Relevant Research to Reinvigorate the Performance Movement: Critical Reflection and Hopeful Advancement

Call for Papers

Relevant Research to Reinvigorate the Performance Movement: Critical Reflection and Hopeful Advancement

Journal: Public Performance & Management Review
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 August 2026

Public Performance & Management Review (PPMR) invites submissions for its Special Issue titled "Relevant Research to Reinvigorate the Performance Movement: Critical Reflection and Hopeful Advancement – A Symposium and Special Issue Organized by Public Performance & Management Review (PPMR)."

About the Special Issue

Performance management has long been a cornerstone of public sector reform, shaping governance through accountability, efficiency, and results-oriented management. While the performance movement significantly influenced public management scholarship and practice during the 1990s and 2000s, its prominence has gradually declined in many regions, often giving way to broader paradigms such as evidence-based policymaking and data-informed governance.

This Special Issue seeks to critically examine the current state of performance management research and its relationship with practice. It invites scholars and practitioners to revisit foundational assumptions, evaluate the evolution of the field, and propose new directions that can strengthen both scholarly inquiry and practical relevance. International and comparative perspectives are particularly encouraged to foster a broader understanding of how performance management has evolved across different governance contexts.

Scope and Topics of Interest

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Reimagining knowledge production in performance management

• Bridging the research–practice divide in public management

• Epistemological and normative foundations of performance scholarship

• Evolution of research paradigms in performance management

• Rise, transformation, and decline of performance regimes across countries

• Comparative analyses of governance reforms and performance systems

• Institutional evolution of audit bodies, think tanks, and academic centers

• Future research agendas and emerging "big questions" in performance management

• The role of equity, trust, democracy, and public values in performance scholarship

• Generative AI, large language models, and digital technologies in performance management

• Comparative, empirical, conceptual, and critical perspectives on public performance

• Contributions from critical theory, interpretive, constructivist, and postmodern traditions

• Research highlighting historically marginalized voices and diverse institutional contexts

Submission Guidelines

• Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 August 2026

• Conceptual, empirical, comparative, critical, and methodological studies are welcome.

• Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research approaches are encouraged.

• Submissions should contribute to advancing both the intellectual and practical agenda of performance management.

• Authors should submit manuscripts through the Public Performance & Management Review submission portal by selecting the appropriate Special Issue title.

• Manuscripts that successfully complete the peer-review process will be published in Public Performance & Management Review.

Special Issue Editor

• Kaifeng Yang — Rutgers University–Newark, USA

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