Managing in uncertain times - a critical juncture for research in the MENA region

We are delighted to be writing this editorial of a special issue on "Managing in uncertain times - a critical juncture for research in the MENA region." The chosen theme is in conjunction with the annual conference of the Academy of International Business (hereafter AIB) Middle East and north Africa (hereafter MENA) in 2012 which provided a regional focus for the journal. The nature of management studies is subject to continual questioning and evaluation by scholars (Astley, 1985; Clegg and Hardy, 1996; Whitley, 2003; Reed, 2006; Tsui, 2009). The theme "Managing in uncertain times" reflects the challenges and opportunities businesses have in disruptive global market and should provide a broad scope for a variety of research that would contribute to the increasingly important knowledge on strategy and management in the MENA context. Underestimating uncertainty can lead to strategies that neither defend against the threats nor take advantage of the opportunities that higher levels of uncertainty may provide. The Journal of Strategy and Management plays a vital role in the area of strategy and, more broadly, in the scholarly efforts of all management researchers seeking to add practical value, particularly those in the MENA region, of which, the context of this special issue is based upon. The relevance of indigenous knowledge or, more precisely, whether indigenous research and theorizing can provide novel insights into an international theory of management as well as local management (Rodrigues et al., 2011; Alon et al., 2011; Tsang, 2009) may be on the verge of an important transformation.