Tuesday 11/22/16

I spent time writing and rewriting titles and abstracts for the Journal of Strategy Science special issue: “Strategy and the Institutional Environment”. I’m going back and forth about the title and focus. I am looking up web pages with advice on how to write a good article title (including implications on citations).

When I did the white-board sketch yesterday, I was considering this title:

“Modeling the Functional Ecology of Organizations and Institutions”

This would lead me toward presenting an ontology and theory of Functional Ecology. I need to do this for my dissertation, so there is some appeal to packaging it as a journal article.

Another title I am considering is my dissertation title:

“Shaping Possibility Space: Coevolution of Thinking and Doing in Institutional Innovation”

(Of course, I might tweak the subtitle.) This title would lead me toward focusing on institutional change agents (a.k.a. “institutional entrepreneurs” and “institutional workers”) combining the cognitive/behavioral and functional ecology aspects. I like this because it more easily aligns with the CFP focus on firm strategy and strategic implications rather than public policy or political economy.

A third possibility is to combine them, but leave out “Functional Ecology”:

“Shaping Possibility Space: How Change Agents Promote Innovation in Institutional-Organizational Ecosystems”

A fourth possibility is brevity:

“Shaping Possibility Space”

This puts all the burden for explanation on the abstract and introduction. Maybe not enough information in the title.

Yet another possibility:

“Functional Ecology: A Micro-foundational Theory of Institutional Innovation”

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I think I will go with #3 for now. It seems to have the most meaning and accessibility, and also is most appropriate for the Journal and special issue theme.