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– The purpose of this study was to suggest pragmatic ways of dealing with the business-to-business (B2B) theory/practice gap.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to suggest pragmatic ways of dealing with the business-to-business (B2B) theory/practice gap.
Design/methodology/approach
Reflecting on experience both as a researcher and practitioner.
Findings
B2B marketing is characterized by complexity. There is no straight way to harmonize the relationship between its theory and practice but there are ways to make the two benefit from each other. A dilemma is that academics and practitioners are rewarded for different types of achievements.
Research limitations/implications
Scholars can be made aware of the need for close involvement through action research and case theory to secure access to high-quality data in a complex B2B reality, and to their mission to contribute better real world based theory.
Practical implications
The article can make practitioners aware of the value of grand theory to improve the pragmatic use of mid-range theory as it materializes in models, checklists and heuristics.
Originality/value
The simultaneous emphasis on explicit and tacit knowledge in both theory generation and practice, and a framework of theory generation that sorts out substantive, mid-range and grand theory relationships.
Details
Keywords
Frank Alpert, Mark Brown, Elizabeth Ferrier, Claudia Fernanda Gonzalez-Arcos and Rico Piehler
This study aims to investigate marketing managers’ views on the existence and nature of the academic–practitioner gap in the branding domain.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate marketing managers’ views on the existence and nature of the academic–practitioner gap in the branding domain.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a purposive sampling method, the researchers conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with 20 experienced marketing managers from a wide range of industries and organisations, whose roles are focussed on the planning, implementation and management of broad marketing and branding strategies.
Findings
Branding practitioners have little or no contact with academics and their theories-in-use with regard to brand management suggest they do not consider academic research relevant to their work.
Research limitations/implications
The process of describing and explaining the gap provides valuable insights into bridging the gap; it provides actionable branding strategies that include raising awareness, building relationships, improving the benefits offer and communicating more effectively.
Practical implications
This research has practical implications for branding academics. The interviewed practitioners confirm the gap, viewing it as academics’ (not practitioners’) problem and responsibility. They characterise it as a branding problem that academics can overcome using branding strategies, to establish themselves as credible sources of branding expertise for practitioners. Key areas for increasing collaboration stem from practitioners’ desire for independent, credible, ethical and timely third-party advice on branding issues; relevant, timely and shorter professional branding education across their organisations; and closer connections with universities to identify new branding talent and ideas.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to empirically examine and recommend solutions to the academic-practitioner gap in the branding domain by studying marketing professionals with branding responsibilities, using in-depth interviews.
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Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the elevation of the business-to-business (B2B) marketing field at the business school level.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the elevation of the business-to-business (B2B) marketing field at the business school level.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows a Delphi method. The authors conducted two rounds of discovery to answer: why do you think universities do not highly appreciate publications in Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing or Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing? What would you suggest for improving the impact of such journals not only in the USA but around the world?
Findings
Through the analysis of the coding transcript, four categories were found to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level: B2B as uncommon ground, B2B researcher practices, marketing science underpinnings and B2B marketing journals management.
Originality/value
The value of current research is based on its explorative nature and application of grounded theory to provide a framework to analyze how to elevate the B2B marketing field at the business school level.
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Keywords
Roderick J. Brodie, Suvi Nenonen, Linda D. Peters and Kaj Storbacka
The purpose of this paper is to refine an agenda concerning the theory–praxis gap to develop a foundation for a research tradition.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to refine an agenda concerning the theory–praxis gap to develop a foundation for a research tradition.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper synthesizes and builds on the suggestions in commentary articles by Kohli (2017), Leeflang (2017) and Möller (2017).
Findings
The authors develop a research agenda consisting of the following issues: the need for a systemic view of business practice; the need for innovative and meaningful theoretical understanding; the need to identify conditions and approaches for collaborative theorizing; to further define and instruct the abductive approach; and to explore pragmatic realism to ensure both practical outcomes and truthful theories.
Originality/value
These five issues are a step towards developing a theory–praxis research tradition.
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Keywords
Alireza Shokri and Farhad Nabhani
This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of a systematic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) education through the curriculum of business schools to respond to the existing gap between the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of a systematic Lean Six Sigma (LSS) education through the curriculum of business schools to respond to the existing gap between the graduate’s expectation of employability and skill requirements by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
A UK business school has been used as a case study to conduct extensive module and programme review followed by a semi-structured interview with potentially suitable core and programme-specific module tutors and comparative analysis.
Findings
The result revealed a high potential of the existing modules in the business schools equivalent to the private sector training providers to increase the level of LSS problem-solving knowledge and skill for all graduates and improve their employability and productivity for the SMEs.
Originality/value
The result of this study highlights the role of LSS to reduce the knowledge and skill gap between the business schools as the source of the explicit knowledge, graduates as the knowledge and skill bearer and SMEs as the knowledge and skill users.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of the “theory/practice” gap in business and management research as it has been developed in relation to US and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of the “theory/practice” gap in business and management research as it has been developed in relation to US and European business and management schools.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper combines theoretical and institutional analysis to construct a framework for analyzing the “theory/practice” gap and its wider implications.
Findings
The paper suggests that a “dialogical” rather than “linear” model of knowledge production and dissemination is the most analytically and practically useful way of approaching the “theory/practice” gap in business and management research.
Originality/value
The paper reviews and updates the “theory/practice” gap in business and management research and offers a more nuanced and realistic appreciation of how it might be resolved.
Details
Keywords
Wolff-Michael Roth, Tim Mavin and Sidney Dekker
The purpose of this paper is to theorize the theory-practice gap and to provide examples of how it currently expresses itself and how it might be addressed to better integrate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to theorize the theory-practice gap and to provide examples of how it currently expresses itself and how it might be addressed to better integrate between the worlds of thought and praxis.
Design/methodology/approach
Two empirical examples exemplify how the theory-practice gap is an institutionally embodied social reality. Cultural-historical activity theory is described as a means for theorizing the inevitable gap. An example from the airline industry shows how the gap may be dealt with in, and integrated into, practice.
Findings
Cultural-historical activity theory suggests different forms of consciousness to exist in different activity systems because of the different object/motives in the world in which we think and the practical world in which we live. A brief case study of the efforts of one airline to integrate reflection on practice (i.e. theory) into their on-the-job training shows how the world in which pilots think about what they do is made part of the world in which pilots live.
Practical implications
First, in some cases, such as teacher education, institutional arrangements can be made to situate education/training in the workplace. Second, even in the training systems with high fidelity, high validity (transferability) cannot be guaranteed.
Originality/value
The approach proposed provides a theory not only for understanding the theory-practice gap but also the gap that exists even between very high-fidelity (“photo-realistic”) training situations and the real-world praxis full of surprises.
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Rachel Roegman and Sarah Woulfin
The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize the theory-practice gap in educational leadership, not as a deficit, but as a necessity for legitimacy within institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize the theory-practice gap in educational leadership, not as a deficit, but as a necessity for legitimacy within institutional contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on institutional theory to reframe the theory-practice gap, which is often seen as a deficit of leaders or preparation programs.
Findings
Three vignettes illustrate how aspiring and current educational leaders engage with theory and practice within specific contexts and in relation to specific aspects of leadership. Importantly, the vignettes show that when school leaders decouple theory from practice, they may be doing so to function as legitimate providers of K-12 educational leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The theory-practice gap, while often perceived as something negative, can have certain benefits within particular contexts. Scholars interested in the interconnections of theory and practice would benefit from considering why and how school leaders engage theory and practice.
Practical implications
Implications for leadership preparation programs highlight developing more complex views of the challenges that leaders face in tightly coupling theory and practice. To support future and current leaders, leadership preparation programs need to ensure that their students understand their institutional contexts and the reasons that leaders may decouple theory from action in various ways.
Originality/value
Instead of viewing the theory/practice gap as a deficit, this paper argues for a new way to consider why school leaders and leadership candidates may engage with theory and practice in different ways.
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Keywords
Denise Ko and Dieter Fink
The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of information technology (IT) governance, from both a theory and practice perspective, and to identify current…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of information technology (IT) governance, from both a theory and practice perspective, and to identify current theory‐practice gaps within the organisations studied.
Design/methodology/approach
This study developed a complementary and collaborative model of IT governance and used a multiple case approach in which IT governance is examined against the model in four major universities. Case study research is qualitative in nature enabling insights into the “how” and “why” of IT governance to be gained.
Findings
Based on underlying theory, the study was able to develop propositions regarding IT governance practices, observe current practices within the participating universities and establish gaps between theory and practice. The study identified theory‐practice gaps in each of three IT governance dimensions: structure, process and people. Gaps ranged in significance from small to large. Two large gaps existed which require attention: they are in respect of integrating IT governance mechanisms and raising the awareness and understanding of the concept among senior management.
Research limitations/implications
The model of IT governance developed for the research can be further developed and refined. In addition, the university context may have imposed limitations as different findings could arise in different contexts. Furthermore, the participating CIOs and IT directors could have brought their own values and beliefs to the research when interpreting the IT governance objectives of their university.
Practical implications
The model of IT governance developed for the research enables organisations to assess and map their IT governance against theoretical dimensions. By mapping observed practice against theory, the study was able to provide a mechanism of identifying theory‐practice gaps, where they existed.
Originality/value
IT is ubiquitous in nature because modern IT crosses organisational activities and has become strongly aligned with business activities. Thus IT governance can be viewed as an integral part of corporate governance and requires senior management's attention. However, because of the specialised nature of IT, governance in this domain has unique characteristics. Yet, current literature reflects a lack of maturity and points to diverse and inconsistent concepts of IT governance as well as variations in how IT governance is implemented. The paper reduces uncertainty for corporate executives by systematically synthesising current literature, developing a theoretical model and testing it against current practice.
Details
Keywords
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate about the existence and nature of a “gap” between theory and practice in management.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate about the existence and nature of a “gap” between theory and practice in management.
Design/methodology/approach
The putative theory/practice “gap” in management is investigated by examining the theory/practice debate in three cognate fields–economics, nursing and marketing.
Findings
The relationship between theory and practice is actively debated in all three of the fields. In economics, criticism has been directed at the implicit ontological assumptions made in formal mathematical methods employed by orthodox neoclassical economists. In nursing the debate has centred on the practical issues associated with implementing evidence based practice; in particular identifying and seeking to overcome barriers to implementation. In marketing, managers find most academic theory difficult to read and irrelevant; this may be because the goals of academics and the goals of practitioners are different.
Research limitations/implications
Potentially fruitful topics for further research are identified at the pragmatic, epistemological and ontological levels.
Originality/value
The paper identifies lessons for the field of management research from economics, nursing and marketing. Each of these three areas provides a unique lens through which to view the research/practice “gap” in management.