Special Issue Call for Papers

Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Strategy and Management

The goal of this special issue is to explore the role of chance, luck, and serendipity in managing organizations and strategy by exploring new theories and broadening and reorienting existing theories and areas of empirical research. We welcome deductive, inductive, or abductive studies using quantitative or qualitative data, as well as strong conceptual papers. We are open to different levels of analysis, including individuals, teams, firms, industries, and regions.

The Special Issue submission window will open on October 1, 2025, and the deadline for submission is November 1, 2025 (no exceptions or extensions). No manuscripts will be processed before the submission window opens.

Submitted papers must be in accordance with the requirements of the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). They must be submitted using the SMJ submission portal. Authors should indicate that they would like the submission to be considered for the special issue “Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Strategy and Management.”

Find out more information above or on the SMJ website here.

Virtual Information Session: Virtual Information Session: SMJ Special Issue on 'Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Management and Strategy' 

Please join this virtual information session to learn more about the submission and review process for the upcoming SMJ special issue on Chance, Luck, and Serendipity in Management and Strategy. This webinar will be hosted by the special issue guest editors Christian Busch, Gino Cattani, Christina Fang, and Violina Rindova.

You can register for the information session at the following link: https://bit.ly/SMJchanceluckserendipity. Once you register, you will be sent a confirmation email with a link to the information session.

Call for SMS Collections Editor Applications

Application Deadline: March 14, 2025

The Strategic Management Society is seeking applications for an SMS Collections Editor position. SMS is proud to publish three leading journals that are central to its mission of fostering and supporting rigorous and practice-engaged strategic management research: Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Global Strategy Journal. 

Applications requirements:

• A statement of interest from the applicant including their goals for the SMS Collections as well as logistical items including name, full address, email address, and telephone number.
• A letter from the applicant of up to 800 words summarizing their qualifications relative to the criteria above (in PDF format).
• Up to three (3) third-party letters of support or recommendation (in PDF format).
• A current curriculum vitae (in PDF format).
• If available, relevant statistics (number of papers handled, distribution of decisions, evaluations) from previous editorial experiences at journals other than SMJ, SEJ, and GSJ. The SMS office will supply statistics related to its journals to the Search Committee for each candidate.

To read the full Call for Editor Applications, click here. 

Please submit applications to the SMS Editorial Office through Submittable. If you have questions about this process, please contact Cobretti Williams, Senior Manager of Publications & Foundation, at [email protected].