Impacts, rigour and relevance of management research

Citation

Cornuel, E. (2009), "Impacts, rigour and relevance of management research", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 28 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.2009.02628haa.001

Impacts, rigour and relevance of management research

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Management Development, Volume 28, Issue 8

The 2007 [report] of AACSB International (2007, p. 10) on the Impact of Research notes that “[…] business schools have recently been criticized for placing too much emphasis on research relative to teaching, and for producing research that is too narrow, irrelevant and impractical”. This production of theoretically grounded but irrelevant research (Mintzberg, 2004; Pfeffer, 2007) has attracted considerable attention and has led to a perception that there is a growing gap between disciplinary focused, academically rigorous research and research directed towards practical relevance and the development of actionable knowledge for solving issues and problems faced by the management community.

The aim and purpose of this special issue is to present a range of perspectives about research in business schools and focus particularly on the impacts and research challenges facing business schools as they develop their research strategies. The contents of this special issue are in three clusters; namely:

1. 1.

   management research issues and its impacts;

2. 2.

   the rigour-relevance-practice debate; and

3. 3.

   the national and institutional influences on research.

The first cluster provides essential background and framework for assessing the role and impact of management research. The first paper by Howard Thomas outlines the nature of the research challenges faced by business schools drawing upon a recent evaluation of management research in the UK. The second paper by Howard Thomas and Alex Wilson provides an analytic overview of the environment and competitive challenges to management research in business schools.

The second cluster focuses very closely on the analysis of the theory/practice gap in business and management research. Michael I. Reed offers a framework for analysing this gap and makes realistic suggestions about how it may be resolved. Chris Huxham then embraces the need for practice relevant research and discusses the importance of building research and research capacity for the continued development of practice relevant research. Ken Starkey and Sue Tempest address research needs from a more philosophical perspective and examine the future role of the business school. They argue that business schools should emphasise management as an art and embrace a research style offering strong background in the fields of humanities and history in addition to the more common social sciences approaches currently adopted.

The third cluster examines the national and institutional influences on management research. Raymond-Alain Thietart notes that the internationalization of the French business schools, context, particularly in regard to the Grandes Ecoles, has created a new strategic emphasis on the importance of management research in building credibility and reputation for French business schools. In particular, it examines the governance and strategic issues this focus creates for business schools. Robin Wensley, Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research in the UK, then provides a historical perspective on the evolution and development of management research in the UK and pays particular attention to the relevance of management research in delivering future strategic pathways for UK business schools. Finally, Christophe Lejeune and Alain Vas examine the role of accreditation as an institutional influence in improving the culture and performance of a business school.

Taken together, the papers in this special issue have their origins primarily in a series of seminars on management research organised by the Research Committee of the Association of Business Schools and held in 2007 and 2008 in Manchester and Nottingham together with selected material form EFMD conferences. They offer a range of perspectives about the importance, role and purpose of academic research and present an analysis of the environment and competitive dynamics of management research (Harvard Thomas and Alex Wilson). One of the overarching themes concerns the impact of research on management practice (particularly, Michael I. Reed, Chris Huxham, Christophe Lejeune, Alain Vas, and Robin Wensley) – the so-called rigour-relevance debate, namely, the difficulty of how to measure the impacts of rigourous academic research on the real world relevance of policy formulation and implementation. Contributions from Robin Wensley, Raymond-Alain Thietart, and Ken Starkey also point out business schools have to link their vision and purpose in addressing the challenge of how they develop their research strategies and share and disseminate their findings with external stakeholders.

Following those seminars and the recent publication of the results of the Research Assessment Exercise (2008) in the UK increasing attention has been focused on the role, impact and purpose of management research in the strategic positioning of business schools. For example, the next Research Assessment exercise in the UK, scheduled for 2013, will involve attempts to measure clearly the impact of management research.

As Guest Editors, we hope that you will find the assembled papers interesting and insightful. Finally, we thank the authors, most sincerely, for their provocative and challenging contributions to the debate on the impact of management research.

About the Guest Editors

Eric Cornuel is the Director General and CEO of European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) in Brussels since 2000. He holds a degree of Sciences Po from IEP Paris, an MBA from HEC Graduate School of Management, Paris, and a DEA in Strategy and Management from Paris Nanterre University, together with a Doctoral Certificate in Strategy from HEC Graduate School of Management Paris and a PhD in Management, written on International Network Organizations, from Paris Dauphine University. He started his career as an entrepreneur by setting up an hydroelectric power plant in France when he was still a student. He was also the Director of the HEC Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (Paris). He then served as the Dean of KIMEP, at the time the leading business and economics school in central Asia, from 1997 to 1999. He was awarded a Honorary Professorship for his achievements there. From 1996 to the present, he has been Affiliate Professor at HEC Graduate School of Management, Paris. He has taught for 15 years at various management schools in Europe and Asia. His key qualifications are in the areas of strategy, international management and entrepreneurship and he is a regular contributor to the Emerald Management Journals. He is, among others, a Board Member of the European Institute of Advanced Studies in Management, European Business Journal, International Journal of Business in Society, European Academy of Business in Society, International Schools of Business Management, and Global Foundation for Management Education (GFME). He also sits on the board of several companies.

Howard Thomas (MSc, MBA, PhD, DSc) is the Dean of Warwick Business School and he is a Professor of Strategic Management. He is the author of over 30 books and 200 articles and his interests include in competitive strategy, risk analysis, strategic change, international management and strategic decision making. Previously, Dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration and James F. Towey Distinguished Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA 1991-2000. Prior to this, he held posts as Foundation Professor of Management at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, as the Director of the Doctoral Programme at London Business School, and visiting and permanent posts at institutions such as the European Institute of Advanced Studies of Management in Brussels, the University of Southern California, the University of British Columbia, the Sloan School of Management, MIT, and Kellogg School, Northwestern University. Past President of the US Strategic Management Society, past Chair of the Board of the Graduate Management Admissions Council, member of Beta Gamma Sigma Honorary Society, and Fellow of both the Academy of Management in the USA and the British Academy of Management in the UK; Fellow of the Strategic Management Society USA (and current Dean of Fellows) and the Sunningdale Institute of the Cabinet Office, Honorary Life Member and former Vice-President of EFMD. He also serves as a board member (Chair) of GFME, ABS and State Farm Bank. He is a companion of ABS and Chair of the Association of Business Schools, UK, 2008-2010, and Vice Chair, Chair Elect of AACSB International, 2008-2010. He was awarded an Honorary Degree (fellowship) by Swansea University in 2008.

Eric Cornuel, Howard ThomasGuest Editors