Administrative Science Quarterly Online Table of Contents Alert
The June 2026 issue of Administrative Science Quarterly is available online:
Vol. 71, No. 2
Our second issue of 2026 leads with an investigation of service on high-status boards of directors, demonstrating that serving on very prominent boards leads to fewer additional board appointments for women than for men. This paper is followed by two articles that trace how organizations respond to crisis and upheaval in their environments. In a study of how community context shapes corporate responses to protests, we see that business leaders announce diversity actions in concordance with past community experiences with violence. Another paper demonstrates how decentralized organizations manage the need to centralize certain aspects of their activities in response to COVID-19. Finally, two papers build theory around identity at different levels of analysis: The first examines how occupational identity develops in nascent occupations, and the final paper explores how workers respond to the stress of identity management in the workplace. Happy reading!
Unequal in the Spotlight: Gender Differences in How Serving on Prominent Firms Affects Directors' New Board Appointments
Hans T. W. Frankort, Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, and Raina Brands
Serving on the boards of prominent firms can lead to new board appointments, but do men and women directors benefit in the same way? Leveraging data on board directors in the FTSE-100 between 2010 and 2017, the authors find that for more-prominent firms, serving on the board benefits men more than women in terms of gaining new board appointments, despite the fact that women are more likely than men to obtain additional board appointments on average. As firm prominence increases, women's advantage becomes a disadvantage. The study highlights the need to question assumptions about prominent affiliations in organizations.
Interpreting Violence: How Community Context Shapes Corporate Responses to Street Protests
Forrest Briscoe, Mark R. DesJardine, and Muhan Zhang
When violence occurs in community protests, local business leaders must decide how to respond. This study argues that responses depend on whether leaders perceive the violence to be justified. Using data on corporate announcements after the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S., the authors find that firms are less likely to announce diversity actions in response to protest violence in communities with persistent violence in previous non-BLM protests, but they are more likely to announce diversity actions in communities that have records of more police shootings. The study contributes to research on community protests, how social movements shape markets, and to research on stakeholder strategy and corporate activism.
Democratic Deviations: How Organizations Sustain Decentralization Commitments in the Face of Centralization Pressures
Michael Y. Lee and Trevor Young-Hyman
Organizations committed to decentralization sometimes face situations that require them to enact centralized decision making. But doing so can undermine the organization's perceived commitment to decentralization, which can reduce employees' motivation and commitment, as well as organizational legitimacy. Conducting a comparative case study of four organizations committed to decentralization that practiced centralization during the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors identify "democratic deviation," whereby organizations enact centralization while maintaining their commitments to decentralization. The study shows that by following democratic rules to gain collective authorization for centralization and enacting centralization with transparency and openness, decentralized organizations honor and strengthen their commitments to decentralization.
Occupational Identity Formation in Unsaturated Spaces: The Layered Accretion of the American Astronaut's Identity
Evelyn Micelotta, Giulia Cappellaro, Claudia Gabbioneta, and Michael G. Pratt
How do identities form in emerging occupations? The authors explore this question through a qualitative historical analysis of American astronauts, which traces the development of the astronaut's identity over the recruitment of multiple cohorts from 1958-1974. The authors develop the theoretical notion of "layered accretion" as a distinct process by which a new occupational identity forms via importing an identity from an existing occupation, refining the identity through work‒identity alignment, and layering of new identities on to the core. The study builds knowledge of how emerging occupations incorporate multiple identities that are shaped through selection processes and the demands of the work.
A Curation Approach to Identity Management: The Costs of Combining Identity Expression and Suppression
Rachel D. Arnett, Serenity S. Lee, and Patricia Faison Hewlin
An important driver of turnover can be the uncertainty that employees from marginalized groups face about how to navigate their identities at work. This study shows that identity curation, which involves frequently expressing aspects of one's identity and frequently suppressing aspects of identity, might seem beneficial but can be psychologically harmful to employees of color. Via two surveys and a meta-analysis, the authors find that practicing expression and suppression fosters ambivalence and psychological strain, leading to greater turnover intentions. The study offers recommendations for both research and practice to help mitigate the conditions encouraging workers to engage in curation.
Book Reviews
David Lingelbach and Valentina Rodríguez Guerra. The Oligarchs' Grip: Fusing Wealth and Power
Allison Tait
Daniel Susskind. Growth: A History and a Reckoning
Irene Henriques
Andrew J. Hoffman. Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism
J.P. Eggers and Carol Newell
Alessandro Gerosa. The Hipster Economy: Taste and Authenticity in Late Modern Capitalism
Christine Larson
Timothy Kuhn. What Do Corporations Want? Communicative Capitalism, Corporate Purpose, and a New Theory of the Firm
Leandro S. Pongeluppe
Alberto Galasso. The Management of Innovation: Managing and Creating Technology Capital
Shane Greenstein
Jeffrey Funk. Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles: A Guide to Spotting, Avoiding, and Exploiting Investment Bubbles in Tech
Yuliya Snihur
Kalpita Bhar Paul. Ecophenomenology and the Environmental Crisis in the Sundarbans: Towards a Community-Based Ethic
Juliane Reinecke
Our student-run ASQ Blog features interviews with ASQ authors that offer insights into the research and writing process. To stay informed, follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter on Substack for all the latest ASQ announcements and information.
Beth Bechky, University of California, Davis
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Beth Bechky
Professor
UC Davis
Davis CA
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