Concentration in Publishing at Top-Tier Business Journals: Evidence and Potential Explanations

Abstract

We first investigate how articles are distributed among universities in a set of 14 highly ranked academic business journals over the period 1990-2002. We find the top publishing schools in accounting and finance supply a greater portion of their discipline's major journal articles than in management or marketing. Much of the concentration in accounting occurs at privately sponsored journals, where faculty at private (public) schools publish a relatively high (low) portion of the articles.

Next, we investigate how articles are distributed among individuals. We find the following: substantially fewer accounting faculty publish in a major journal; the average number of articles by accounting faculty who publish at least once exceeds that of finance, management or marketing; and successful accounting publishers are more likely to be affiliated with highly ranked research universities or private schools. Finally, we examine if economic consequences arise from this concentration and find evidence of lower promotion rates and salary increases for accounting full professors.

Keywords: Publishing, Promotion, Journal Rankings, Research Journals

JEL Classification: M40