Management Publication of the Year awards 2026
Celebrating business and management research, informing policy, business, and third sector practices.
Management Publication of the Year 2026
The search for the publication of the year is underway
British Academy of Management (BAM), Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and Chartered Management Institute (CMI) are delighted to have launched the ‘Management Publication of the Year awards’. These awards celebrate substantial business and management research that is informing policy, business, and third sector practices.
In association with the British Library.
Recognising Management Research with Real-World Impact
Now in its second year, the awards build on the success of their inaugural launch, continuing to highlight management research that drives positive change across business, policy and society.
Award Categories
Entries of publications are invited in five broad categories to be judged from the shortlists. We welcome books, eBooks, podcast series, blog series and film.
Running across all awards is a common desire to recognise research that tackles the major socio-economic and environmental concerns of our society.
The judges will be looking for works that display originality, significance and rigour, along with potential for practical application and real-world impact. Submissions should demonstrate clearly how they meet these criteria.
Nominatable categories
1. Sustainable Futures
Celebrating research that sets out to positively impact people and planet
2. SME Growth
Celebrating research that seeks to address the challenges SMEs face in achieving growth
3. Social Enterprise and Innovation
Celebrating research into social enterprise and innovation
4. Technological Disruption
Celebrating research into innovative approaches to rapid and complex technological change
5. Inclusive Work
Celebrating research that shows how to embed inclusion into everyday practice
Non-nominatable categories
An additional two awards will be presented, selected by the judges from the category winners. These two cross-category awards cannot be entered or self-nominated; they are determined solely by the reviewing and judging panel.
6. Innovation in Research (not open for submissions)
7. Overall Publication of the Year Award (not open for submissions)
Sustainable Futures
This category celebrates research that seeks to positively impact both people and planet. As approaches to leadership, business and management evolve to embed equality, diversity, inclusion and respect, this research helps us reflect on the kind of world we want to live in, our collective values, and new ways of generating and distributing wealth to ensure wellbeing for all.
Work nominated in this category should deepen our understanding of the transition to a greener economy and explore how leadership and management can drive change in this rapidly evolving space. We aim to recognise the best research that takes people and planet into account, mapping innovative steps towards a sustainable future.
SME Growth
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital engines of economic growth, yet often lack the resources, expertise and knowledge needed to reach their full potential. This category celebrates research that addresses these challenges and offers practical insights, strategies and innovations to help SMEs scale sustainably and thrive within a dynamic, growth-focused economy.
Entries in this category should highlight research that transforms understanding of how SMEs can overcome barriers to growth, access new opportunities and contribute meaningfully to regional and national productivity.
Social Enterprise and Innovation
Not all organisational activity is directed towards profit and maximised return. This category celebrates research into social enterprise, community initiatives, and third sector organisations, revealing the challenges they face and the creative ways they generate social value.
We are seeking research that provides insight into the processes, practices and potential of social innovation showing how organisations can harness collective action and creativity to deliver positive and lasting impact.
Technological Disruption
Rapid and profound technological change is reshaping organisational life, challenging our assumptions about work, risk and value creation. Yet this disruption also brings unparalleled opportunities to reimagine how organisations, governments and the third sector achieve their aims.
This category celebrates research that helps leaders make sense of technological transformation - from digitalisation and automation to AI and data ethics - and offers guidance on navigating complexity, building resilience and leading effectively through change.
Inclusive Work
Inclusive approaches to leadership and management continue to evolve, even as entrenched inequalities persist and new forms of exclusion emerge. This category celebrates research that demonstrates how organisations can embed inclusion into everyday practice, addressing systemic barriers, fostering belonging and creating new pathways to participation.
These works move beyond representation to show how inclusive thinking can drive innovation, resilience and social mobility. We particularly welcome research that highlights real-world strategies for expanding access to opportunity especially for those traditionally excluded from the workforce, such as young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). The best work in this category will demonstrate how inclusive management strengthens organisations while advancing a more connected and equitable society.
Innovation in Research
All entries will also be considered for this special category, which recognises works that bring fresh thinking and new approaches to the study and practice of management. This category celebrates research that draws on deep insights, creative methodologies and innovative forms of dissemination, challenging conventional wisdom and extending the reach of management scholarship to wider audiences.
Overall Award Winner
This award celebrates the most outstanding entry across all five categories — recognising a publication that exemplifies originality, significance and rigour, and demonstrates exceptional real-world impact on leadership and management practice. The Overall Winner of the Management Publication of the Year stands as a benchmark for research that not only advances academic understanding, but also shapes policy, business, and social progress.
The 2024 award honoured Professor Elisabeth Kelan of King’s Business School, King’s College London, for her groundbreaking book Men Stepping Forward: Leading Your Organization on the Path to Inclusion. Her work — praised for its clarity, accessibility, and transformative potential — reflects exactly what this accolade seeks to reward: research that inspires action, informs practice, and empowers leaders to create lasting change.
In 2026, the judges will once again seek a publication that captures this spirit — a work that challenges convention, deepens understanding, and sets the standard for management insight and impact.
Submissions: Who and What can be nominated
The nomination site is open on Monday 2nd February 2026 and will close Friday 15th May 2026 at 12:00 BST
Submissions must be made by an author, co-author, or editor (i.e. the person responsible for final preparation or compilation of the publication). By making a Submission, entrants are deemed to have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Award Rules.
The Organising Parties reserve the right to exclude or disqualify a Submission for any legal purpose at their discretion. This may include use of personal data which has not been approved by an individual, or misuse of third party intellectual property. Entrants will be notified if a Submission is excluded in this way.
If you have a research-based book-type publication in the UK – for example, a book, podcast, vlog or blog series – and you think it has the power to influence practice, then please consider nominating it for this award.
Those short-listed for an award will have their work exposed to a combined membership of over 230,000 individuals working across the business, management and higher education sectors and their wider networks, and the shortlisted entries will be invited to a prestigious awards ceremony at the British Library in spring 2027.
Submit your nomination >> https://bam.grantplatform.com/
Award Rules:
Management Publication of the Year 2026 Award Rules 2nd February 2026
Nomination Criteria and Award Process
Nominations can be made via the awards platform, where you will find full guidance and full terms and conditions.
Criteria
To nominate you must have:
- A digitally accessible copy (a link or pdf share which must provide ‘free access’ for the administrators and judging panel)*.
- One author must be employed by a UK-based Higher Education Institution at the time of publication at the time of publication.
- Submissions must be made by an author, co-author, or editor (i.e. the person responsible for final preparation or compilation of the publication).
- Must have been published between 1st February 2024 and 31st January 2026.
- Eligible publications include books, eBooks, podcasts, blogs, and films that make a substantive and original contribution to the field. Individual chapters or extracts from larger edited works, unpublished manuscripts, or in-press materials are not considered publications for the purpose of this award.
- A maximum 500-word summary statement explaining what the publication is about, why it matters to the business and management community and its implications for practice.**
- Evidence of academic underpinning and rigour of the nominated publication.
*Please note, sole, co-authored and edited books/multimedia outputs can be nominated.
**Studies with potential and proven wider reach and impact beyond the business and management academic community will receive additional credit in competition scoring.
Judging Process
Submissions will be judged using criteria familiar to those working in academia – namely ‘originality, significance and rigour’ and, additionally, all submissions will be considered for their potential to positively impact business, third sector and policy practitioners.
Originality will be understood as the extent to which the publication makes an important and innovative contribution to understanding and knowledge in the field. Publications that demonstrate originality may do one or more of the following: produce and interpret new empirical findings or new material; engage with new and/or complex problems; develop innovative research methods, methodologies and analytical techniques; show imaginative and creative scope; provide new arguments and/or new forms of expression, formal innovations, interpretations and/or insights; collect and engage with novel types of data; and/or advance theory or the analysis of doctrine, policy or practice, and new forms of expression.
Significance will be understood as the extent to which the publication has influenced, or has the capacity to influence, knowledge and scholarly thought, and the development and understanding of policy and/or practice.
Rigour will be understood as the extent to which the publication is based on underlying intellectual coherence and integrity, and adopts robust and appropriate concepts, analyses, sources, theories and/or methodologies.
Process and timeline
Nominations will be shortlisted by a panel comprising experienced members and practitioners from the British Academy of Management and will include academic experts in each of the five categories. The award winners will be decided by a separate small panel of high-profile judges, to be announced.
The shortlist will be announced at the Chartered Association of Business Schools conference in November 2026 and the winners will be announced at an event hosted by the British Library in March 2027, date TBC.