Writing Style (jmgmt-writing-style)

When to trigger

• The introduction reviews literature before it states the puzzle and the contribution
• The abstract exceeds 250 words or the title exceeds 15 words (the portal caps)
• The manuscript is over the 50-page inclusive limit
• The prose buries the mechanism under jargon and hedging
• A reviewer says "the writing is dense" or "I had to hunt for the contribution"

The JOM introduction (theory-forward)

JOM intros earn attention fast. A reliable structure:

1. Hook to a real management problem or tension (one paragraph) — the phenomenon, not a literature recap.
2. The gap / problematized assumption — what the literature takes for granted that is questionable.
3. What this paper does — the question, the theory invoked, and the design in one or two sentences.
4. The contribution — 2–4 explicit sentences ("we contribute to X by showing Y, which changes Z"), consistent with the discussion.
5. A short roadmap only if the paper is complex.