Scholarly management journals: are they relevant for practitioners? Results of a pilot study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7433/s100.2016.02Keywords:
management research, relevance, academic journals, practitioners, universityAbstract
Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to verify how interesting and useful practitioners find academic management research by asking entrepreneurs and managers what they think of some articles published in leading journals that have been selected on the basis of precise criteria as representative of management research.
Methodology: This pilot investigation was conducted in April and May 2015. In accordance with the study design, a convenience sample of 43 entrepreneurs and managers were sent four articles published in leading management journals in 2014 by e-mail, accompanied by a simple questionnaire consisting of closed-answer questions. Although they strictly lacked statistical validity, the 23 completed questionnaires that were returned not only provide the first feedback concerning the subject of the study, but also offer some fundamental indications concerning the approach of the project as a whole that will help to refine the orientation of its next phase.
Findings: An analysis of the literature shows that the very concept of relevance is difficult to measure, as its defining traits are characterised by a certain level of ambiguity and the meaning that is attributable to them is rather complex. This paper highlights how management research should focus on subjects that are of real interest to practitioners, satisfy the need for rigour required by positive sciences, and be capable of producing knowledge that has a strong impact on professional communities.
Practical implications: The ongoing debate cannot remain confined to academic circles, but needs to involve practitioners with whom to establish a synergistic dialogue. They should ask management researchers to study problems that are relevant and interesting to them, and observe the more complex and dynamic situations that firms have to face.
Originality and value: In literature the importance of clarifying whether and in what ways the results of university scientific research are used in practice has emerged. This paper proposes and testes a rigorously systematic framework in order to enable us to investigate the way in which managers perceive management research with the aim of increasing the relevance of academic research strategies and the editorial policies of management journals.
References
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ASTLEY W.G, ZAMMUTO R.F. (1992), “Organization Science, Managers and Language Games”, Organization Science, vol. 3, n. 4, pp. 443-460.
AUGIER M., MARCH J.G. (2007), “The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education”, California Management Review, vol. 49, n. 3, pp. 129-146.
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BACCARANI C., CALZA F. (2011), “Sul Senso e sul Valore del Ricercare nel Mondo del Management”, Sinergie, n. 86, pp. 17-31.
BANSAL P., BERTELS S., EWART T., MACCONNACHIE P., O’BRIEN J. (2012), “Bridging the Research-Practice Gap”, The Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 26, n. 1, pp. 73-92.
BARTUNEK J.N., RYNES S.L., IRELAND D.R. (2006), “What Makes Management Research Interesting, and Why Does it Matter?”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 49, n. 1, pp. 9-15.
BORGONOVI E. (2007), “Università, Business School, School of Management: Dal Valore di Impresa al Valore di Sistema”, Sinergie, n. 73-74, pp. 97-105.
BREXENDORF T.O., KERNSTOCK J., POWELL S.M. (2015), “Future challenges and opportunities in brand management: An introduction to a commemorative special issue”, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 21, n. 9, pp. 685-688.
BRUNETTI F. (2011), “Di Cosa Parliamo quando Parliamo di «Scienze Manageriali»?”, Sinergie, n. 86, pp. 69-89.
BRUNETTI F., GIARETTA E., BONFANTI A., CASTELLANI P., MINOZZO M., ROSSATO C., BACCARANI C. (2015), “Exploring Relevance in Scholarly Top Journals of Management: First Steps of a Research”, Conference Proceedings of The 8th EuroMed Academy of Business Conference, Verona, 16-18 September, pp. 472-489, available online at http://emrbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/euromed2015%20book%20of%20proceedings-2015-10-04.pdf.
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CHIA R. (2014), “Reflections on the distinctiveness of European management scholarship”, European Management Journal, vol. 32, n. 5, pp. 683-688.
CHOUDHURY N. (1986), “In Search of Relevance Management Accounting Research”, Accounting and Business Research, vol. Winter, pp. 21-32.
COGHLAN D. (2011), “Action Research: Exploring Perspectives on a Philosophy of Practical Knowing”, The Academy of Management Annals, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 53-87.
DAHL D., FISCHER E., JOHAR G., MORWITZ V. (2014), “From the Editors-Elect: Meaningful Consumer Research”, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 41, n. 1, pp. III-V.
DE BEUCKELAER A., WAGNER S.M. (2012), “Small Sample Surveys: Increasing Rigor in Supply Chain Management Research”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 42, n. 7, pp. 615-639.
DONALDSON L., QIU J., LUO B.N. (2013), “For Rigour in Organizational Management Theory Research”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 50, n. 1, pp. 153-172.
FLYNN B.B. (2008), “Having it All: Rigor versus Relevance in Supply Chain Management Research”, Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 44, n. 2, pp. 63-67.
GULATI R. (2007), “Tent Poles, Tribalism, and Boundary Spanning: The Rigor-Relevance Debate in Management Research”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, n. 4, pp. 775-782.
GUMMESSON E. (2001), “Are current research approaches in marketing leading us astray?”, Marketing Theory, vol. 1, n. 1, pp. 27-48.
GUPTA S., HANSSENS D., HAUSER J.R., LEHMANN D., SCHMITT B. (2014), “Introduction to Theory and Practice in Marketing Conference Special Section of Marketing Science”, Marketing Science, vol. 33, n. 1, pp. 1-5.
HERNES T. (2014), “In Search of a Soul of Relevance for European Management Research”, European Management Journal, vol. 32, n. 6, pp. 852-857.
HILGERT R.L. (1972), “Business Schools Fail to Communicate with Managers”, Business Horizons, vol. 16, n. 6, pp. 59-63.
HODGKINSON G.P., ROUSSEAU D.M. (2009), “Bridging the Rigour-Relevance Gap in Management Research: It’s Already Happening!”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 46, n. 3, pp. 534-546.
HUFF A.S. (2000), “Change in Organizational Knowledge Production”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, n. 2, pp. 288-293.
KAUFMANN L., WHU N.D. (2011), “How to Demonstrate Rigor when Presenting Grounded Theory Research in the Supply Chain Management Literature”, Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 47, n. 4, pp. 64-72.
KELEMEN M., BANSAL P. (2002), “The Conventions of Management Research and Their Relevance to Management Practice”, British Journal of Management, vol. 13, n. 2, pp. 97-108.
KIESER A., LEINER L. (2009), “Why the Rigour-Relevance Gap in Management Research is Unbridgeable”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 46, n. 3, pp. 516-533.
KIESER A., NICOLAI A., SEIDL D. (2015), “The Practical Relevance of Management Research: Turning the Debate on Relevance into a Rigorous Scientific Research Program”, The Academy of Management Annals, pp. 1-115, available on the website http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2015.1011853.
LORSCH J.W. (2009), “Regaining Lost Relevance”, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 18, n. 2, pp. 108-117.
LÜSCHER L.S., LEWIS M.W. (2008), “Organizational Change and Managerial Sensemaking: Working through Paradox”, Academy of management Journal, vol. 51, n. 2, pp. 221-240.
MARCUS A.A., GOODMAN R.S., GRAZMAN D.N. (1995), “The Diffusion of Strategic Management Frameworks”, in Shrivastava P., Stubbart C. (Eds.), Challenges From Within the Mainstream, Greenwich, pp. 115-145.
MCGAHAN A. (2007), “Academic Research that Matters to Managers: On Zebras, Dogs, Lemmings, Hammers, And Turnips”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, n. 4, pp. 748-753.
NICOLAI A.T., SEIDL D. (2010), “That’s Relevant! Different Forms of Practical Relevance in Management Science”, Organization Studies, vol. 31, n. 09/10, pp. 1257-1285.
NOWOTNY H.S., SCOTT P., GIBBONS M. (2001), Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty, Polity, Cambridge.
PFEFFER J. (2009), “Renaissance and renewal in management studies: Relevance regained”, European Management Review, vol. 6, n. 3, pp. 141-148.
RYNES S.L., COLBERT A.E., BROWN K.G. (2002), “HR Professionals’ Beliefs about Effective Human Resource Practice: Correspondence between Research and Practice”, Human Resource Management, vol. 41, n. 2, pp. 149-174.
SEIDL D. (2007), “General Strategy Concept and the Ecology of Strategy Discourses: A Systemic-Discursive Perspective”, Organizational Studies, vol. 28, n. 2, pp. 197-218.
SERENKO A., BONTIS N., HULL E. (2011), “Practical Relevance of Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Scholarly Research: Books as Knowledge Translation Agents”, Knowledge and Process Management, vol. 18, n. 1, pp. 1-9.
SHRIVASTAVA P. (1987), “Rigor and Practical Usefulness of Research in Strategic Management”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 8, n. 1, pp. 77-92.
SODA G. (2015), “Il Dialogo tra Impresa e Ricerca nel Management”, 13 April, available on the website www.managementnotes.it/post/134982/il-dialogo-tra-impresa-e-ricerca-nel-management.
STADLER C. (2015), “Should Managers Read Academic Articles?”, Forbes, 6 June, available on the website http://www.forbes.com/sites/christianstadler/2015/06/16/should-managers-read-academic-articles/print/
STARKEY K., MADAN P. (2001), “Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research”, British Journal of Management, vol. 12, Special Issue, pp. S3- S26.
STEFFENS P.R., WEEKS C.S., DAVIDSSON P., ISAAK L. (2014), “Shouting from the Ivory Tower: A Marketing Approach to Improve Communication of Academic Research to Entrepreneurs”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 38, pp. 399-426.
THOMAS R.W., DEFEE C.C., RANDALL W.S., WILLIAMS B. (2011), “Assessing the Managerial Relevance of Contemporary Supply Chain Management Research”, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, vol. 41, n. 7, pp. 655-667.
VAN DE VEN A.H. (2011), “Reflection on Research for Theory and Practice: From an Engaged Scholarship Perspective”, in Mohrman S.A., Lawler E.E. (Eds.), Useful Research: Advancing Theory and Practice, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, pp. 387-406.
VAN DE VEN A.H., JOHNSON P.E. (2006), “Knowledge for Theory and Practice”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 31, n. 4, pp. 802-821.
VARADARAJAN P.R. (2003), “Musings on Relevance and Rigor of Scholarly Research in Marketing”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 31, n. 4, pp. 368-376.
VERMEULEN F. (2005), “On Rigor and Relevance: Fostering Dialectic Progress in Management Research”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 48, n. 6, pp. 978-982.
VERONA G. (2010), “Tra Scienza e Realtà. Una Terza Via per Unire Rilevanza e Rigore”, Economia and Management, vol. 5, pp. 3-11.
WOLF J., ROSENBERG T. (2012), “How Individual Scholars Can Reduce the Rigor-Relevance Gap in Management Research”, BuR - Business Research, vol. 5, n. 2, pp. 178-196.
ASTLEY W.G, ZAMMUTO R.F. (1992), “Organization Science, Managers and Language Games”, Organization Science, vol. 3, n. 4, pp. 443-460.
AUGIER M., MARCH J.G. (2007), “The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education”, California Management Review, vol. 49, n. 3, pp. 129-146.
BACCARANI C. (2015), “Meditazioni di uno Studioso Perplesso”, 8 June, available on the website www.managementnotes.it/post/137018/meditazioni-di-uno-studioso-perplesso.
BACCARANI C., CALZA F. (2011), “Sul Senso e sul Valore del Ricercare nel Mondo del Management”, Sinergie, n. 86, pp. 17-31.
BANSAL P., BERTELS S., EWART T., MACCONNACHIE P., O’BRIEN J. (2012), “Bridging the Research-Practice Gap”, The Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 26, n. 1, pp. 73-92.
BARTUNEK J.N., RYNES S.L., IRELAND D.R. (2006), “What Makes Management Research Interesting, and Why Does it Matter?”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 49, n. 1, pp. 9-15.
BORGONOVI E. (2007), “Università, Business School, School of Management: Dal Valore di Impresa al Valore di Sistema”, Sinergie, n. 73-74, pp. 97-105.
BREXENDORF T.O., KERNSTOCK J., POWELL S.M. (2015), “Future challenges and opportunities in brand management: An introduction to a commemorative special issue”, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 21, n. 9, pp. 685-688.
BRUNETTI F. (2011), “Di Cosa Parliamo quando Parliamo di «Scienze Manageriali»?”, Sinergie, n. 86, pp. 69-89.
BRUNETTI F., GIARETTA E., BONFANTI A., CASTELLANI P., MINOZZO M., ROSSATO C., BACCARANI C. (2015), “Exploring Relevance in Scholarly Top Journals of Management: First Steps of a Research”, Conference Proceedings of The 8th EuroMed Academy of Business Conference, Verona, 16-18 September, pp. 472-489, available online at http://emrbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/euromed2015%20book%20of%20proceedings-2015-10-04.pdf.
CARELLA G., PEDRETTI E. (2015), “Docenti e Manager per Crescere”, 1 June, available on the website www.managementnotes.it/post/137004/docent-e-manager-per-crescere
CHIA R. (2014), “Reflections on the distinctiveness of European management scholarship”, European Management Journal, vol. 32, n. 5, pp. 683-688.
CHOUDHURY N. (1986), “In Search of Relevance Management Accounting Research”, Accounting and Business Research, vol. Winter, pp. 21-32.
COGHLAN D. (2011), “Action Research: Exploring Perspectives on a Philosophy of Practical Knowing”, The Academy of Management Annals, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 53-87.
DAHL D., FISCHER E., JOHAR G., MORWITZ V. (2014), “From the Editors-Elect: Meaningful Consumer Research”, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 41, n. 1, pp. III-V.
DE BEUCKELAER A., WAGNER S.M. (2012), “Small Sample Surveys: Increasing Rigor in Supply Chain Management Research”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 42, n. 7, pp. 615-639.
DONALDSON L., QIU J., LUO B.N. (2013), “For Rigour in Organizational Management Theory Research”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 50, n. 1, pp. 153-172.
FLYNN B.B. (2008), “Having it All: Rigor versus Relevance in Supply Chain Management Research”, Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 44, n. 2, pp. 63-67.
GULATI R. (2007), “Tent Poles, Tribalism, and Boundary Spanning: The Rigor-Relevance Debate in Management Research”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, n. 4, pp. 775-782.
GUMMESSON E. (2001), “Are current research approaches in marketing leading us astray?”, Marketing Theory, vol. 1, n. 1, pp. 27-48.
GUPTA S., HANSSENS D., HAUSER J.R., LEHMANN D., SCHMITT B. (2014), “Introduction to Theory and Practice in Marketing Conference Special Section of Marketing Science”, Marketing Science, vol. 33, n. 1, pp. 1-5.
HERNES T. (2014), “In Search of a Soul of Relevance for European Management Research”, European Management Journal, vol. 32, n. 6, pp. 852-857.
HILGERT R.L. (1972), “Business Schools Fail to Communicate with Managers”, Business Horizons, vol. 16, n. 6, pp. 59-63.
HODGKINSON G.P., ROUSSEAU D.M. (2009), “Bridging the Rigour-Relevance Gap in Management Research: It’s Already Happening!”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 46, n. 3, pp. 534-546.
HUFF A.S. (2000), “Change in Organizational Knowledge Production”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, n. 2, pp. 288-293.
KAUFMANN L., WHU N.D. (2011), “How to Demonstrate Rigor when Presenting Grounded Theory Research in the Supply Chain Management Literature”, Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 47, n. 4, pp. 64-72.
KELEMEN M., BANSAL P. (2002), “The Conventions of Management Research and Their Relevance to Management Practice”, British Journal of Management, vol. 13, n. 2, pp. 97-108.
KIESER A., LEINER L. (2009), “Why the Rigour-Relevance Gap in Management Research is Unbridgeable”, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 46, n. 3, pp. 516-533.
KIESER A., NICOLAI A., SEIDL D. (2015), “The Practical Relevance of Management Research: Turning the Debate on Relevance into a Rigorous Scientific Research Program”, The Academy of Management Annals, pp. 1-115, available on the website http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2015.1011853.
LORSCH J.W. (2009), “Regaining Lost Relevance”, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 18, n. 2, pp. 108-117.
LÜSCHER L.S., LEWIS M.W. (2008), “Organizational Change and Managerial Sensemaking: Working through Paradox”, Academy of management Journal, vol. 51, n. 2, pp. 221-240.
MARCUS A.A., GOODMAN R.S., GRAZMAN D.N. (1995), “The Diffusion of Strategic Management Frameworks”, in Shrivastava P., Stubbart C. (Eds.), Challenges From Within the Mainstream, Greenwich, pp. 115-145.
MCGAHAN A. (2007), “Academic Research that Matters to Managers: On Zebras, Dogs, Lemmings, Hammers, And Turnips”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, n. 4, pp. 748-753.
NICOLAI A.T., SEIDL D. (2010), “That’s Relevant! Different Forms of Practical Relevance in Management Science”, Organization Studies, vol. 31, n. 09/10, pp. 1257-1285.
NOWOTNY H.S., SCOTT P., GIBBONS M. (2001), Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty, Polity, Cambridge.
PFEFFER J. (2009), “Renaissance and renewal in management studies: Relevance regained”, European Management Review, vol. 6, n. 3, pp. 141-148.
RYNES S.L., COLBERT A.E., BROWN K.G. (2002), “HR Professionals’ Beliefs about Effective Human Resource Practice: Correspondence between Research and Practice”, Human Resource Management, vol. 41, n. 2, pp. 149-174.
SEIDL D. (2007), “General Strategy Concept and the Ecology of Strategy Discourses: A Systemic-Discursive Perspective”, Organizational Studies, vol. 28, n. 2, pp. 197-218.
SERENKO A., BONTIS N., HULL E. (2011), “Practical Relevance of Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Scholarly Research: Books as Knowledge Translation Agents”, Knowledge and Process Management, vol. 18, n. 1, pp. 1-9.
SHRIVASTAVA P. (1987), “Rigor and Practical Usefulness of Research in Strategic Management”, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 8, n. 1, pp. 77-92.
SODA G. (2015), “Il Dialogo tra Impresa e Ricerca nel Management”, 13 April, available on the website www.managementnotes.it/post/134982/il-dialogo-tra-impresa-e-ricerca-nel-management.
STADLER C. (2015), “Should Managers Read Academic Articles?”, Forbes, 6 June, available on the website http://www.forbes.com/sites/christianstadler/2015/06/16/should-managers-read-academic-articles/print/
STARKEY K., MADAN P. (2001), “Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research”, British Journal of Management, vol. 12, Special Issue, pp. S3- S26.
STEFFENS P.R., WEEKS C.S., DAVIDSSON P., ISAAK L. (2014), “Shouting from the Ivory Tower: A Marketing Approach to Improve Communication of Academic Research to Entrepreneurs”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 38, pp. 399-426.
THOMAS R.W., DEFEE C.C., RANDALL W.S., WILLIAMS B. (2011), “Assessing the Managerial Relevance of Contemporary Supply Chain Management Research”, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, vol. 41, n. 7, pp. 655-667.
VAN DE VEN A.H. (2011), “Reflection on Research for Theory and Practice: From an Engaged Scholarship Perspective”, in Mohrman S.A., Lawler E.E. (Eds.), Useful Research: Advancing Theory and Practice, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, pp. 387-406.
VAN DE VEN A.H., JOHNSON P.E. (2006), “Knowledge for Theory and Practice”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 31, n. 4, pp. 802-821.
VARADARAJAN P.R. (2003), “Musings on Relevance and Rigor of Scholarly Research in Marketing”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 31, n. 4, pp. 368-376.
VERMEULEN F. (2005), “On Rigor and Relevance: Fostering Dialectic Progress in Management Research”, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 48, n. 6, pp. 978-982.
VERONA G. (2010), “Tra Scienza e Realtà. Una Terza Via per Unire Rilevanza e Rigore”, Economia and Management, vol. 5, pp. 3-11.
WOLF J., ROSENBERG T. (2012), “How Individual Scholars Can Reduce the Rigor-Relevance Gap in Management Research”, BuR - Business Research, vol. 5, n. 2, pp. 178-196.
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2016-08-30
