Although it is difficult to generalise from a small sample of CVs, the current
paper provides some insights into the recruitment of new faculty into the field. In
addition to the need to ensure a supply of future professors with outstanding
scholarly ability, as Willower (1983) suggested many years ago, it is necessary to
achieve balance between candidates holding doctorates in EA with those holding
doctorates from related areas of study, with priority given to candidates from the
former group. Otherwise, the field will forever remain fragmented, drawing on
myriad models with weak connections between them. The question of the balance
between candidates from general management and EA remains open. In any case,
there will always be professors who study practice and those who do practice, as
Gunter and Fitzgerald (2007) suggested, and this is reflected in the current analysis
of authors’ CVs. Many current EA authors seem to have done both throughout their
career cycles.