History of the Allied Academies
JoAnn and Jim Carland, Co-Founders
The Allied Academies, Inc., is a non-profit corporation chartered under the laws of the
State of North Carolina and the United States. It is an association of scholars whose objective
is to support and facilitate the exchange of knowledge world wide. To that end, it sponsors
conferences and journals in a wide variety of disciplines and areas. (You may also consult
our On-line Newsletters for more information)
Contents:
Historical Overview
The Role of Journals
International Presence
Small School Focus
Editorial Policy
Future Outlook
In Conclusion
We are often asked for information about the organization and how it was established.
This white paper is our effort to answer such questions. We became academics in 1982 after
completing our doctoral studies and we immediately became involved with research and publications.
Our primary research area is entrepreneurship.
Over the years, we attended a great many conferences, presenting more than 100 papers,
and submitted articles to a great many journals, successfully publishing more than 50 articles.
In addition, we learned about conferences by serving as program chairs and learned about journals
by serving on editorial boards. We experienced a great deal of frustration with referees,
especially editorial boards for journals, and became convinced that many good articles were not
being published because their authors came from small schools, or because the work was critical of
established ways of thinking, or because rejection letters conveyed little valuable information to
support revision. We thought that we could improve the process, so we decided to try.
We established the forerunner of the Allied Academies in 1994, the International Academy for Case
Studies, and we held a conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in October of 1994. To our great
surprise, 60 people came and we made enough money from the registration fees to pay for a journal.
We launched the Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies. The following year, we added
a new academy, the Academy of Entrepreneurship, and held a joint meeting of the two groups in October
in Nassau, the Bahamas. We had 120 people attend and we made enough money from registration fees to
continue the JIACS and launch two new journals: the Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal and the
Entrepreneurial Executive.
We had a great deal of help in getting those organizations and journals established from old and
new friends. What we did not have was money. We were not sponsored or supported by any university or
agency. We used the proceeds of conference registrations to fund our journals and we continue that
same independence today.
We decided to add more academies and discipline areas, but the paper work was becoming burdensome,
so we established a new non-profit corporation, the Allied Academies, and established it as the parent
organization for all of our individual academies. Fortunately, we had excellent people step in to help
by assuming the roles of president of each of the academies. They took over the role of recruiting and
managing editorial boards and greatly facilitated the process. They spread the word about our
organization and brought us new friends.
We held the 1996 meeting in October in Maui, Hawaii, and we added several new academies and new
journals. We felt that the demand was sufficient to move to two meetings each year, a national meeting
in the spring and an international meeting in the fall. To that end, we held a conference in Las Vegas
in April of 1997 and we added more academies and more journals. We have met in Maui in October 1997,
Myrtle Beach in April 1998, Las Vegas in October 1998, Myrtle Beach in April 1999 and will meet in Las Vegas
in October 1999, Myrtle Beach April 2000 and Maui in October 2000. We have also added three new academies in
economics and economic education; health care management, finance and law; and institute for
finance case research.
In 1999 we held our 2nd annual Internet conference and we plan to expand that program to include one
electronic conference for each academy each year. We are extremely excited about the prospects for this
expansion as it promises to offer access to research outlets for people who might otherwise be precluded
from participation due to travel costs.
Our objective from the beginning has been to fund journals. We have established an editorial
policy of accepting 25% of the manuscripts submitted to our conferences for publication in one of
our journals. The journals are double blind refereed and meet all criterion for professional and
faculty development.
We do accept direct submissions to our journals, but because the funding for their publication
comes from conference registration fees, we do give preferential treatment to manuscripts which have
been presented at one of our conferences. In essence, direct submissions are published on a space
available basis. Consequently, the acceptance rate for such submissions has been somewhat less than 25%.
We ask our editorial board members to play a supportive role, rather than a critical role. It is a
difference of philosophy which is quite profound. Most referees tell us what is wrong with a manuscript;
we ask our referees to tell us what must be done to improve a manuscript. The result is a much more
supportive environment and one which has a much greater potential to lead to the production of a
published article.
From the beginning of the organization, we have had a strong international presence.
This is especially true in entrepreneurship. Matti Koiranen, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland,
established a European affiliate of the Academy of Entrepreneurship in 1996 and is editing a European
edition of the Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal each year.
We found that many international scholars experienced difficulty in obtaining access to
American journals because they tend to be more qualitative and less quantitative in their research.
In keeping with our objective of opening our doors to every point of view and opinion, we are pleased
to publish good work whether or not it is quantitative in nature. That makes our organization a natural
outlet for international scholars.
One of the primary reasons for our new foray into Internet conferences is to allow more international
people to communicate their work through the Allied Academies without having the tremendous travel
expense normally associated with American conferences.
The majority of our members and conference participants are from small colleges and universities.
Hailing from such an institution ourselves, we learned how difficult it can be for people who do not
enjoy release time and deep research assistance to penetrate traditional organizations. We are extremely
pleased that so many people from small schools have found a home in the Allied Academies. Our referees
are predominately from small schools and we all understand the challenges of research in such a setting.
Nevertheless, we recognize that a great deal of valuable work and important knowledge can enter the
literature from researchers in small schools.
We have had a number of people tell us how important their Allied Academies publications have been
in their tenure, promotion, and reappointment processes. In addition, a number of new researchers who
chose small schools have brought us papers arising from their dissertation work. We fully expect both
situations to continue and to grow because we intend to maintain a posture of recognizing the value of
contributions from researchers in small schools.
Our new Internet conference focus will help us make greater inroads into the small school market.
Many such programs have limited travel budgets. Our Internet conference will provide the same kind of
access to conference presentations and to journal consideration as our physical conferences, while
minimizing the costs.
The Editorial Policy of the Allied Academies is displayed elsewhere in this web site, however,
we will briefly examine the issue here. Our mission is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge
worldwide. To that end, we strive to attract as many viewpoints and research approaches from as
many people throughout the world as possible. We are interested in theoretical and empirical works,
but we are equally interested in practical and applied works. We are also concerned with educational
and pedagogic manuscripts. We want to be sure that there are no closed doors in the Allied Academies
to any viewpoint, methodology or approach. We want people in all disciplines and all areas to feel free
to share their research with us and with our conference participants and journal readers. We think that
everyone has something to say and to contribute to the most vital resource of our planet: knowledge.
We are currently working on a plan to expand the readership of our journals so that we can increase
their impact. This is a difficult and challenging task because of the great cost associated with
journal publication. Consequently, we are planning to have current and back issues of all of our
journals available on this web site by 1998. We will pursue library subscriptions to these electronic
journals as the source of financial support for the effort.
We do not plan to discontinue our printed journals in the near future. Rather, we see the electronic
versions of those journals as an approach to broader readership.
We intend to expand our efforts to make Internet conferences an ongoing reality for all of our
member academies. We do not intend these to replace our physical conferences. There are many great
advantages of an electronic conference, not just in terms of cost. These include the ability to access
the entirety of the papers, freedom to browse, consider and review the ideas presented, greater and
more considered feedback for authors. Nevertheless, physical conferences have greater networking
opportunities and, because they break the routine, physical conferences can refresh the mind and
rejuvenate the spirit.
We are interested in additional growth to explicitly encompass more disciplines and research areas.
We have learned that such growth can only occur when a strong champion arises who will carry the torch
and ignite interest. As we find such champions, we intend to give them wide latitude in developing new
outreach programs, new academies and new journals.
Finally, we need more people who will help the organization to grow. We hope to establish officer
progressions in each of the academies during 1998 and 1999. We want to pursue the appointment of editors
for the journals. We want to attract and recruit more members, champions, and ambassadors. We want to
expand our international presence and seek formal affiliates in other nations. Finally, we want to hear
from anyone who has an interest in any aspect of the Allied Academies or who has any ideas or suggestions
to share.
We hope that this short history provides the answers to questions concerning our antecedents.
We will try to keep the history updated as we progress and grow. In the meantime, keep in mind
our interest in feedback or input from any and all sources. This organization is not based on
two people, ten people, or a hundred people. It is based on the interests, minds and abilities
of everyone involved. Please e-mail us any thoughts, ideas or suggestions and feel free to
contact any of the presidents to volunteer for referee work, officerships, or other involvement.
Thank you for reading and for your interest.
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