This Virtual Issue will be freely accessible until the 30th of June, 2023.

The European Journal of Innovation Management (EJIM) turns 25. The first issue was, in fact, published in 1998. It contained 4 articles, freely available on the journal portal. The entirety of volume 1 included 12 articles. Volume 25, completed in 2022, includes 5 issues for a total of 68 articles plus a sixth open issue that collects 50 open access articles.

The journal is now indexed in major academic databases, with continuously improving performance indicators. For example, the impact factor is 4.750. In 2022 alone, as of this writing, EJIM articles have been downloaded over 220,000 times and received over 4,000 citations.

An exponential growth of the journal which is the result of the commitment of the editors, authors, reviewers, members of the editorial board, guest editors and Emerald staff who have dedicated energy and expertise to the journal over the years. Like all anniversaries, this too is an opportunity to take stock of what has been done and to start a new phase.

To retrace the path of the journal in the past twenty-five years, we have decided to publish a virtual issue, to make the most influential contributions in terms of received citations published by EJIM in this quarter of a century openly available. Many of these articles have not lost their relevance and topicality. Others are very useful for understanding the roots of the ongoing debate among researchers in the field of Innovation Management. All of them represent highly recommended readings for researchers dealing with this discipline: those experts in the field and, above all, young people approaching it for the first time.

Taken together, these articles give a representation of the themes most present in the journal in recent years: open innovation and collaboration between different subjects; the role of organisational culture in innovation processes; the role of leadership; the contribution of individual behavior to innovation performance. They are also the mirror of the journal's attention to method: there are quantitative and qualitative studies, all inspired by rigorous methodologies; systematic literature reviews and several contributions aiming at defining reliable research tools.

We have also included a review article dedicated to the scientific production published on EJIM by Nisha Bamel, Satish Kumar, Umesh Bamel, Weng Marc Lim, Riya Sureka. "The state of the art of innovation management: insights from a retrospective review of the European Journal of Innovation Management" the article provides a clear and concise picture of the innovation management literature starting from an analysis of the scientific production hosted by EJIM over the years.A short description of the 15 papers is provided at the end of this article.

The renewal of the journal passes through the renewal of its Editorial Advisory Board. The nucleus of researchers who collaborated with EJIM remains, but new members are added and, in particular, two new Associate Editors, Professors Amandeep Dhir and Ciro Troise. All together we will work to achieve new and prestigious results for the journal.

Which way will we go?

A journal like EJIM has to set itself many ambitious goals. Let me mention three:

1. Relevance. It is necessary to strengthen attention to the managerial implications of published studies, avoiding the temptation of self-referential research, distant from professional practice;
2. Timeliness. The business world changes rapidly and a journal dedicated to innovation must strive to keep pace, to avoid becoming irrelevant;
3. Courage. The European Journal of Innovation Management wants to become the forum for the discussion of innovative ideas, which challenge the most consolidated practices and concepts in the discipline.

All without renouncing the methodological rigor that has always characterised the works we publish.

How to do it?

Mainly through the construction of a large, lively and integrated reference community. The strength of a journal is the people around it. There are many initiatives in the works: partnerships with conferences, special issues, creation of interest groups. We will work in this direction together with the journal team and I am sure that we will grow even faster than in the past.

We will work especially to provide authors with a fast and efficient service. To attract relevant contributions it is important to ensure that authors receive all possible support from the journal staff.

The world of scientific publishing is facing a phase of profound transformation, with the digitisation of products and workflows, the transformation of business models linked to the open access phenomenon and the entry of new operators into the market.

We are not talking about an activity like another, but about a sector that contributes to the selection and dissemination of validated scientific knowledge.

EJIM wants to be a point of reference in this context for those involved in innovation management: adapt to the new landscape, be an authoritative voice that guides change, without losing any of the rigor and high ethical profile that have always been at the basis of our work.

References

• Ahmed, P.K. (1998), "Culture and climate for innovation", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 30-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601069810199131
• Amar, A.D. (2004), "Motivating knowledge workers to innovate: a model integrating motivation dynamics and antecedents", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 89-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060410534366 
• Assink, M. (2006), "Inhibitors of disruptive innovation capability: a conceptual model", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 215-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060610663587
• Bamel, N., Kumar, S., Bamel, U., Lim, W.M. and Sureka, R. (2022), "The state of the art of innovation management: insights from a retrospective review of the European Journal of Innovation Management", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-07-2022-0361
• Bogers, M. (2011), "The open innovation paradox: knowledge sharing and protection in R&D collaborations", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 93-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061111104715
• de Jong, J.P.J. and Den Hartog, D.N. (2007), "How leaders influence employees' innovative behaviour", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 41-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060710720546
• Dobni, C.B. (2008), "Measuring innovation culture in organizations: The development of a generalized innovation culture construct using exploratory factor analysis", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 539-559. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060810911156 
• Johannessen, J., Olsen, B. and Lumpkin, G.T. (2001), "Innovation as newness: what is new, how new, and new to whom?", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 20-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060110365547 
• Kandampully, J. (2002), "Innovation as the core competency of a service organisation: the role of technology, knowledge and networks", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 18-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060210415144 
• Martins, E.C. and Terblanche, F. (2003), "Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 64-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060310456337 
• Steiber, A. and Alänge, S. (2013), "A corporate system for continuous innovation: the case of Google Inc.", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 243-264. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061311324566
• Spender, J.-C., Corvello, V., Grimaldi, M. and Rippa, P. (2017), "Startups and open innovation: a review of the literature", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 4-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-12-2015-0131