disciplines within a holistic perspective. Fast forward to today, and the original vision for Strategic Change remains as pertinent as ever. The current economic landscape is characterized by rapid technological advancements and global challenges such as climate change and shifting geopolitical dynamics, to name just a few. The need for a blend of hard and soft skills, the analytical and the behavioral, is even more critical in navigating these complex challenges, and that is where we still see our contribution. We will stay true to the journal's commitment to balancing research and practice to serve as a valuable resource for both academics and practitioners in the field of strategic change. Looking at our purpose, we aim for the journal to be the home for micro-centric research that enhance the theoretical and practical understanding of the management of strategic changes and informs entrepreneurial and strategic decision-making. We look for clear and straightforward articles that are distinctly geared toward the solution of grand challenges and real-world issues. The purpose of Strategic Change is to provide a platform for the publication of cutting-edge, original, innovative, and high-quality research at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and decision-making. The world has evolved significantly since the inception of the journal in 1992. The current era is marked by unprecedented disruptions and complexities that are shaping the fabric of society; technological advancements, globalization, climate change, shifting geopolitical dynamics, and mounting societal pressures, to name a few. Given these challenges, we must broaden our horizons to encompass emerging paradigms. The landscape of strategic management has expanded to include not only traditional businesses but also start-ups, social enterprises, and organizations at the forefront of addressing global challenges. Our journal has served and will continue to serve as a platform that addresses the diverse needs of these entities, offering insights into the decision-making processes that drive their transformations. The journal remains receptive to all research methodologies, encompassing conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative articles. The recent increase in the use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis as a research technique further enables the exploration of novel causal relationships in our field, and we are eager to welcome such contributions to Strategic Change. Similarly, digital text analysis methods have recently permeated the field of management and organizational research, gaining swift popularity. Techniques such as computerized text analysis, encompassing topic modeling, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and other related methods, present promising research opportunities aligned with the interests of Strategic Change. We enthusiastically welcome and invite such sophisticated contributions, whether they are employed for reviewing studies or analyzing primary or secondary data. To support our new vision and purpose, we formed a new editorial board, currently comprised of more than 80 experts. The fundamental function of the board members encapsulates the aspect of quality control, as they are solicited routinely to review articles and appraise the extent to which the journal realizes its established purpose. We envision the board members to source authors for the journal's regular issues and guest editors for new special issues and, to a certain extent, to contribute their own written work. Supplementing the function of the Editorial Board, we have instituted a group of Associate Editors, comprised of eight experts, who are instrumental in shaping the trajectory of the journal and in acquiring fitting contributions. These Associate Editors not only help streamline the review process by managing the submission of manuscripts within their areas of expertise but also contribute significantly to the development of journal policies and strategies. They come together from regions around the globe, a reality that strengthens the journal's goal of maintaining an international perspective. We are also actively seeking to expand this team of Associate Editors to better represent regions currently under-represented and to incorporate expertise presently lacking within the existing team. This ongoing recruitment process underscores our commitment to inclusive scholarly dialogue and to continuously enhancing our journal's quality and relevance. To introduce our Associate Editors to the readers, and following the alphabetical order, brief information about these eight dedicated colleagues will be explained in the following paragraphs. Felix Arndt is a Professor and John F. Wood Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. His strategy research looks at how firms use organizational renewal and technological innovation to stay ahead of the competition, such as dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, and resource slack. In International Business, he is primarily interested in nonmarket strategy. His work in entrepreneurship includes corporate entrepreneurship, do-it-yourself entrepreneurship, and the challenged-based view of entrepreneurship. Much of his research takes place in the emerging market context. In his view, strategic change is an exciting topic as it allows to investigate of micro-level foundations of individual motivations and behaviors (e.g., Arndt et al., 2022), technological change, and factors in the business environment that trigger changes and span themes like climate change and ideas like total impact. According to Felix, we are in a time of transition, particularly in our natural, technological, and political environment. Strategic Change is a leading outlet to discuss past and future change and their implications. Marina Dabić is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and International Business at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics & Business, Croatia and the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia. Her research areas include entrepreneurship, international business, open innovation, innovation, knowledge management, management of technology, and the impact of innovation on CEE countries. Over the years, Marina has been granted several fellowships, such as the British ALIS, Erasmus+, Tempus, Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, and the Mildred Miller Fort Foundation Visiting Scholar in European Studies at Columbus State University, USA. She has also been a grant holder of several EU-funded projects. Marina sees future research avenues in the exploration of the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on international business practices and strategic change (e.g., Ashta & Herrmann, 2021; Jorzik et al., 2023). Moreover, a further examination into how UN goals, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and sustainability measures can be effectively integrated into firms' strategies, with a particular focus on how these elements could foster innovation and achieve triple-bottom-line benefits, continues to be a prominent research interest (e.g., Pizzi et al., 2020). The dynamics of Human Resource Management (HRM) in virtual and international teams (e.g., Dabić et al., 2023), open innovation, and Smart Specialization Strategy (S3), are also among the future possible research directions she sees for the journal, underscoring the strategies to manage the unique challenges and leveraging the opportunities they provide in a hyper-connected world. Giacomo Marzi is a Senior Assistant Professor of Management at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy, and he is primarily focused on the areas of Innovation Management, New Product Development, and Strategic Management. Within these areas, what he finds particularly intriguing is the “Over Featuring” phenomenon, which refers to the tendency to develop products and services beyond what is required by the market, users, or organizational plans and resources (e.g., Marzi, 2022). In terms of the future direction for the Strategic Change journal, there are several topics that he believes merit further investigation, such as the exploration of how human cognition interacts with entrepreneurship and innovation (e.g., Marzi et al., 2023). Furthermore, he advocates for an increase in comprehensive literature reviews that seek to connect two or more distinct fields and for the expansion of interdisciplinary research within the field of entrepreneurship. Given the wide-ranging nature of entrepreneurship, there is considerable potential for studies that bring together different academic disciplines. Arielle Newman is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University (USA). Her research focuses on entrepreneurs outside the “mainstream,” those who seek to legitimize themselves and their entrepreneurial endeavors despite institutions that were not made for them, or in fact, were made to exclude them (e.g., Newman & Barney, 2023). Specifically, she focuses on social entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, informal economic activity, refugee entrepreneurship, and contextualization of entrepreneurship. Arielle would like to see more studies on the experiences of marginalized populations in various cultural contexts that push the boundaries of traditional management theory, exploring if, how, and when our theories apply to overlooked and understudied populations outside the mainstream. Wilson Ng is a Professor in Entrepreneurship and title-holder of the Chaire in Entrepreneurship & Disabilities at IDRAC Business School in Lyon, France. Wilson researches the ways in which entrepreneurs with severe physical, cognitive, and/or economic and social challenges are able to create ventures because of their challenges. Wilson sees future research avenues on entrepreneurs in do-it-yourself laboratories who exploit competition from incumbent businesses (e.g., Qiu et al., 2023), and on ethnic and religious entrepreneurs in family businesses. Yannis Pierrakis is an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurial Finance in the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona and in Kingston University London. Prior to being a professor for several years, he worked in Nesta, UK as Head of Investments Research. His research focuses on start-up finance, including venture capital investments, business angels, crowdfunding and cryptocurrency. He invites contributions in all areas of entrepreneurial finance, including the role of government and academic institutions in the entrepreneurial ecosystem (e.g., Pierrakis et al., 2023), green finance, and impact investments (e.g., Pierrakis & Owen, 2022). He would also be interested in receiving papers utilizing state-of-the-art research tools such as machine learning and AI. Massimiliano M. Pellegrini is an Associate Professor of Organizational Studies and Entrepreneurial Behavior at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Italy. His expertise and research passion are mostly focused on cognition and behavior applied in several knowledge domains, for example, in entrepreneurship, technological adoption, ethics, and working arrangements and strategies. For these reasons, the contributions he would like to see in this new editorial direction for Strategic Change are related to the necessary profound changes that are required to face modern grand challenges while maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage (e.g., Pellegrini & Ciappei, 2015; Zollo et al., 2022). These challenges have an impact at any level of the business. Starting from the micro level, several organizational actors, such as employees or teams, and also entrepreneurs and top management teams, often struggle to adapt or anticipate change and deal with its consequences. At the meso level, organizations as a whole often lag behind in changing their strategies, organizational culture, and human resource practices to sustain and institutionalize change. Finally, at the macro level, full-fledged ecosystems may crumble as they are not able to valorise and replenish their resources and do not receive appropriate policy and institutional support for a drastic change imposed by an ever-changing business scenario. Pizzi is an Assistant Professor in Business at the of at the University of His research focuses on corporate and business strategy with a specific focus on the related to sustainable and practices et al., 2022). He is also an on research methods, social analysis, and text analysis et al., 2023). sees further research avenues for more studies about the potential between the of information and business strategies. Furthermore, he submissions from scholars interested in exploring corporate social management and The challenges of our an even dedication to bridging academic with practical relevance. 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