This special issue seeks to advance leadership research by emphasizing the importance of context in understanding leadership phenomena. The call invites scholars to develop and apply context-sensitive theoretical frameworks that move beyond universal leadership models to examine how organizational, social, cultural, and environmental contexts shape leadership processes and outcomes.

Appel publié par The Leadership Quarterly. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• December 1, 2027: Full paper submission deadline

Samuel MacAulay, University of Queensland

Llewellyn D. W. Thomas, University of Sydney

Andrew Davies, University of Sussex

Projects operate within complex ecosystems of interdependent actors, institutions, and relationships that shape value creation and capture far beyond traditional project boundaries. Rather than treating projects as isolated endeavors, this special issue examines how projects are shaped by and shape their broader contexts, addressing gaps in understanding contextual influences on project outcomes. Emerging challenges such as digital transformation, sustainability transitions, and global interconnectedness create new contextual complexities requiring both theoretical and practical attention.

The special issue seeks research that conceptualizes project ecosystems, explores governance and orchestration mechanisms, and investigates temporal and evolutionary dynamics. Contributions should examine how contextual embeddedness affects project ecosystem outcomes, how governance mechanisms evolve throughout project life cycles, how historical contexts shape current ecosystems, and what long-term impacts project contexts have on subsequent projects and relationships.

Appel publié par Project Management Journal. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Conceptualizing Project Ecosystems: Theoretical refinement and boundary clarification of project ecosystems and related constructs such as project ecologies and networks
• Empirical investigations of project ecosystems in various industries examining value creation opportunities and complementarities between ecosystem participants
• Comparative analyses exploring relationships, dependencies, and interactions between different project ecosystems and their contextual influences
• Measurement and assessment tools and frameworks for identifying and analyzing value creation and capture in project ecosystems
• Multilevel governance: Coordination mechanisms across different types of project ecosystems and organizational levels
• Network orchestration and activity integration: Leadership, participant cooperation, coordination, and balancing diversity and integration in project ecosystems
• Formal and informal governance: Contractual arrangements, relational governance, and how governance configurations shape value creation or destruction
• Dynamic governance: Evolution of ecosystem governance mechanisms throughout project ecosystem life cycles and the role of leaders and dynamic capabilities
• Context evolution: How project ecosystems evolve over time, project phases, and drivers of evolutionary processes
• Path dependencies: Historical contexts shaping current project ecosystems and antecedents and consequences of different contextual configurations
• Life cycle dynamics: How contextual influences shape different stages of project ecosystem development and interaction with temporal factors
• Legacy effects: Long-term impacts of project contexts on subsequent projects and relationships within ecosystems

Timeline

• December 31, 2025: Call for Papers Announcement
• October 15, 2026: Manuscript submission deadline
• December 1, 2027: Expected publication

Melanie De Ruiter, Nyenrode Business University

Benjamin D. McLarty, Louisiana Tech University

Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University

James M. Vardaman, Memphis University

Despite calls to consider context in Organizational Behavior (OB) and management research, the broader OB and management literature has largely ignored family firms and the experiences and employment dynamics of their employees. OB research samples often are drawn without considering the nature of the settings involved or any potential impact on the variables of interest. Since family firms are a common type of business, ranging from sixty-five to ninety percent worldwide, samples in many OB and management studies likely conflate respondents from family and non-family firms. Such conflation can mask differences in behavioral processes that can result in erroneous inferences.

Treatment of family/non-family business as a dichotomous moderator only allows general differences to be noted without theoretically comparing psychological processes at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Moreover, since there is considerable heterogeneity within family firms, grouping employees working in different family firms together will likely forego important across family firm contextual differences in OB processes. Most studies in family firm research have been described as 'context-less'.

Appel publié par Group & Organization Management. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Development and validation of measurement instruments (including assessment of measurement invariance) that allow a more generic assessment of contextual effects often put forward in family firm research (e.g., socioemotional wealth) to help theorize and understand similarities and differences in OB processes between family and non-family firms, and within family firms
• Explicit tests of theories of context (e.g., trait activation theory; situation strength theory) to explain differences in relationships between personality traits and employee outcomes between family and non-family firms and within different types of family firms (e.g., enhanced understanding of family firm context as a driver for personality activation and impact on workplace performance and behaviors)
• Development and validation of personality measurement instruments specific to the context of family for use in family firms, and meaningful contextual comparisons across family firms (including assessment of measurement invariance)
• Enhanced theoretical understanding of how bifurcation bias based on family firm context as a potential motivational force for driving employee attitudes and behaviors
• Multilevel research to better understand how the family firm context affects the extent to which leadership styles may (or may not) trickle down from family executives to family and non-family managers and in turn affect non-family employee outcomes in different types of family firms
• An exploration of how critical events within the family firm context and family/non-family member dynamics shape employee and non-family manager perceptions and evaluations of their employment relationship with the family firm

Timeline

• December 15, 2025: Proposal submission deadline
• February 15, 2026: Decisions and feedback on proposals
• February 1, 2027: Full manuscript submission deadline
• May 1, 2027: Decisions and reviews on manuscripts
• August 1, 2027: Revised manuscripts due
• November 1, 2027: Second round decisions and reviews on revised manuscripts
• February 1, 2028: Second round revised manuscripts due
• April 1, 2028: SI editorial final review round and decisions on revised manuscripts
• May 15, 2028: Final submissions of manuscripts
• June 1, 2028: Final decision by guest editors
• July 1, 2028: Accepted manuscripts to publisher