Exploring Impact: Theory and Practice in Research that Makes a Difference
| Published date | 01 July 2015 |
| Date | 01 July 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12129 |
British Journal of Management, Vol. 26, 564–565 (2015)
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12129
CALL FOR PAPERS
BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SPECIAL ISSUE
Exploring Impact: Theory and Practice
in Research that Makes a Dierence
Paper submission deadline: 1 December 2015
Guest Editors:
Jean Bartunek, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, USA
Nic Beech, College of Arts and Social Sciences University of Dundee, UK
Bill Cooke, The York Management School, University of York, UK
David Denyer, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, UK
Robert MacIntosh, School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University, UK
Katy Mason, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University, UK
Denise Rousseau Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
This call for papers extends earlier discussions of the so-called ‘relevance gap’ first raised in BJM in 2001
(Hodgkinson, Herriot and Anderson, 2001), and subsequently discussed in special issues of Manage-
ment Learning,Organization Studies, and the Academyof Management Journal. The relationship between
research and practice continues to challenge,generating new lines of inquiry and international debate re-
lating to the nature of theory-generation, co-production of knowledge, enhancing the rigour of research
and, not least, the related role of businessschools in universities and society. In a potentially controversial
line of argument, business schools are being told the eect thatthey do have on practice is socially harmful
(e.g. Mintzberg, 2015).
BJM drew attention to the ‘Mode 2 debate’ (Tranfield and Starkey, 1998), and other analyses of the re-
search/practice/impact relationship have addressed practice-oriented research (Rousseau, 2012), engaged
scholarship (Van de Ven, 2007), management as a design science (Van Aken and Romme, 2009), man-
agement as an applied science (Jarzabkowski et al., 2010), evidence-based management (Briner, Denyer
and Rousseau, 2009), collaborative enquiry (Bartunek, 2007), action research (Eden and Huxham, 2006),
reflexivity in research (Cunlie, 2011); practice-based research (Nicolini, 2009); active knowing (Beech
et al., 2012); performativity of theory (Mason et al., 2014) and the practicality of Critical Management
Studies (King and Learmonth, 2015). These strands of debate within intellectual sub-communities now
require a meta-dialogue between them, about what we have learned, or should learn about engaged and
impactful research. Most importantly, there is a need to theorize how and whyimpact occurs. This Special
Issue therefore seeks theoretically informed, empirical practice-oriented submissions, investigating how
research influences what practitioners actually do, why some research reaches a wide audience and how
managerial practice might be changed. We are also interested in pieces which may challenge the idea that
knowledge flows from research towards impact on practice and conceptualisations of the various roles
and processes involved.
Potential submissions might address, amongst other things:
rTypes and categories of engagement and forms of evidence that can be claimed as impact in its various
guises
© 2015 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4
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