“The Power of Difference: Strategic Decision-Making in Identity-Diverse Teams”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “The Power of Difference: Strategic Decision-Making in Identity-Diverse Teams”

Journal: Journal of Business Research
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 05 October 2026

Overview

This special issue—published by Elsevier—seeks to move beyond surface-level diversity metrics to understand the "messy" reality of strategic decision-making in identity-diverse leadership teams. It explores how social identities, lived experiences, power asymmetries, and positionalities interact in high-stakes environments—such as boardrooms and executive committees—to determine whose voice counts, how strategies are formulated, and when diversity strengthens or fragments decision-making processes.

Key Research Themes

• Mechanisms of Strategic Influence: Exploring the "frictions, negotiations, and moments of shared authority" that occur between identity and strategic output.

• Inclusion & Exclusion Dynamics: Investigating how power, psychological safety, and voice shape the participation of marginalized or minoritized team members in strategic leadership.

• Intersectionality in Leadership: Analyzing how intersecting identities (e.g., race, gender, background) influence the legitimacy and effectiveness of strategic decisions.

• Contextual Moderators: How institutional, cultural, and sectoral contexts influence the ways identity-diverse teams navigate volatility, crisis, and ambiguity.

• Organizational Outcomes: Linking identity diversity to long-term outcomes such as resilience, ethical decision-making, innovation, and stakeholder engagement.

Submission Details

• Submission window: 05 September 2026 – 05 October 2026.

• Submission portal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/JOBR/default.aspx

• Special Instructions: You must select the article type “VSI: The Power of Difference” during the submission process to ensure your manuscript is correctly routed to this special issue.

• Submission Standards: The journal accepts theoretical, empirical, or conceptual work and encourages methodological pluralism (qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, or process-oriented designs). Papers focusing solely on demographic traits without connecting them to strategic decision-making processes will not be prioritized.

Guest Editor Team

• Benjamin Laker (Executive Guest Editor), Henley Business School (benjamin.laker@henley.ac.uk)

• Toyin Ajibade Adisa, University of East London

• Hamid Roodbari, University of Surrey

• Fulya Acikgoz, University of Sussex Business School

Why This Issue Matters

While leadership teams are becoming more diverse, academic understanding of how that diversity actually shapes strategic outcomes remains limited. This special issue—published by Elsevier—aims to address this critical gap by focusing on the "constitutive" role of identity in strategic leadership, providing deeper insights for both scholars and organizational practitioners who wish to move beyond slogans toward meaningful inclusion and improved decision-making.

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