+ Models SCAMAN-882; No. of Pages 15 Please cite this article in press as: Nijholt, J. J., et al. Handling management ideas: Gatekeeping, editors and professional magazines. Scandinavian Journal of Management (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2014.03.003 Handling management ideas: Gatekeeping, editors and professional magazines Jurriaan J. Nijholt a, * , Stefan Heusinkveld b , Jos Benders c a Rotterdam School of Management, Department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, The Netherlands b VU University Amsterdam, Department of Management and Organisation, The Netherlands c KU Leuven, Centre for Sociological Research (CESO), Belgium Introduction A growing literature addresses the population-level diffusion and organizational-level handling of ‘management ideas’ (Sturdy, 2004; Røvik, 2011). This field of study has paid particular attention to the actors engaged in the production side of the market for management ideas (Abrahamson, 1996; Kieser, 1997), such as consulting firms, management gurus and business media (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999; Suddaby & Greenwood, 2001). For instance, studies have highlighted how consulting firms develop new products and services around promising ideas (Heusinkveld & Benders, 2005; Kieser, 2002). Work on management gurus has focused on how they convince and attract audiences through public performances and production of management bestsellers (Clark & Greatbatch, 2004; Clark & Salaman, 1998; Great- batch & Clark, 2003). As for the business media, various studies have highlighted how their attention to popular management ideas, measured by article counts, tends to display bell-shaped curves (Car- son, Lanier, Carson, & Guidry, 2000). As such, media output is often understood as an empirical means to visualize the notion that management ideas can be subject to a fashion lifecycle (Abrahamson, 1996; Benders, Nijholt, & Heusink- veld, 2007; Gill & Whittle, 1993). Also, an important stream of research has developed our understanding of the role of Scandinavian Journal of Management (2014) xxx, xxx—xxx * Corresponding author at: Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 10 408 1996. E-mail address: jnijholt@rsm.nl (J.J. Nijholt). KEYWORDS Management fashion; Management ideas; Business media; Gatekeeping; Dissemination Summary While business media are important in the transfer of management ideas, there has been little attention to the question how media-internal processes shape the way the media address these ideas. Our study shows how editorial norms and routines at professional magazines interact with external pressures to produce a unique process of gatekeeping management ideas. Our findings show that editors’ perceptions of an idea’s newsworthiness are vital in gatekeeping. Nonetheless, the role of the media in the dissemination of management ideas is critically dependent on resource constraints and the related influence of external authors and advertisers. Whereas resource-rich magazines can follow a logic of autonomy and independence, magazines with fewer resources are more inclined to collude with management intellectuals, consulting firms and advertisers to create interest in certain management ideas. # 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect j ou rn al home pag e: http: / /w ww. e lse vier. com/ loc ate /sc ama n http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2014.03.003 0956-5221/# 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.