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The purpose of this paper is to discuss how practical relevance of management accounting knowledge relates to research paradigms and theoretical pluralism.

The paper is conceptual in nature.

As the management accounting discipline is considered to be an applied discipline, a number of authors claim that management accounting research should develop relevant theory that can be used in practice. This call for increased practical relevance of management accounting knowledge interrelates with a debate on the desirability of theoretical pluralism and paradigm diversity in management accounting research. Drawing on the work of Nicolai and Seidl, the paper distinguishes different forms of practical relevance, and analyses the effects of theoretical pluralism on these different forms. The paper argues how theoretical pluralism particularly enhances relevance in a conceptual sense rather than an instrumental sense. The conceptual relevance of research may further be enhanced by interpretive research that acknowledges complexity and that has the potential to challenge the performativity of mainstream management accounting knowledge, without challenging the pursuit of efficiency as such. This is different from critical research. The instrumental relevance stemming from mainstream management accounting research entails de‐contextualization and simplification, and might create unintended self‐fulfilling prophecies.

The paper broadens the concept of relevance so that it includes conceptual relevance and legitimative relevance. It links these concepts of relevance to three research paradigms: a mainstream paradigm, an interpretive paradigm and a critical paradigm. For each paradigm, relevance is related to the use of theory.

The paper broadens the concept of relevance and advocates the pursuit of conceptual relevance, particularly through interpretive research.

The “relevance literature” often moans that the publications of top-ranked academic journals are hardly relevant to managers, while actionable research struggles to get published. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical explanation of this phenomenon.

This paper addresses the relevance debate in management science through the theoretical frame of the theories of the firm.

This paper proposes that business organizations should tend to internalize specific applied research. Applied to management research, this could explain why the “market” for academic publications might be more relevant for generalizable and conceptual research than for applied, contextualized research.

The paper is conceptual. However, it provides a new prospect to the rigor-relevance debate and to the ranking of researchers and business schools.

Business organizations should tend to internalize specific, applied research. Consequently, academic publications should concentrate on generalizable, “Mode 1” research.

The conclusions could justify the evolution of the rating of universities and researchers towards a multi-dimensional rating, including measures of the socio-economic impact of the research, instead on focusing on academic publications only.

This paper offers a new point of view on the rigor-relevance debate. It supports the idea that applied and conceptual research are different forms of knowledge and should be “traded”, produced and rewarded differently.

Rigor and practical relevance are the foundations for logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) as an applied discipline. Whereas there are well-founded criteria for establishing methodological rigor, researchers must provide their own credible logic as to why their papers can influence practice. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop guidelines for establishing practical relevance in research papers.

A literature review of LSCM, marketing, operations management and management journals forms the foundation for these guidelines.

Relevance criteria are identified; research should be problem-driven, timely and important, and findings should be implementable, nonobvious, novel and not too costly. Measures for researchers demonstrating the fulfillment of these criteria are identified as practitioner input, gray literature, funding, practitioner involvement and feedback. Researchers should also clearly articulate both problem relevance and the relevance of their findings.

A lack of practical relevance is among the reasons for the rejection of papers by LSCM journals, but researchers can overcome this obstacle using these guidelines.

At a metalevel, this paper contributes to research with greater practical relevance.

Practical relevance is emphasized in the editorials of LSCM journals but has not yet been fully conceptualized from the authors' perspective.

The purpose of this article is to establish empirically what may motivate the manager to learn, that is, keep him interested in a course for which he has been sponsored by himself or another. The importance of this sort of study lies in the fact that its results can have implications for the design and development of courses. In other words, the trainer or educator should continually be reminded of the needs of the manager in a learning situation.

The purpose of this paper is to refine the resource-based theory of the firm. It intends to deal with key theoretical issues affecting the development of a model that empirically captures the relevance of knowledge to performance. The research task is not only to look inside the firm in search of candidates for a strategic resource, but also to better understand how a resource becomes strategic as the consequence of specific attributes. This approach has the potential of providing a relevant insight into the characteristics that resources must possess as well as a more effective way to compare their relative relevance to competitive advantage.

Hypotheses are tested by a comprehensive panel data of 29 AIDS/HIV drugs from 1997 to 2010, covering the performance trajectory of more than 90 percent of all branded products in this segment.

Based on the VRIO framework (Barney 1991, 2001a), which asserts that resources need to be valuable, rare, inimitable, and difficult to organize in order to become a source of sustainable competitive advantage, the paper derives seven empirical constructs of technological knowledge. Five of these constructs are statistically significant, explaining up to 36 percent of the variance in sales outcomes. Results show that the most important resource attributes are value and organizational capabilities. Inimitability is partially relevant, but rarity is not.

Results suggest that the best way to generate competitive advantage is through continuous improvement of technological knowledge. This conclusion shows that knowledge heterogeneity is more strategically relevant to performance than knowledge immobility.

Differently from previous papers, instead of measuring how much a resource (or its accumulated stock) influences competitive advantage, this paper identifies and measures the attributes through which the resource matters to market outcomes. It is not the resource itself, but its strategic attributes which actually generate differential benefits to firms.

This paper aims to map how the debate concerning the relevance of management research historically evolved to (a) determine if B-schools and management researchers have been uninterested bystanders, as critics posit, or if they have had a relevant role, and (b) discover if a pathway for management research becoming socially relevant has been established by such debate.

This study performed a citation network analysis of the scientific literature concerning the relevance of management research. The network had a total of 1,186 research papers published between 1876 and 2018.

The results show that from a minimal to peripheral role at the beginning and middle stages, management researchers have rather taken over this debate since the 1990s; the key components of the citation network reveal a strong convergence on what needs to be done, but no convergence on how to do it; and the debate has failed to generate actual change.

This study maps the debate concerning the relevance of management research since its historical inception using a method underused in management history research. It reveals the main path of the debate and the journals that echoed such debate.

Taking company succession as an alternative means of embarking on an entrepreneurial activity, the aim of this study is to explore those intangible assets that are regarded as attractive from the viewpoints of external successors. Thereby, the focal point is on the preparation stage in which promising companies are identified and scrutinised.

The strategy of research behind this paper is the application of a mixed methods approach that is divided into an internet‐mediated questionnaire and a series of in depth interviews (given priority).

The findings suggest that intangible assets have a notable influence on the intention of an external successor to take over a company. This would suggest that the traditional issues considered with regard to company succession, such as tax, legal and financial aspects, should be extended to include intangible aspects. The findings are summarized by proposing a framework for the role of intangibles in external succession, thereby highlighting critical intangibles as perceived by external successors.

This explorative study is by no means exhaustive; however it is regarded as a valuable fundament for further research activities associated with the role of intangible assets in terms of company succession, particularly external succession.

The framework appears to be a valuable tool for understanding the importance of intangibles in external company succession in general and particularly their influence on external successors' business acquisition intentions. The findings are particularly considered as helpful for incumbent‐owners who plan to sell off their companies.

The study's findings can be viewed as a new perspective on company succession as it highlights the intangible assets that make a company attractive to external successors. Given the increasing number of small to medium‐sized enterprises waiting to be transferred to new owners, these findings are highly important as they provide a more holistic view of the dynamics of company succession (and external succession in particular).

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework on knowledge loss in a manufacturing sector based on three aspects: likelihood of knowledge loss, critical areas of knowledge loss and relevance of each of these knowledge areas in terms of utilization and alignment with organizational goals and strategy. Such a conceptual framework can be helpful to the practicing managers in understanding the types of knowledge that is lost of a given departing employee and thus deciding on a measure to retain the critical employees or capture their knowledge before they leave.

Using a case study approach, data has been collected from a multinational battery manufacturing company based in Hong Kong. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted and analyzed through CAQDAS ATLAS.ti to generate the themes which were then used to develop the conceptual framework.

The findings revealed that the likelihood factors of knowledge loss in the manufacturing sector include layoffs, retirement, immigration and job change. The critical areas of knowledge loss comprise the knowledge of relationships and networks, especially with the customers and suppliers, the technical knowledge (battery and process technology) and knowledge of management, among others. The relevance of each of these knowledge areas needs to be determined through proper analysis whether these knowledge areas are needed in future projects, up to date and aligned with organizational goals and strategy along with other factors.

Using the developed conceptual framework, managers and executives can identify critical employees in the manufacturing sector and accordingly take some appropriate measures to retain their knowledge. Caution should be taken while applying the findings of this study in other industries and context.

This paper is an attempt to reduce the dearth of empirical studies by exploring knowledge retention in the manufacturing sector, especially in the development of proper conceptual frameworks to assess the potential knowledge loss of employees.

This paper attempts to explore the relativity of unique Chinese culture in the process of knowledge search, knowledge transfer and knowledge integration and put forward policy suggestions for practitioners.

A conceptual framework is proposed in order to analyze the influence of different dimensions of culture on knowledge flow. Foundational support for this framework is drawn from existing researches. Policy suggestions are presented based on the framework.

Ten propositions are demonstrated concerning how to facilitate knowledge flow efficiently with the mediation of cultural variations.

This paper concerns culture at national level only. Culture that varies at a lesser level, such as organizational or occupational culture, also has an influence on knowledge management.

Although cultural relevance in knowledge management is recognized, there is a lack of research with specific reference to the Chinese cultural context. This paper contributes in conceptualizing the analyzing framework and providing further insight into the complexity of cultural relevance in knowledge management in China.

The study aims to explore the relevance of knowledge management (KM) education within library and information science (LIS) educational courses in India.

The study used a quantitative research approach. A Web-based questionnaire survey was designed and distributed through FreeOnlineSurveys.com for the collection of data. A link for attending the survey was sent via electronic mail to the teachers (95 in numbers) of 65 LIS schools. A total of 43 responses (approximately 45 per cent) were received.

The findings show that there is a strong interest among LIS community towards the inclusion of KM education within LIS educational courses to impart the knowledge and skills related to KM among LIS students, and to facilitate their entry into the KM job market. Most of the respondents believe that a curriculum which embodies core elements of LIS, management and information systems and technology would best meet the needs of LIS students for their involvement in KM activities.

Findings of the present study may be used as the groundwork for the revision of current LIS educational courses as well as the revision of LIS curricula to impart the knowledge and skills-related to KM among LIS students for working in KM environment.

As no empirical study on the relevance of KM education to LIS professionals in India has been carried out before, this study closes this gap and provides a framework to modify existing LIS courses or curricula to fulfil the requirement of KM competencies of LIS students.