A new company descriptor takes us into a new era

Citation

Marsh, R. (2011), "A new company descriptor takes us into a new era", The Learning Organization, Vol. 18 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo.2011.11918aaa.001

A new company descriptor takes us into a new era

Article Type: Note from the publisher From: The Learning Organization, Volume 18, Issue 1

I attended a number of very different conferences over the course of 2010, including the American Sociological Association, Global Business School Network, British Academy of Management and the inaugural conference of the International Services in Emerging Markets. What struck me forcibly at each event was how often I was asked about books and journals that I would not have automatically associated with that particular event. I have talked about rapid prototyping to sociologists and teaching languages to service managers. Of course this can mean that we do not always have the precise book or journal to hand for that discussion, but more positively it also underlines how inter-disciplinary the research contained in each title has become.

Emerald has been associated with business and management research for the last 44 years and over the last ten years has been proud to call itself the “World’s leading publisher in management research”. It is very much our intention to continue to build our brand as the world’s leading publisher of management research and we have a number of plans in place to strengthen our position in business and management.

However, eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that Emerald has developed a new company descriptor. We are: “A leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education.”

As we move into different subject disciplines, including education, sociology, linguistics, engineering and transport, our new company descriptor captures this position. In addition, we have always been committed to publishing “research you can use” and we hope this descriptor explains what we do and what we represent more explicitly.

We are independent because we are still owned by one of the original founders. This means that we can invest for the long term rather than for shorter-term shareholder returns. We also stress the importance of being truly international in the research we publish. We are not parochial and do not impose any specific research methodologies. We actively encourage excellence for all parts of the world and across academia and practice. We also want to highlight that we see research having an impact in different ways. It is important that application is considered in practice, in the classroom but also how research can impact on society and the economy in a wider context and a more long-term way.

For these reasons we see Emerald entering a new phase in its development. We are positioning the publishing teams so that they understand the different subject disciplines and communities better. We can take advantage of the growing strengths we have in a number of subject areas and encourage the cross-fertilisation of ideas and research that shapes future research and generations.

Rebecca MarshPublishing Director, Emerald Group Publishing Limited