Marketing Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
April 1980
Abstract
Modest support was found for the "Dr. Fox Phenomenon": Management scientists gain prestige by unintelligible writing. A positive correlation (+0.7) was found between the prestige of 10 management journals and their "fog indices" (reading difficulty). Furthermore, 32 faculty members were asked to rate the prestige of four passages from management journals. The content of the passages was held constant while readability was varied. Those passages that were more difficult to read were rated higher in research competence.
Recommended Citation
Armstrong, J. S. (1980). Unintelligible Management Research and Academic Prestige. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/117
Date Posted: 15 June 2007
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Postprint version. Published in Interfaces, Volume 10 , Issue 2, April 1980, pages 80-86.
Publisher URL: http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/interfaces.html