Between Sweet Harmony and a Clash of Cultures: Does a Joint Academic–Practitioner Review Reconcile Rigor and Relevance?

A substantial body of literature discusses the so-called rigor—relevance gap in management science and possible ways of overcoming it. A frequently advocated approach, in line with Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny, Schwartz, and Trow’s “Mode 2” idea of creating “hybrid fora,” is the introduction of joint a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 2011-03, Vol.47 (1), p.53-75
Main Authors: Nicolai, Alexander T., Schulz, Ann-Christine, Göbel, Markus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic staff
Case studies
Management
Worldview
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Summary:A substantial body of literature discusses the so-called rigor—relevance gap in management science and possible ways of overcoming it. A frequently advocated approach, in line with Gibbons, Limoges, Nowotny, Schwartz, and Trow’s “Mode 2” idea of creating “hybrid fora,” is the introduction of joint academic—practitioner review processes in management journals. In an empirical case study of one of the oldest management journals in the world, the authors show that the demands of academic and practitioner reviewers are hardly compatible, and, to some extent, inversely correlated. In contrast to other studies, here the authors show that the reason for the tension between academics and practitioners with regard to this issue does not lie in differences in the evaluation criteria of each group. Rather, the different worldviews of academics and practitioners lead to different interpretations of these criteria and a striking incongruence between the two groups’ ideas of practical relevance.
ISSN:0021-8863
1552-6879
DOI:10.1177/0021886310390866