From the editors: Crafting impactful articles that resonate with policy actors

Achieving societal impact that extends outside of academic circles has become a central objective in the Academy of International Business (AIB) and its associated journals (Tung, 2023; Van Assche & De Marchi, 2024), as well as in academia in general (Beltran et al., 2024; Wickert et al., 2021). The Journal of International Business Policy (JIBP) has embraced impact as one of its core values, with a commitment to serve society by publishing high-quality research on international business issues that constructively shapes and informs public policy debates (Van Assche & De Marchi, 2024). Similarly, AIB has adopted as one of its central aims “to make the world a better place by being responsible, relevant, and forward-looking in our research, education, and professional activities.” This focus is not only relevant to academic organizations, but also to individual researchers. It serves as an important intrinsic motivation, driving scholars to devote their best efforts to a rewarding yet challenging job. The growing number of bottom-up initiatives on this topic, like the Impact Scholar CommunityFootnote1, highlights the importance of this intrinsic motivation. At the same time, these initiatives also serve as extrinsic motivators, as they are increasingly factored into career evaluation metrics (e.g., REF, 2021) and offer researchers broader opportunities for career development. This, in turn, supports the university-wide effort to transfer knowledge beyond the confines of the ‘ivory tower’.