Anaïs Boutru, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL

Linda Rouleau, HEC Montréal

Géraldine Schmidt, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Albéric Tellier, Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL

Management research has long been populated by celebrated cases that have achieved the status of founding myths. Cases such as IBM's blindness to personal computing, Xerox's strategic myopia toward the graphical user interface, Nokia's fall to smartphones, the Mann Gulch fire, and Elton Mayo's Hawthorne experiments have become ubiquitous in the field's collective memory. These 'cold cases', endlessly cited and taught, structure ways of thinking and provide a shared foundation of representations that are central to the construction of epistemic communities.

Despite their pervasive influence, few studies scrutinize the empirical robustness, theoretical validity, or performativity of these emblematic cases. In management research, particularly in qualitative research, the risk of circularity is significant. Researchers working with inevitably heterogeneous and incomplete material may, even unconsciously, select data that confirm their theoretical priors, set aside disconfirming evidence, and ultimately favor demonstrations of the 'as if' type.

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Potential topics

• Reexamination and reinterpretation of canonical management cases (IBM, Xerox, Nokia, Kodak, Enron, etc.)
• Empirical robustness and theoretical validity of emblematic cases in management scholarship
• Performativity of famous cases and their role as epistemic artifacts
• Processes of canonization and erasure in disciplinary memory
• Circularity in qualitative management research and issues of confirmation bias
• Role of founding myths in structuring management thinking and epistemic communities
• Halo effects and the stratification of knowledge in management research
• Forgotten cases and alternative narratives in management history
• Critical reexamination of the Hawthorne experiments and other foundational studies
• Replication, falsification, and verification in management research
• Archaeology of management knowledge and disciplinary self-reflexivity

Timeline

• October 14, 2026: Pre-submission workshop (online)
• December 31, 2026: Full paper submission deadline