FIBE 2009: Impact of Research. Stephen Watson AACSB International

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1 FIBE 2009: Impact of Research Stephen Watson AACSB International

2 AACSB International Founded in 1916 by leading US business schools as a forum for management education Now has 559 accredited business schools and a further 590 non-accredited members Member services: conferences, training, publications, championing issues

3 Outline The rise of research in universities Modern forces on business school research Evaluation of research Criticisms of the current position AACSB s interest in research AACSB s report on the impact of research AACSB s pilot study on evaluating impact

4 The rise of research in universities Distinction between Research and Teaching is modern not there before 19 th century Rise of science led to: Humboldtian university State research institutions Teaching research conflicts in old universities Early business schools driven by teaching, not research

5 Modern forces on business school research 1959 in the US: Gordon and Howell report; Pierson report Holding your head high in the academy Tenure procedures 1996 in the UK: RAE Accreditation: AACSB (from 1916); EQUIS (from 1997) Newspaper rankings: FT, Business Week etc Genuine belief in the value of research to (a) discover things; and (b) to provide better education

6 Evaluation of research Need for evaluation: Evidence for promotion, or at least annual evaluation Cash rewards in some schools Government resource allocation to institutions As part of audit and accreditation schemes To do well in rankings Methods used Publication in leading journals Peer review of portfolio Citation records General judgement

7 Criticisms of the current position Criticisms that much business school research is narrow, impractical and of little impact Two key questions: Are Peer Reviewed Journal articles all that matters? Is publication in a journal the end of the matter or should we try to trace the ensuing impact?

8 AACSB s interest in research 1987 report on research Size and diversity of business school research is now much greater > 15,000 articles per year in English? 25,000 faculty in AACSB accredited schools 2006 AACSB task force Importance of business school research to: students; practicing managers; organisations; and society Recommendations for increasing value and visibility of business school research Not stressing relevance over rigour: both are important

9 AACSB s report on the impact of research Published in 2008 and available at: arch/final/impact_of_research_report- FINAL.PDF

10 AACSB s report: Benefits of business school research Students Up-to-date curricula Learning designed by faculty with research training Interaction between students and critical faculty BUT - there is not much hard evidence to demonstrate these benefits

11 AACSB s report: Benefits of business school research Practicing Managers Highly contested subject with many different views Pole 1: basic research in business schools is what they should be doing; basic research has long term benefits many examples exist; research should be evaluated by its soundness, and not its utility Pole 2: business school research should focus on the actual problems of business; should be strongly empirical; should be evaluated by its outputs and their usefulness Survey by Shapiro et al: identifies two problems in relating business school research to practice: problem formulation and knowledge transmission

12 AACSB s report: Benefits of business school research Organisations and Society Evidence that practices adopted because of business school research have improved organisational performance Evidence of wider social benefit is very thin

13 AACSB s report: Width of business school research What do we do? Discipline-based scholarship Contributions to Practice Learning and Pedagogical research How do we disseminate it? Publication in peer reviewed articles On-line publication Monographs, technical reports, teaching manuals Text books, whether for students, or professionals Case studies Software: e.g. simulations Papers presented at meetings Reviews of others work Student projects

14 Recommendations for AACSB Recommendation 1 Extend AACSB accreditation guidelines to require schools to demonstrate the impact of research who are the expected beneficiaries of research? what is the evidence that the benefit has been achieved? Measuring impact Might be difficult in many instances (long delay until impact achieved; impact may be difficult to prove etc.) Increased load in the accreditation process Needs political acceptance Could improve the actual impact

15 Recommendations for AACSB Recommendation 2 AACSB should encourage greater diversity in mission in business schools Not just to achieve papers in top journals Encouraging faculty models that reward faculty research measured by different criteria of impact Recommendation 3 AACSB should support research into the linkage between scholarly inquiry and good education The results of this research might show AACSB how to evaluate the effect of research on teaching and in due course change its standards to reflect this This process in executive education is also important and should be introduced into AACSB s evaluation process

16 Recommendations for AACSB Recommendation 4 AACSB should develop an awards program to recognize faculty who produce high impact research Recommendation 5 AACSB should develop ways to strengthen interaction between academics and practicing managers

17 Recommendations for AACSB Recommendation 6 AACSB should study the market in academic journals in business and make recommendations to publishers on how they might support the promotion of the impact of research Recommendation 7 AACSB should identify and disseminate information about best practices for creating linkages between academic research and practice

18 AACSB s pilot study on evaluating impact A group of 12 schools has been selected to go through the following process: Create a statement of research impact expectations, consistent with the school s mission Define procedures to be used in assessing the impact of the school s research work Produce a plan for doing the assessment Report on how difficult this was In the light of doing the work above, AACSB will figure out what to do next including actual assessment of research impact in some schools