What determines public affairs researchers’ motivations for policy impact? Results from an exploratory study
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523221141346 |
| Author | John P. Nelson,Spencer Lindsay |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
What determines public
affairs researchers’
motivations for policy
impact? Results from an
exploratory study
John P. Nelson
Center for Organization Research and Design/School for the
Future of Innovation of Society, Arizona State University, USA
Spencer Lindsay
Center for Organization Research and Design, Arizona State
University, USA
Abstract
Although public policy and public administration are intuitively practical fields of schol-
arship, much public affairs research never affects practice. Previous studies have shown
that one major predictor of whether a given research study or researcher achieves
impact is the researcher’s motivation to do so. Using data from a survey of 409 authors
of articles in major public affairs journals, we present and test models of the determi-
nants of researchers’use motivations with regard to specific research studies and
over the course of their careers. Results indicate that previous experience as a practi-
tioner is positively associated with perceived career-long use motivation and rewards for
use associated with tenure and promotion, although not with annual evaluations. In add-
ition, project-specific use motivation is positively associated with perceived career-long
use motivation, academic age, a study suggestion made by a practitioner, and methodo-
logical contribution. Motivations based on a desire to appear productive or on sugges-
tions from researcher colleagues are negatively associated with study-specific use .
Corresponding author:
John P Nelson, Center for Organization Research and Design/School for the Future of Innovation of Society,
Arizona State University, PO Box 875603, Tempe, AZ 85287-5603, USA.
Email: john.p.nelson@asu.edu
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(3) 901–918
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523221141346
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
Points for practitioners
Academic motivation to affect policymaking is positively associated with rewards asso-
ciated with tenure and promotion, although not with year-end evaluations.
Longer-serving researchers, and those with practitioner experience, report greater
motivation to affect practice through their research.
Keywords
Research utilization, research mobilization, policy impact, science and policy
Introduction
Academic research is often justified by the expectation that it will improve practice in
related fields (Bandola-Gill, 2019; Kowalczewska and Behagel, 2019; Shulock, 1999),
albeit sometimes by indirect and circuitous routes. Public administration and public
policy would intuitively seem fields in which the route might be short and direct, but
public affairsresearchers and practitionersalike have for decades lamentedan apparent dis-
connect between scholarship and practice. Despite the practical orientation of the policy,
administrative, and managerial sciences, studies indicate that much policy and public
administration research is never used by practitioners (see, e.g., Squevin and Aubin,
2022). Scholars continue to argue as to whether public affairs researchers and practitioners
can be meaningfully separated into ‘two communities’with different priorities, cultures,
and languages (Caplan, 1979; for the affirmative, see e.g., Bogenschneider et al., 2019;
Walker et al., 2019a; for the negative, see, e.g., Newman et al., 2016; Wehrens et al.,
2011). The simple fact that this is a live question belies both contemporary ideals of
‘evidence-based’or ‘evidence-informed’policy (see generally Head, 2015; Lingard,
2013; Newman et al.,2017) and the longer-standing conception that public affairs scholar-
ship’sraisond’e
̑tre is to improve the quality of government (see generally Ezrahi, 1990;
Porter, 1995). Achievement of policy impact through research is neither automatic nor
easy.
Many factors may affect whether any particular research study or product manages
to affect public policy or public administration practice, including the characteristics
of researchers and their organizations, of the research itself, of practitioners and
their organizations, and of researcher–practitioner relationships, all of which may
vary across time and locale (Nelson et al., 2021; see, e.g., Pattyn et al., 2022). Only
a limited subset of these variables lies within the control of researchers or research
organizations. One important influence on impact that may be within researchers’
control is the motivation to achieve it. A recent survey by Bozeman et al. (2021) indi-
cates that one major predictor of whether a particular public affairs research study will
affect practice is the extent to which the conducting researcher or researchers want it to
do so. Previous studies have suggested that researcher efforts to scope, tailor, and time
research to the needs of policymakers and public administrators, and to adapt and com-
municate results, facilitate practitioner utilization of research (Cherney et al., 2012a;
902 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(3)
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