Scholarship that matters: Academic-practitioner engagement in business and management

Our research explores academic-practitioner engagement by undertaking interviews with academics, practitioners, and other experts with relevant engagement experience. The findings highlight the problem of thinking narrowly about the different ways in which engagement takes place, as well as defining narrowly what is a worthwhile activity for management academics. We develop a framework that encompasses the main ways in which engagement takes place, and that relates these to different attitude groups among both academics and practitioners. This could provide a starting point for business schools and individual academics to develop plans and put in place the processes for better engagement.