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Introduction



IIMB Management Review (IMR) is a quarterly journal brought out by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Addressed to management practitioners, researchers, and academics, IMR aims to engage rigorously with practices, concepts, and ideas in the field of management, with an emphasis on providing managerial insights, in a format that is accessible to a wide audience.

To this end, IMR invites manuscripts that provide novel managerial insights in any of the core business functions. The manuscript should be rigorous?the findings should be supported by either empirical data or a well-justified theoretical model?and well written. While these two requirements are necessary for acceptance, they do not guarantee acceptance. The sole criterion for publication is contribution to the extant management literature. Although all manuscripts are welcome, our special emphasis is on papers that focus on emerging economies throughout the world. Such papers may either improve our understanding of markets in such economies through novel analyses or build models by taking into account the special characteristics of such economies to provide guidance to managers. Full-length research articles (up to 8000 words) on all the business functions, aspects of policy, and management pedagogy form the core of the journal; at present focussed discussion and interview papers, and book reviews are also featured. Papers must be written in an easily accessible style, where specialised concepts/ research and methodologically rigorous applications/ analyses are presented simply and concisely, highlighting key insights and managerial implications.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Changes in authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Review process

IMR is a peer-reviewed journal and follows a ‘double blind’ review process. All papers submitted to IMR go through a preliminary review at the editorial desk and those considered appropriate are sent to an Associate Editor. On the recommendation of the Associate Editor, the article may be rejected or assigned to two reviewers. While an initial review may take about three months, a full fledged review may take 12 months or more.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (see more information on this). Permitted third party reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Submission of articles

Authors may submit their papers through the online manuscript submission system at (https://www.editorialmanager.com/iimb/default.aspx) where further information on the process of submission and registration is available.

Submission of a manuscript to IMR implies a commitment by the author to publish in it. Along with the manuscript, authors should provide confirmation that 1) the article is the original work of the author(s); 2) the article (or a significant portion of it) has not been published earlier; 3) it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and 4) all copyright requirements in respect of material used directly or indirectly in the article have been duly met. Articles using information which is not in the public domain about organisations must be accompanied by express written permission from the authorities concerned. The editors reserve the right to accept or refuse an article for publication, and they are under no obligation to assign reasons for their decision. IMR reserves the right to emend the final version of the paper to suit the journal's requirements.

Queries

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Center.

Peer review

This journal operates a double anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review.

Double anonymized review

This journal uses double anonymized review, which means the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. More information is available on our website. To facilitate this, please include the following separately:
Title page (with author details): This should include the title, authors' names, affiliations, acknowledgements and any Declaration of Interest statement, and a complete address for the corresponding author including an e-mail address.
Anonymized manuscript (no author details): The main body of the paper (including the references, figures, tables and any acknowledgements) should not include any identifying information, such as the authors' names or affiliations.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Cover page
Cover page: The manuscript should be accompanied by a cover page containing the article title, the short title (not more than 5 words and which may be used in all correspondence), the names and affiliations of all the authors (the order of placing author names should be specified), along with their postal address, phone and fax numbers, and email address. Details of the authors’ name and affiliation should not appear elsewhere in the manuscript. In the case of multiple authors, the cover page should indicate the designated corresponding author.

Second page
Second Page: The second page should contain the article title, the short title, the abstract (not more than 100 words), keywords (a maximum of 8 keywords), and an extended summary (not exceeding 300 words).

Body of the article
The recommended length of papers is 8000 words, inclusive of tables and figures. Material may be formatted in Times New Roman, font size 12 and double spaced. All tables and figures are to be serially numbered, sequentially following references to them in the text. All tables and figures are also to be presented in a separate WORD document and file names should clearly specify the paper to which the exhibits belong. Tables and figures should carry explanatory notes or legends for clarity or to indicate the source, as necessary; all abbreviations should be expanded. All exhibits should be in black and white only.

IMR follows British spelling (eg: organisation, programme, and colour), except in the case of direct quotations. Figures should be indicated in million and billion.

Wherever possible, explanatory theories/concepts and other background material of a historical or collateral nature, and case illustrations/anecdotal applications should be presented in text boxes to ensure they do not interfere with the flow of the main text.

References
Authors must acknowledge all the sources they have drawn upon, including direct quotations, as well as ideas, concepts, data, and exhibits. Only those references cited in the main text should be listed in the reference list. Sources should be stated briefly in the text, following the author-date convention of by the last name and the date of publication, in parentheses. Citations within the text would read, for e.g. ‘According to Pawlak, (1991) …’ or ‘… (Pawlak, 1991)’. These citations should be amplified in a list of references appearing at the end of the paper. The reference list should be in alphabetical and chronological order, and should include complete bibliographical details, as appropriate—the name(s) of the author(s), year of publication, title of the article/book, name of the journal, details of the publisher, volume and issue number, and individual page numbers, URL of online sources (online journals, magazines, or newspapers) with access date.

‘APA’ (American Psychological Association) (Style 5): Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association (APA). Authors are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5. The APA style guide would be the standard reference for citing books, journal articles, electronic material, websites and other source material.
The prescribed style of citation is as follows:
Reference to a book:Pawlak, Z. (1991). Rough sets: theoretical aspects of reasoning about data. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Ravallion, M. (2007). Transfers and safety nets in poor countries: Revisiting the trade-offs and policy options. In V. Abhijit, R. B. Banerjee, & D. Mukherjee (Eds.), Understanding poverty (pp. 203–230). Oxford University Press.
Reference to a journal publication:
Bose, I. (2006). Deciding the financial health of dot-coms using rough sets. Information & Management, 43(7), 835–846.
Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the references listed and for consistency between the references in the text and those in the reference list.

Reprints
Authors and co-authors will receive an electronic reprint of their article. Additional reprints may be purchased, for details please contact Nova Dudley-Gough, Commercial Sales Manager (email: [email protected])

Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Copyrights and permissions
Authors must cede copyright of the article as finally published to IMR if it is accepted for publication, and certify that all copyright requirements in respect of material used directly or indirectly in the article have been duly met. Copyright rests with IMR in respect of the material submitted for its use and dissemination in any form or medium, individually or in any collection or other configuration, print, audio-video, electronic or otherwise. IMR however grants permission to authors for using the submitted material (subsequent to publication in IMR) in any printed books or other publications or derivative works authored or co-authored by them, or edited or co-edited by them. All other usage will be subject to prior written permission of IMR.
Except as authorised, no part of the material published in IIMB Management Review may be reproduced, photocopied or stored in retrieval systems, or used for commercial or other purposes. For reprints and permissions to photo copy please visit https://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Subscriptions and advertisements
IMR is published four times a year. Annual subscription for each volume of four issues (print edition) is Rs 1900 in India and the SAARC countries (postage extra; details in subscription form published in the print issue). Prospective subscribers in India and the SAARC countries may subscribe through the form included in the print copy of the journal, subscribe online through http://iimberpserv.iimb.ernet.in/imr, or write to [email protected]. Subscriptions are accepted on a prepaid basis only and will be acted upon with prospective effect. Subscriber claims for missing print issues should be communicated to [email protected] within six months from the issue date. For electronic institutional subscriptions through ScienceDirect® (Elsevier’s electronic service), please visit http://www.info.sciencedirect.com.

To advertise in the journal please email: [email protected], Ms. Deirdre P. Dunne at [email protected]

Further details
Any correspondence relating to editorial matters and print subscriptions may be addressed to [email protected]. For more details, please visit https://www.journals.elsevier.com/iimb-management-review or http://www.iimb.ernet.in/publications/review. For details on the submission process, subscriptions to the electronic version and advertisements please contact Elsevier’s online service (https://www.editorialmanager.com/iimb/default.aspx).

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints

The corresponding author will be notified and receive a link to the published version of the open access article on ScienceDirect. This link is in the form of an article DOI link which can be shared via email and social networks. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication.