Reflections on a (Failed) Launch: Revisiting and Reflecting on “Territoriality in Organizations”

Abstract

Despite being a novel and useful construct, perhaps prophetically, territoriality has defended itself from adoption by the management research community. However, the topic itself is not to blame and looking back 20 years after publishing the first management article on territoriality, I realize that certain choices I made influenced the direction and impact of my initial publication. In this article, I reflect on my experience trying to launch a new topic (territoriality) into the management field. From this experience, I offer readers ideas that may help successfully launch new constructs. Failure to join other conversations, develop a measure that could be easily adopted by others, and key early tradeoffs I made played a key role in my own failed (slow) launch.