Introduction: Is It all a Game? Rankings, Journal Lists, and the Contemporary Role of Book Chapters

As researchers, methodological enthusiasts, and editors, we have always had tremendous respect for the Research Methodology in Strategy and Management (RMSM) book series. Indeed, that is why we took over editing the series in 2019 (Volume 11). We started by talking to the previous editors – Donald (Don) Bergh and David (Dave) Ketchen – to find out why the series, despite its success in publishing high-quality methodological pieces and being a celebrated methodological resource, had been dormant since 2014. One key reason lay at the crux of it: It is incredibly difficult to get academics to write book chapters. Our career structures currently do not incentivize this format of publication (Corbett, Cornelissen, Delios, & Harley, 2014). Yet, when we sat down to further discuss this issue among ourselves – i.e., the editors on this volume of RMSM – we all noted that we had written and published chapters, despite the incentive structures discouraging such work.