Researcher cognition and the effect of the external environment on business scholars

There is an ample and ever-growing literature on managerial cognition; however, very little attention has been focused on researcher cognition. This paper posits that external events over time have an effect on business researchers and, in turn, on the types of papers which are published. I empirically tested this hypothesis with a sample of 93 journal articles from the Academy of Management Journal over a 40 year period and found significant findings to support this hypothesis. As the external environment (i.e. macro-economic) becomes more uncertain, academics in Strategy have a propensity to publish more papers based on external theories or concepts than during times of prosperity or decreased uncertainty where the trend is reversed.