Seeking entry to the North American market: Chinese management academics publishing internationally

•An interview-based study of Chinese management academics publishing internationally.•The performative pressure of journal ranking lists is highlighted.•The participants' use of complementary resources in international collaboration is described.•The connection between the participants' research and their knowledge exchange with practitioners is demonstrated.

Research on how EAL academics in the social sciences engage in international publication has been limited. The case of EAL management academics is potentially interesting because the international standard-seeking business schools around the world, including those in China, are increasingly subscribing to journal ranking systems in which North America-based journals have an overriding presence. At the same time, within the management discipline there has been a growing call for studying the business firms in emerging market countries (such as China), as this research can potentially inform both local and global practices while contributing to the global management knowledge. In this paper I report an interview-based study with 14 English-publishing management academics from seven universities in China. The study, which aimed to understand the participants' perspectives and practices in the publication endeavor, generated findings that highlighted the impact of performative pressure imposed by journal ranking lists, the importance for the academics to capitalize on complementary resources through international collaboration, the potential challenge of writing in English, and the value of knowledge exchange with business practitioners. The study brought forth issues to echo and extend the literature and its findings have implications for policy makers and EAP professionals.