Self-criticisms toward a socially responsible science in the field of management

Management scholarship should be placed in a unique position to develop relevant scientific knowledge because business and management organizations are deeply involved in most global challenges. However, different critical voices have recently been raised in essays and editorials, and reports have questioned research in the management field, identifying multiple deficiencies that can limit the growth of a relatively young field. Based on an analysis of published criticisms of management research, we would like to shed light on the current state of management research and identify some limitations that should be considered and should guide the growth of this field of knowledge. This work offers guidance on the main problems of the discipline that should be addressed to encourage the transformation of management research to meet both scientific rigor and social relevance. The article ends with a discussion and a call to action for directing research toward the possibility and necessity of reinforcing “responsible research” in the management field.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study has benefited from financing from the Research Project ECO2014-56580-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitively, and the Research Projects P12-SEJ-1810 and P12-SEJ-1618 from the Andalusia Government (Spain) and PR2016-018 (Research Projects University of Cadiz)

Disentangling international research collaboration in the Spanish academic context: Is there a desirable researcher human capital profile?

A number of studies has focused on examining those academic researchers attributes-demographics or not- that condition international research collaboration (IRC) and its results. However, it is not possible to speak about an ‘ideal’ type of researcher so far. Should we assume that just only those ‘star researchers’ collaborate internationally?. The literature is not clear enough on this topic, offering interesting but insufficient support to know the set of individual characteristics that ensures fruitful IRC. To deepen the analysis of academic researchers attributes, in particular, the human capital characteristics, this study proposes in-depth research on exploring different combinations on human capital dimensions and testing potential differences in IRC levels. To do so, from an exploratory perspective, a cluster analysis was conducted in a sample of 937 Spanish academics, obtaining three researcher profiles: (1) consolidated international research collaborators, (2) effective international research collaborators, and (3) skilled international research collaborators. Far from the recurrent analysis of single or disconnected researchers' attributes, this paper contributes to the extant literature with a new typology based on the variables of academic human capital, providing an useful starting point to better understand who really can develop international networks to collaborate and, therefore, how to foster IRC in Universitie

Managing the “valley of death” between the management research and the management practice: An empirical academic evidence

La investigación generada por los académicos en el campo del Management, a menudo, tiene poca relevancia para los profesionales. Esta brecha que divide a académicos y profesionales ha sido ampliamente aceptada en la literatura, generándose un amplio debate al respecto. Sin embargo, la literatura en este tópico no representa un discurso fielmente estructurado, y en su mayor parte, no está sustentada en trabajos empíricos. En el presente trabajo hacemos una doble contribución a esta literatura: 1) En primer lugar, una extensa literatura ha sido desarrollada con el objetivo de analizar y aportar diferentes recetas que permitan acercar a ambas comunidades. Con el fin de ofrecer una visión más sistemática de la literatura en este tópico, clasificamos estos trabajos en tres corrientes distintas en función de las ideas en las que se sostienen. 2) Por otro lado, la revisión de la literatura muestra que existe una necesidad de desarrollar más evidencia empírica que contribuyan a identificar diferentes causas o determinantes de la brecha entra ambas comunidades en nuestro campo. Por ello, identificamos diferentes causas que pueden provocar una desconexión con los profesionales de nuestro campo, gracias a la evidencia empírica obtenida a través de entrevistas a 15 académicos pertenecientes a la disciplina del Management. Finalmente, este trabajo concluye con una discusión de los principales hallazgos derivados del análisis cualitativo y diferentes recomendaciones prácticas que podrían ayudar a cerrar la brecha.The knowledge generated by academics in the field of Management is often criticized because of its reduced relevance for professionals. In recent studies, researchers agree that there is an important gap between management research and practice. However, the literature in this topic does not represent a finely structured discourse, and for the most part, it is not based on empirical works. In this paper, we make a double contribution to this literature: 1) First, an extensive literature has been developed with the aim of analysing and providing different solutions that allow linking both communities. In order to offer a more systematic view of literature in this topic, we classify these works into three different currents according to the ideas in which they are held. 2) On the other hand, the review of the literature shows that there is a need to develop more empirical evidence to help identify different causes or determinants of the gap between both communities in our field. Therefore, we identify different causes that may cause a disconnection with professionals in our field, through empirical evidence obtained in interviews with 15 academics belonging to the discipline of Management. Finally, this work concludes with a discussion of the main findings derived from the qualitative analysis and different practical recommendations that could help close the gap