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Relevance gap in business school research: which academic papers are cited in managerial bridge journals?

Journal

Academy of Management Learning and Education

Subject

Marketing, Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Publishing details

Academy of Management Learning and Education 2016 Vol 15:4 p 686-702

Authors / Editors

Birkinshaw J M;Lecuona R;Barwise P

Publication Year

2016

Abstract

The much-discussed “relevance gap” (Starkey & Madan, 2001) between research and practice in management is a major source of concern for business schools, in terms of their legitimacy in the eyes of students, employers, and funding bodies. We frame the relevance gap as a knowledge-transfer issue, focusing on the role of “bridging media” as one mechanism through which academic research is made accessible to practicing managers. Specifically, we ask two questions: (1) Which academic research is selected for dissemination by bridging media? And (2) How can we develop better ways of measuring this type of bridging activity? Through a preliminary empirical analysis (of the citation trails from 264 academic papers to bridge journals such as Sloan Management Review), we find that academic papers cited in bridge journals: (1) also have a high academic impact factor; (2) draw on and/or contribute to a broad body of literature; (3) are more likely to be inductive or theoretical than deductive; and (4) are on topics rated by practitioners as “interesting.” We also discuss how our methodology could be extended to contribute to Aguinis et al.’ s (2014) pluralist conceptualization of scholarly impact.

Available on ECCH

No


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