A global strategy and leadership journal publishes peer-reviewed research examining how organizations build competitive advantage, lead across borders, and manage strategic decisions in international, multicultural environments. These journals sit at the intersection of two closely related fields, corporate strategy and leadership studies, and typically welcome empirical studies, case analyses, and theoretical contributions from researchers, executives, and doctoral candidates worldwide.
Finding the right home for research that spans both strategy and leadership can feel harder than it should be, especially when so many journal titles sound almost identical. Authors often bounce between a handful of similarly-named outlets before realizing each one actually has a distinct scope, editorial focus, and submission process worth understanding upfront.
This guide walks through exactly what a global strategy and leadership publication covers, how the submission process typically works, and how to tell a genuine global strategy journal apart from a general strategy and leadership title that simply shares similar language in its name.
What is a Global Strategy and Leadership Journal
A global strategy and leadership journal is a peer-reviewed academic publication dedicated to research on how organizations formulate and execute strategy while operating, leading, or competing across national and cultural boundaries. Unlike a purely domestic strategy journal, the “global” framing signals an explicit interest in cross-border complications, currency risk, regulatory variation, cultural leadership differences, and international market entry, among other themes.
Editorial boards for these journals typically include scholars with backgrounds in international business, organizational behavior, and corporate governance, reflecting just how interdisciplinary this research area genuinely is. Most operate on a standard double-blind peer review model, publishing quarterly or biannually depending on the specific outlet.
Scope of Global Strategy and Leadership Research
The scope of this field is broader than its name might suggest at first glance, covering both the strategic decisions organizations make and the leadership behavior that carries those decisions through execution. Typical subject areas accepted by a strategy and leadership journal include the following.
- International market entry strategy: How firms decide where and how to expand across borders
- Cross-cultural leadership: How leadership style and effectiveness shift across national and organizational cultures
- Global competitive advantage: How multinational firms sustain an edge against local and international rivals
- Corporate governance in multinational firms: board structure, accountability, and oversight across jurisdictions
- Strategic decision-making under uncertainty: How leaders navigate geopolitical risk, currency volatility, and regulatory change
- Organizational change and transformation: How global firms restructure, merge, or pivot strategy at scale
- Talent and leadership development: Building leadership pipelines across geographically distributed teams
Researchers working in global strategic leadership, specifically the overlap between top-level strategic planning and the leadership capability required to execute it, tend to find this scope especially well-suited to their work, since few other journal categories bridge both disciplines this directly.
Five Research Methodologies Accepted
Journals in this space rarely restrict themselves to a single methodology, since both quantitative and qualitative approaches offer genuine value when studying cross-border organizational behavior. Most editorial boards actively welcome the following.
- Comparative case studies: Analyzing strategic decisions across two or more countries or organizational contexts
- Large-sample quantitative studies: Surveying executives or analyzing firm performance data across multiple markets
- Grounded theory and qualitative interviews: Building new theoretical frameworks from leadership interviews and field observation
- Mixed-methods research: Combining quantitative firm outcomes with qualitative leadership behavior data
- Systematic literature reviews: Synthesizing existing research to identify gaps and future research directions
This methodological flexibility is one of the field’s genuine strengths, since strategy and leadership questions rarely fit neatly into a single research design.
Global Strategy and Leadership Submission Process
Most journals in this space follow a fairly standard academic workflow, though details vary by publisher, so always confirm specifics against the target journal’s own author guidelines before submitting. The global strategy and leadership submission process generally moves through the following stages.
- Manuscript preparation: Format your paper according to the journal’s specific style guide, typically APA or a comparable academic citation standard
- Online submission: Most journals now use a manuscript management system where you upload your paper, abstract, and author details directly
- Editorial screening: An initial in-house review checks scope fit and basic quality standards before the paper moves to peer review
- Double-blind peer review: Typically two to three reviewers with relevant expertise evaluate the manuscript’s rigor, originality, and contribution
- Revision and resubmission: Most accepted papers go through at least one round of revisions based on reviewer feedback
- Final decision and publication: Accepted manuscripts are typically copyedited, typeset, and scheduled for an upcoming issue or early online release
In practice, review timelines for this field commonly run anywhere from eight to twenty weeks depending on reviewer availability and journal volume, so building that window into your publication planning avoids unnecessary frustration closer to a deadline.
Author Guidelines Checklist Before Submission
A little preparation before you submit meaningfully reduces the odds of a desk rejection for avoidable, easily fixed reasons. Before you upload anything, confirm the following against your target journal’s specific author guidelines.
- Your manuscript’s word count falls within the journal’s stated range
- Your abstract clearly states the research question, methodology, and key contribution
- Citation and reference formatting matches the journal’s required style exactly
- Author affiliations, funding disclosures, and conflict-of-interest statements are complete
- Your cover letter briefly explains why your paper fits this specific journal’s scope, not just the broader field
- Tables, figures, and supplementary materials are formatted according to submission requirements
Skipping this kind of pre-submission check is one of the most common, and most avoidable, reasons a genuinely strong paper gets sent back before it ever reaches a reviewer.
What is a Global Leadership Review
A global leadership review is a specific type of manuscript or publication format focused narrowly on leadership theory, behavior, and effectiveness within international and cross-cultural contexts, rather than covering strategy as broadly. Some journals use “Review” in their title specifically to signal that they accept literature reviews and synthesis papers alongside original empirical research, which is worth checking directly against the journal’s aims and scope page.
A global strategy review, by comparison, typically leans further toward strategic decision-making, competitive positioning, and organizational-level outcomes rather than individual or team leadership behavior specifically. Authors should read a target journal’s full scope statement carefully rather than assuming based on title alone, since naming conventions in this space aren’t always perfectly consistent across publishers.
Both formats still expect the same underlying rigor, clear research questions, a defensible methodology, and a genuine contribution to existing theory or practice. The distinction lies almost entirely in subject emphasis, not in the standard of evidence or peer review expected from authors.
Global Strategy Journal vs. Strategy and Leadership Journal
These two journal types overlap substantially, but they’re not automatically interchangeable, and choosing the wrong one can cost you a review cycle. A pure global strategy journal tends to prioritize firm-level strategic outcomes, market positioning, competitive advantage, and organizational performance, with leadership treated as a supporting factor rather than the central variable.
A strategy and leadership journal, by contrast, deliberately positions both disciplines as equally central, actively welcoming research where leadership behavior itself is the primary subject, not just a contextual detail. If your paper’s core contribution is about how leaders make and execute strategic decisions, rather than the strategic outcome alone, a combined strategy and leadership title is usually the stronger fit.
| Factor | Global Strategy Journal | Strategy and Leadership Journal |
| Primary focus | Firm-level strategic outcomes | Equal weight on strategy and leadership |
| Leadership treatment | Contextual factor | Central research variable |
| Typical methodology | Case studies, quantitative firm data | Mixed methods, including behavioral research |
| Best fit for | Market entry, competitive strategy papers | Leadership-driven strategic decision research |
Editorial boards, sometimes referred to informally as the global strategy journal editorial board, often publish clear scope statements distinguishing exactly this kind of nuance, so it’s always worth a direct read before submitting rather than relying on the title alone. Journals sometimes go by shorthand acronyms in academic circles too, a title like GSLR is a good example of how a longer journal name gets abbreviated in citations and reference lists once a publication becomes established in its field.
Choosing Between the Two When Your Research Sits in Between
Plenty of manuscripts genuinely straddle both categories, and that’s a more common situation than most first-time authors expect. If you’re unsure which type fits better, look honestly at your paper’s core research question, if removing the leadership variable would still leave a complete, coherent study, a pure strategy journal is likely the better fit.
If removing leadership would gut the paper’s central contribution, a combined strategy and leadership title, or even a dedicated leadership review, is almost certainly the stronger home for your work. When genuine uncertainty remains, many authors reach out directly to a journal’s editorial office before submitting, a quick scope inquiry costs little and can save an entire review cycle spent with the wrong publication.
To Wrap Up
Choosing the right global strategy and leadership journal comes down to reading past the title and genuinely understanding a publication’s specific scope, review process, and editorial priorities. Whether your research centers on cross-border strategic decisions, cross-cultural leadership behavior, or the genuine overlap between the two, matching your manuscript to a journal built for that exact intersection meaningfully improves both your review experience and your odds of acceptance. If you’d like expert guidance narrowing down the right target journal for your specific research, the team at Scholarly Summit works with authors through exactly this kind of decision every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a global strategy and leadership journal?
It’s a peer-reviewed academic publication focused on research examining how organizations build strategy and lead effectively across international, multicultural business environments.
2. What topics can I submit to a global strategy journal?
Common topics include international market entry, cross-cultural leadership, corporate governance in multinational firms, competitive advantage, and strategic decision-making under global uncertainty.
3. What is global strategic leadership?
Global strategic leadership refers to the intersection of high-level strategic planning and the leadership capability required to execute that strategy successfully across international, cross-cultural organizational settings.
4. What is the difference between global strategy and global leadership?
Global strategy focuses on firm-level competitive and organizational decisions across borders, while global leadership focuses specifically on how individuals and teams lead effectively within those same cross-cultural, international contexts.
5. What is a global strategy review?
A global strategy review is a manuscript or journal format centered on strategic decision-making and competitive positioning at the organizational level, sometimes also accepting literature reviews and synthesis papers on the topic.