DRMJ AS A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY, METHODOLOGICALLY-DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE RESEARCH OUTLET
MATEJ CERNE
University of Ljubljana
TOMISLAV HERNAUS
University of Zagreb
Volume 7, Number 1 of the Dynamic Relationships Management Journal (DRMJ) is ahead of you - the first general issue in this volume, with the next one (Vol 7, Number 2) scheduled to be a special issue from the international conference of the Slovenian Academy of Management (SAM), revolving around the central theme of Management and Organization in the Digital Society.
The current issue nicely illustrates one of the directions that we emphasized in our first editorial when we took over as editors of the journal (Please see Volume 5, Number 2) which is a multi-disciplinary approach to examining dynamic relationships, and the accompanying richness of perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. As stated in the mission statement of the journal, the DRMJ welcomes contributions not only from the management and business studies, but also related disciplines. Dynamic relationships can be viewed from many different perspectives, by taking supplementary or complementary theoretical angles and approaches, which is why papers stemming from other disciplines (such as psychology, sociology, anthropology or information science) are not to be considered outliers, but are welcome in contributing to a diverse discourse around the topical issues of the journal. Different empirical methods are also welcome, be it inductive or deductive, qualitative and/or quantitative, with any specific technique that enables the researchers to answer their research questions.
This principle is followed by the papers in this issue. The first one is a study of Thomas Steger, who embarked on a mission of comparing the supervisory boards in smaller and medium sized enterprises in East and West Germany. Two separate but comparative exploratory surveys revealed interesting similarities and differences between them, dis-
cussing and interpreting results with respect to cultural, historical and situational factors. Stemming from the academic field of corporate governance, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic developments that the German corporate landscape has experienced during the transformation process since the fall of the Berlin Wall, with implications stemming far beyond this context.
The second article included in this issue is a multiple-case-study paper by Mohammad Nasir Uddin and Mohammed Shahedul Quader, which deals with a fascinating research question of whether it is ethically and morally appropriate for corporations which operate in socially unacceptable industries or have socially unacceptable business practices to also partake in corporate philanthropy and claim to be socially responsible. It addresses a currently under-researched topic in the corporate social responsibility literature, reminding us that the reality is socially constructed and never purely black or white.
The third article included in the present issue stems primarily from the marketing field, and is a study by Patricia Fux and Barbara Cater, looking into examining interactions on social media to understand how people engage with the content published by non-profit organizations. Contrasting the previous paper, their study is set in the context of cruelty-free ethical consumerism, with netno-graphic data for the analysis collected from the international non-profit organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) official Face-book page. The paper provides novel insights into relationship dynamics between non-profit organizations and consumers in the context of ethical consumerism and social media, contributing to a better understanding of behavioural and communication patterns related to ethical discourse.
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Finally, the fourth article of this issue takes a perspective of looking into secondary data to answer an intriguing research question of the relationship between education and happiness in the European Union countries. It is authored by Anej Pifar, Kristjan Vuk and Tanja Istenic, showing a positive correlation between the two studied phenomena. Their study contributes to resolving ambiguity related to the extant literature on happiness and education by delving deeper into this relationship and focusing on three components of education indicators: the share of people with tertiary education, individuals considered as not employed nor in education or training, and student-to-teacher ratio. Their study has important implications for policy makers, especially in the (tertiary) education literature.
To conclude, we continue our effort in increasing the visibility and international nature of the DRMJ, but most importantly increasing the quality of articles published in the journal. Diverse viewpoints and research results from authors stemming from different disciplines and contexts are invaluable in ensuring the validity of our discussions around the dynamic relationships management, and can stimulate further ideas and endeavors worth exploring.
Matej Cerne and Tomislav Hernaus
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