Gauging Management Researchers’ Interest in Uncertainty: A Preliminary Assessment from Three Decades of Publications

Abstract: Among the key factors that researchers in organizations have singled out as the key challenge to managing complex organizations was the ability to cope with uncertainty (for instance Ansoff, 1965; Burns & Stalker, 1961; Thompson, 1967). This study sought to determine the level of interest of strategic management researchers in the topic of uncertainty, and to get an idea about the trends of publications on the topic. A preliminary analysis conducted on 337 articles collected from four journals over 35 years showed the trend to be increasing in two of the journals. Furthermore, while US researchers had authored 80 percent of the research papers through 1999, more recently the number of non-US researchers had grown to almost half of those doing research in this area. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Key words: uncertainty, bibliometric, article authorship, preliminary analysis

JEL codes: B