In the context of the controversial topic of research evaluation this article first
discusses the different approaches to quantify research output and then focuses on
approaches to evaluation on the basis of journal rankings. Even though research
evaluation has become a heavily discussed topic in the literature as well as among
the members of the scientific community, not many empirical studies have been
published in this area. We contribute to closing this gap by presenting the findings
of an empirical study on the publication activity of 395 entrepreneurship scholars
from the German speaking world. From the data trends and coordinative effects
on the publication behavior can be identified. The results show an increasing influence
of quantitative research evaluation based on journal rankings on the publication
behavior of researchers and simultaneously question the validity of these
approaches.