Mission

To provide a comprehensive source for information, tools, and discussions regarding the scholarship of management educators and the potential impacts of research conducted by faculty in business schools.

Objectives

• Facilitate knowledge sharing and discussion regarding cutting-edge research conducted by business schools
• Contribute to discussions and debates concerning how business school faculty research can be of the greatest utility to practicing managers and other academic disciplines
• Promote high-quality scholarship (discipline-based, applied, and learning/pedagogical) in business schools according to their missions

Overview of Research and Scholarship

Collegiate schools of business occupy a unique and important position among management education organizations and practitioners. Although other organizations (e.g., corporate universities and for-profit education providers) share with business schools the purpose of developing managerial talent, business schools conduct high-level research. In fact, the mission of a school seeking AACSB International accreditation must include research—broadly defined to include discipline-specific scholarship, contributions to practice, and studies that improve management teaching and pedagogy.

The rigorous thinking and theoretical grounding of business school scholars and their research offers an advantage over the casual empiricism and trends formulating from non-academic authors. The primary source of this advantage is that universities and business schools provide an environment conducive to high-quality research. Academic scholars have the freedom to pursue original ideas without pressure to increase the bottom line or create profitable business propositions. Business schools reward quality research and provide access to supportive resources. Thriving communities of academic and practitioner experts facilitate collaboration and stimulate cross-pollination across fields. Additionally, the peer review process provides powerful evaluations of the quality of research.

At a fundamental level, quality research may be anything that has a clear focus, is based upon sound research methods, and draws logical conclusions from the data and information obtained. When business schools proudly speak of the quality of their research, this judgment generally includes two additional dimensions. The first is the relevancy of the research to the business school’s constituents—e.g., students, faculty, and/or the business community. The second is the ability of the research to have impact on either practice and/or the generation of new ideas. Not only does this require that quality research be presented to an audience that will find it relevant, it also requires that the research has the ability to motivate action or further scholarly inquiry; ultimately it must have impact.