58 research idea notes tagged “management”. Read them as Markdown, JSON or an Atom feed.
Digital leadership appears on 17 recent papers and leadership keywords on almost 300, and 70 leadership papers carry a digital or AI keyword. New leadership constructs keep appearing, each with its own survey scale. Is digital leadership something new, or transformational leadership measured with new words?
Papers in the last 30 days — leadership: 4
Psychological safety and employee voice appear on 21 recent papers, almost all in management journals, and only 2 of them carry an AI keyword. As AI tools enter everyday work, someone has to notice and report when they are wrong. Do teams with psychological safety catch AI errors that others let pass?
Papers in the last 30 days — employee voice: 1
Qualitative methods appear on 46 recent papers, mostly in management, and only 7 of them carry an AI or language-model keyword. Researchers are starting to let language models code interviews and open-ended answers. Do the codes agree with trained human coders, and what does the method section need to report?
Papers in the last 30 days — fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis: 2
Gamification appears on only 20 recent papers, split across management, finance and accounting. Confetti on a trading app, points for saving, badges at work: the same design tricks are used to make people trade, save, learn and work more. Which uses help the people they are aimed at, and which only help the platform?
Family business appears on 124 recent papers and generational succession on 18. The founders who built China's private firms in the 1980s and 1990s are now handing over. Do the heirs keep the firms, sell them or bring in professional managers, and what happens to performance and investment?
Papers in the last 30 days — family business: 6 · generational succession: 1
Women entrepreneurs appear on 32 recent papers in the management and economics journals, and 14 of 43 such papers carry a funding, finance or credit keyword. Women-led startups still receive a small share of venture capital, and women-owned small firms pay more for loans in several studies. Is the gap demand, supply, or the way applications are read?
Papers in the last 30 days — women entrepreneurs: 2 · access to finance: 4
Supply chain concentration and supply chain relationships are among the fastest-growing keywords across the tracked journals. Finance papers treat a dominant customer as risk; management papers treat it as dependence, through resource dependence theory. The two rarely meet. Does depending on one big customer make suppliers more innovative or more fragile?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain concentration: 2 · resource dependence theory: 4
Virtual influencers, avatars and virtual humans appear on 33 recent papers in the management and AI journals, with 9 in the last quarter against about 7 per quarter before. Brands now run computer-generated personalities with millions of followers. Do they sell, do followers care that no one is there, and what should disclosure rules require?
Papers in the last 30 days — virtual influencers: 1
Venture capital is one of the fastest-growing keywords in the finance journals, and startups are a big topic in management and economics, but only 18 of these papers touch artificial intelligence. As more venture money goes to AI companies, are other startups crowded out, or does AI lower the cost of starting up?
Papers in the last 30 days — venture capital: 4 · startups: 10
University spin-offs and university entrepreneurship are among the fastest-growing keywords in the management journals, while AI research shifts from universities to companies. Only 2 of 37 recent papers on academic entrepreneurship mention AI. Do universities still turn AI research into startups, or does industry absorb the talent first?
Papers in the last 30 days — university spin-offs: 1 · technology commercialization: 1
Working hours appear on 41 recent papers in the economics journals and working time reduction on 4, but the four-day week, now being trialled by hundreds of firms and by some governments, appears under no keyword of its own. Do firms that cut hours without cutting pay keep output, and who gains the hours?
Papers in the last 30 days — working hours: 3
Dynamic pricing appears on 51 recent papers and price discrimination on 28, mostly in operations research and economics; 29 of 91 such papers touch consumer welfare, but price fairness appears on 3. Retailers and venues have faced backlash over surge prices, and some have retreated. Where is the line that consumers will not accept, and what does it cost firms to cross it?
Papers in the last 30 days — dynamic pricing: 2 · price fairness: 1
Child labour, forced labour, modern slavery and human rights due diligence appear on 41 recent papers, with 13 in the last quarter against about 9 per quarter before, and 12 of them carry a supply-chain or supplier keyword. Germany's supply chain law, the EU directive and import bans on forced-labour goods now require firms to check suppliers. Do the checks find anything, and do suppliers change?
Customer retention and churn appear on 33 recent papers and subscription pricing and models on 10, across the AI, operations research and finance journals. Subscriptions now cover software, cars, media and razors, and regulators are forcing easy cancellation. How much of subscription revenue depends on people not cancelling, and what happens when they can?
Papers in the last 30 days — subscription pricing: 1 · customer retention: 1
Social enterprises, social entrepreneurship and hybrid organizations appear on 41 recent papers, mostly in management, and the topic is fading, with 7 papers in the last quarter against about 10 per quarter before. Grant funding and impact investment have shrunk. Which social enterprises survive without them, and do certified B Corporations behave differently from the rest?
Papers in the last 30 days — social enterprises: 1 · social entrepreneurship: 3
Business growth is a rising keyword across the tracked journals, and small and medium-sized enterprises are a large topic, but only 19 of 431 recent SME papers carry a platform, e-commerce or algorithm keyword. Millions of small firms now depend on marketplace search rankings. What happens to them when the algorithm changes?
Papers in the last 30 days — small and medium-sized enterprises: 16 · e-commerce platforms: 5
Industrial upgrading is a large topic in the finance and economics journals, and China installs more industrial robots than any other country. Yet of 397 recent papers with a robot keyword, only 2 carry an industrial-upgrading keyword. Do robots move Chinese firms up the value chain, or just replace workers in the same tasks?
Papers in the last 30 days — industrial robots: 4 · industrial upgrading: 5
Remote and hybrid work appear on 53 recent papers, and 18 of them carry a productivity, turnover, retention or performance keyword. Large firms have ordered workers back to the office, some for five days a week. Do the mandates raise output, or mostly lose the workers with other options?
Papers in the last 30 days — hybrid work: 1
Immigrant entrepreneurs and refugee entrepreneurship appear on 13 recent papers, while immigration as a topic is rising fast in the economics journals. Millions of recent refugees and migrants have started businesses. Do their firms grow, hire natives and survive, and which policies (work permits, credit, recognition of qualifications) make the difference?
Papers in the last 30 days — immigrant entrepreneurs: 3 · immigrant entrepreneurship: 1
Job satisfaction appears on 39 recent papers in the management and economics journals, employee engagement on 17, work engagement on 9 and quiet quitting on 2. Engagement surveys drive billions in consulting fees. Does measured engagement predict anything that firms can observe, such as output, errors or exits, and did it actually fall?
Public procurement appears on 53 recent papers, with 40 procurement papers in the last quarter against about 26 per quarter before, and 33 of 123 carry a corruption, digital, e-procurement or bidding keyword. Open contracting data now cover millions of tenders. Can red flags in the data predict corruption, and do governments act on them?
Papers in the last 30 days — public procurement: 3 · corruption: 3
Privacy concerns, GDPR, data protection and consumer privacy appear on 81 recent papers, mostly about what consumers feel. Few study what the rules did to the firms that advertise. When tracking became harder, large platforms kept their data and small advertisers lost theirs. Did privacy rules raise concentration?
Papers in the last 30 days — GDPR: 1 · privacy concerns: 2
Live-streaming e-commerce and price competition are among the fastest-growing keywords in operations research, and influencer marketing is rising in management. OR papers model live commerce as a pricing game, management papers as persuasion. Who captures the margin: the platform, the streamer or the brand?
Papers in the last 30 days — live streaming e-commerce: 5 · influencer marketing: 9
Open innovation and crowdsourcing appear on 71 recent papers, mostly in management, but only 3 of them carry an AI keyword. Firms ran idea contests and crowdsourcing platforms to get ideas from outside. If a language model can generate thousands of ideas in an hour, what is the crowd still for, and how do firms tell good ideas from fluent ones?
Papers in the last 30 days — open innovation: 2 · crowdsourcing: 1
Narcissism, CEO characteristics and CEO personality appear on 42 recent papers, mostly in the management and accounting journals, with measures built from signatures, photos and pronoun counts. Language models can now score personality from thousands of hours of speech. Do the old measures and the new ones agree, and does personality predict decisions out of sample?
Supply chain transparency, traceability and visibility appear on 83 recent papers, and the topic is fading, with 16 in the last quarter against about 19 per quarter before. Most disruptions and most forced-labour and emissions problems sit beyond the first tier of suppliers, where firms rarely look. How far can visibility be built, and does it pay?
Papers in the last 30 days — supply chain transparency: 2 · traceability: 2
"Moderating effect" and "mediating effect" are among the most frequent keywords in finance and management papers, and mediation models rank high on the equation ranking. How robust are these interaction and mediation results, and what would good practice look like?
Papers in the last 30 days — moderating effect: 20 · mediating effect: 7
Virtual reality, the metaverse, augmented reality and immersive technologies appear on 123 recent papers, but the topic is fading, with 21 papers in the last quarter against about 33 per quarter before; 23 of the papers concern retail or consumers. Which immersive applications survived the hype cycle, and what do their users actually buy?
Papers in the last 30 days — metaverse: 1
CEO and managerial overconfidence appear on 98 recent papers, mostly measured from option-exercise behaviour or press coverage, as in the 2000s. Only 6 of them carry a text, language or speech keyword, and 4 of those are in AI journals. Can a language model score overconfidence from earnings calls, and does it predict the same decisions?
Digital transformation is among the most frequent keywords in the finance and management journals, much of it about Chinese listed firms, and studies often score it by counting digital terms in annual reports. Do those scores track what firms actually invest and hire?
Papers in the last 30 days — digital transformation: 34 · enterprise digital transformation: 6
Knowledge transfer, sharing and management appear on 259 recent papers across the management and AI journals, but only 48 of them carry an AI or digital keyword, and knowledge hiding on 3. Firms are building assistants trained on employees' documents and chats. Do employees share less when sharing feeds a machine?
Papers in the last 30 days — knowledge sharing: 1
The technology acceptance model is one of the fastest-growing keywords across the tracked journals, and a quarter of recent TAM and UTAUT papers now study AI. But the model was built for workplace software decades ago. Do perceived usefulness and ease of use predict who actually uses generative AI, and what do they miss?
Papers in the last 30 days — technology acceptance model: 4 · UTAUT: 1
Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0 and smart manufacturing appear on 121 recent papers, but only 26 of them carry a small-firm, adoption, barrier or maturity keyword. Large manufacturers have automated and connected their plants; most small ones have not. What holds them back, and which support programmes have moved the needle?
Papers in the last 30 days — Industry 4.0: 3 · Industry 5.0: 7
Human-AI collaboration is rising in the management and AI journals, while audit quality remains a core accounting topic. Few papers connect them. When auditors work with AI tools, does audit quality improve, and who answers for the judgments the tools shape?
Papers in the last 30 days — audit quality: 3 · human-AI collaboration: 8
The gig and platform economy appears on 44 recent papers in the management, economics and AI journals, but only 2 of them carry a social-insurance, pension, health-insurance, labour-protection or classification keyword. Courts and laws in Europe, the UK and parts of the US are reclassifying platform workers. What happens to their earnings and hours when protections arrive?
Papers in the last 30 days — gig workers: 1 · platform work: 1
Employment is rising as a keyword in the economics journals, and generative AI is growing there fast. Yet of nearly 1,200 recent papers on employment, wages and labour markets, only 14 carry a generative-AI keyword. Is AI taking the tasks that junior workers used to learn on, and what happens to their careers?
Papers in the last 30 days — young workers: 1 · employment effects: 3
Online reviews appear on 54 recent papers, and 17 of 73 review papers carry a fake, manipulation or detection keyword. Fake reviews were once cheap but detectable; language models make them cheap and fluent. Can platforms still tell, how much of the review stock is now synthetic, and do consumers still trust ratings?
Papers in the last 30 days — online reviews: 7
Profit sharing and employee ownership appear on 24 recent papers spread thinly across the tracked journals. As founders of the baby-boom generation retire, employee buyouts and ownership trusts are one way to pass on firms. Do employee-owned firms survive longer, pay better, and invest differently?
Papers in the last 30 days — profit sharing: 2
Digital twins appear on 87 recent papers, 64 of them in AI journals and 22 in operations research, almost all about building them. Digital twin adoption appears on 2 papers. Firms are buying twins of plants, ports and cities. Which of them changed a decision, and what did they cost relative to what they saved?
Papers in the last 30 days — digital twin: 5
Servitization and digital servitization appear on 50 recent papers, mostly in management, with 15 in the last quarter against about 12 per quarter before. Manufacturers now sell uptime, outcomes and subscriptions instead of machines. Do the service contracts earn more than the products did, and what happens to the data the machines generate?
Unethical behavior and moral disengagement are rising in the management journals, and AI tools now act on people's behalf. Recent experiments suggest people cheat more when a machine does the act for them. Does that happen at work, with sales targets, expense claims or performance reports?
Papers in the last 30 days — unethical behavior: 1 · moral disengagement: 2
Diversity, equity and inclusion, inclusive leadership and affirmative action appear on 44 recent papers, with 17 in the last quarter against about 8 per quarter before, but only 5 carry a political, backlash or legal keyword. Firms in the US have cut or renamed diversity programmes after court rulings and political pressure. What changed in hiring and pay, and what only changed in name?
Papers in the last 30 days — diversity management: 1 · workplace diversity: 1
Luxury brands, luxury consumption and counterfeit goods appear on 32 recent papers, mostly in management, with 5 in the last quarter against about 8 per quarter before. High-quality counterfeits and a booming resale market have blurred what authenticity means. Do counterfeits erode brand value, and does authentication technology restore it?
Papers in the last 30 days — luxury brands: 3 · counterfeit goods: 1
Corporate venture capital is a small but rising keyword, with 7 papers in July–September 2026 against about 3 per quarter before. Large technology firms now invest in AI startups that also buy their cloud and chips. Is this venture investing, customer financing, or a way to buy talent without a merger?
Papers in the last 30 days — corporate venture capital: 2 · open innovation: 2
Stakeholder theory appears on 88 recent papers in the management and finance journals, but corporate purpose on 4 and stakeholder capitalism on 2. Hundreds of large firms signed statements putting stakeholders before shareholders in 2019. Several years on, did the signatories treat workers, suppliers and communities differently?
Papers in the last 30 days — stakeholder theory: 7
Corporate misconduct, reputational risk and corporate scandals appear on 90 recent papers across the management, finance and accounting journals, mostly one firm at a time. Firms share directors, auditors, suppliers and bankers. Does misconduct travel along those links, and can network position predict who is next?
Papers in the last 30 days — reputational risk: 2
Lobbying, corporate political activity and campaign contributions appear on 49 recent papers, mostly about tax, trade and environmental policy, while AI regulation appears on 53 papers as a question of design. The EU AI Act and dozens of US state bills attracted record lobbying by technology firms. What did the money change in the texts?
Papers in the last 30 days — corporate political activity: 1
Coopetition, cooperation between competitors, appears on 31 recent papers split between the management and operations research journals, with 7 in the last quarter, in line with earlier quarters. AI firms compete fiercely while sharing open models, benchmarks and safety research, and renting computing from each other. When does sharing help a rival more than oneself?
Papers in the last 30 days — coopetition: 2
The textile and apparel industries, fashion retail and fast fashion appear on dozens of recent papers across the AI, management and operations research journals, and 18 of them carry a circular, recycling, waste or resale keyword. The EU will require separate textile collection and producer responsibility. Can collection, sorting and recycling be made to pay, and does resale cut new production?
Papers in the last 30 days — fast fashion: 1 · apparel industry: 1
Customer satisfaction and customer engagement are among the fastest-growing keywords in the management journals, and firms keep replacing service agents with chatbots. The EU AI Act requires telling people when they are talking to an AI. Does disclosure lower satisfaction, and can good service recovery make up for it?
Papers in the last 30 days — chatbots: 6 · customer satisfaction: 7
Algorithmic management and algorithmic control appear on 21 recent papers, mostly in management, and the topic is fading, with 2 papers in the last quarter against about 6 per quarter before. Yet software now sets schedules, rates and tasks for warehouse, delivery and call-centre workers. What does it do to effort, health and the manager's job?
Papers in the last 30 days — algorithmic control: 1
Trust in AI appears on 76 recent papers, algorithm aversion on 10 and algorithm appreciation on 3, across the AI and management journals, with 28 papers in the last quarter against about 25 per quarter before. People once rejected algorithmic advice after seeing it err. Language models that explain themselves fluently may get too much trust instead. Which way does it go, and for whom?
Papers in the last 30 days — algorithm aversion: 1 · trust in AI: 5
Charitable giving and crowdfunding appear on 168 recent papers, with 44 in the last quarter against about 38 per quarter before, but only 23 of them carry an AI, text, narrative or image keyword. Campaign success depends on the story. If fundraisers now write with language models, do donors give more, and do they give to the right causes?
Papers in the last 30 days — charitable giving: 4 · crowdfunding: 3
Purchase intention, purchase decisions and consumer choice appear on 178 recent papers, mostly in management and economics, but only 14 of them carry a generative-AI, conversational-AI or recommendation keyword. Shoppers are starting to let AI assistants search, compare and buy. Who gets recommended, and what happens to brands and prices when a model makes the choice?
Papers in the last 30 days — purchase intention: 13 · online shopping: 2
The keyword "AI governance" is growing fastest across the tracked journals, while corporate governance keeps rising in economics and management. Is board-level oversight of AI turning into a research stream of its own?
Papers in the last 30 days — AI governance: 9 · corporate governance: 51
Advertising appears on 15 recent papers, online advertising on 9 and AI-generated advertising on 3, in the management and economics journals, while AI-generated content appears on 33. Brands now generate images, copy and whole campaigns with models. Does disclosure of AI use change how consumers respond, and does generated advertising work?
Papers in the last 30 days — advertising: 2 · AI-generated content: 1
Transaction costs are back as a growing keyword in the management journals, while agentic AI and language-model agents rise in AI. Coase argued that firms exist because using markets is costly. If AI agents can search, negotiate and monitor contracts cheaply, do firms buy more and make less?
Papers in the last 30 days — transaction cost economics: 3 · agentic AI: 3
Absorptive capacity tops the list of growing keywords across the tracked journals, while AI adoption keeps rising. Do firms need prior know-how to profit from AI, so that AI widens the gap between leaders and laggards?
Papers in the last 30 days — absorptive capacity: 9 · artificial intelligence: 37
Scholar4AI. (2026). Research ideas tagged “management”. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/tags/management
@misc{scholar4ai-ideas-tags-management,
author = {{Scholar4AI}},
title = {Research ideas tagged “management”},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/tags/management}},
urldate = {2026-10-26},
note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}