Contribution Framing & Discussion (amj-contribution-framing)

When to trigger

• Results are in but the "so what for theory" is vague or missing
• The discussion restates findings instead of advancing the theory
• A reviewer says the contribution is "incremental," "descriptive," or "unclear"
• You can describe what you found but not what the field now knows that it did not before
• The practical-implications paragraph is generic ("managers should pay attention to X")

The contribution question AMJ asks

AMJ evaluates every paper on three criteria: a strong empirical contribution, a meaningful theoretical contribution, and practical relevance. The empirical contribution must be paired with a theoretical one: what do we now understand about the theory that we did not before? — and the discussion must also speak to why it matters for management practice. A clear, defensible theoretical answer is essential; strong results with no theoretical advance read as a technical report, not an AMJ paper. AMJ's From the Editors tradition frames this as the "so what?" and "who cares?" tests.

Types of theoretical contribution (claim the right one)