Examining the Transfer of Academic Knowledge to Business Practitioners: Doctoral Program Graduates as Intermediaries

This study explores whether practitioners who hold a Ph.D. in business act as intermediaries in the transfer of academic knowledge from academia to practice. Twenty Ph.D. graduates were interviewed, and the data were subjected to deductive content analysis. It was concluded that the previous claims that academic research does not influence decision-making of industry practitioners are not fully warranted. Graduates of doctoral business programs act as knowledge-transfer intermediaries that aggregate, summarize, communicate, and implement findings reported in academic publications. Academic journals have the potential to disseminate scholarly knowledge beyond the academic world. Demand for evidence-based knowledge in the practitioner's environment determines his or her probability of applying academic knowledge. Not all academic knowledge is perceived as useful by practitioners, and limited access to academic literature is a major impediment to the application of scholarly findings in practice. The practitioners' connection with academia after graduation is also linked to their probability of using academic literature.

[1]  William J. Ritchie,et al.  An Exploratory Examination of the Knowledge Transfer of Strategic Management Concepts from the Academic Environment to Practicing Managers , 2001 .

[2]  D. Marlowe,et al.  A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. , 1960, Journal of consulting psychology.

[3]  Nick Bontis,et al.  Books as a Knowledge Translation Mechanism: citation Analysis and Author Survey , 2012, J. Knowl. Manag..

[4]  M. Hitt.  Twenty-First-Century Organizations: Business Firms, Business Schools, and the Academy , 1998 .

[5]  P. Rajan Varadarajan,et al.  Musings on relevance and rigor of scholarly research in marketing , 2003 .

[6]  Gabriel Szulanski.  Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 1996 .

[7]  Robert Parent,et al.  A systems-based dynamic knowledge transfer capacity model , 2007, J. Knowl. Manag..

[8]  Ken Starkey,et al.  Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research , 2001 .

[9]  Morgan Meyer.  The Rise of the Knowledge Broker , 2010 .

[10]  W. Bennis,et al.  How business schools lost their way. , 2005, Harvard business review.

[11]  Shahid Yusuf.  Intermediating knowledge exchange between universities and businesses , 2008 .

[12]  Denise M. Rousseau,et al.  Educating Managers From an Evidence-Based Perspective , 2007 .

[13]  Joseph W. Rottman.  Successful knowledge transfer within offshore supplier networks: a case study exploring social capital in strategic alliances , 2008, J. Inf. Technol..

[14]  M. Beyerlein,et al.  Knowledge transfer and management consulting: A look at “The firm” , 2000 .

[15]  Ian Dey,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: A User Friendly Guide for Social Scientists , 1993 .

[16]  Emily B. Peterson,et al.  A practitioner's guide to interpersonal communication theory: an overview and exploration of selected theories. , 2012, Patient education and counseling.

[17]  Aries Susanty,et al.  Preliminary Study of Key Success Factors for Effective Knowledge Transfer in SMEs Batik (Case Study SMEs Batik in Solo) , 2011 .

[18]  C. Alvarez.  Making the case for hiring a consultant. , 1998, Clinical nurse specialist CNS.

[19]  Marko Dragojevic,et al.  Communication Accommodation Theory , 2015 .

[20]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Empirical Research in Information Systems: The Practice of Relevance , 1999, MIS Q..

[21]  W. G. Tymon,et al.  Necessary Properties of Relevant Research: Lessons from Recent Criticisms of the Organizational Sciences , 1982 .

[22]  Maryann P. Feldman,et al.  The University and Economic Development: The Case of Johns Hopkins University and Baltimore , 1994 .

[23]  H. Scarbrough.  The Role of Intermediary Groups in Shaping Management Fashion: The Case of Knowledge Management , 2014 .

[24]  F L Cole,et al.  Content Analysis: Process and Application , 1988, Clinical nurse specialist CNS.

[25]  J. Dillard.  Goals-Plans-Action Theory of Message Production: Making Influence Messages , 2008 .

[26]  S. B. Bierer,et al.  Integrating Clinical Medicine Into Biomedical Graduate Education to Promote Translational Research: Strategies From Two New PhD Programs , 2013, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[27]  Rakesh Khurana,et al.  Introduction to From Higher Aims to Hired Hands The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession , 2010 .

[28]  T. Garry,et al.  An overview of content analysis , 2003 .

[29]  J. Spender,et al.  Speaking about management education , 2005 .

[30]  Nitin Nohria,et al.  Where does Management Knowledge come from , 1998 .

[31]  Roy Suddaby,et al.  Colonizing Knowledge: Commodification as a Dynamic of Jurisdictional Expansion in Professional Service Firms , 2001 .

[32]  R. Merton,et al.  On social structure and science , 1996 .

[33]  Howard Giles,et al.  Communication Accommodation Theory: “When in Rome …” or Not! , 2008 .

[34]  J. Aken.  Management Research as a Design Science: Articulating the Research Products of Mode 2 Knowledge Production in Management , 2005 .

[35]  Nick Bontis,et al.  The relevance of knowledge management and intellectual capital Research , 2008 .

[36]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  In Search of Relevance: Perspectives on the Contribution of Academic—Practitioner Networks , 2010 .

[37]  Lorne Olfman,et al.  Assessing knowledge management success/effectiveness models , 2004, 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Proceedings of the.

[38]  François-Xavier de Vaujany,et al.  An historically grounded critical analysis of research articles in IS , 2011, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[39]  Christina T. Fong,et al.  The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye , 2002 .

[40]  Katarina Vahl Bendixen.  Copenhagen Business School , 2004 .

[41]  R. Daft,et al.  Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics , 2001 .

[42]  H. Tajfel,et al.  An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. , 1979 .

[43]  Ronald Rousseau,et al.  The scientific wealth of European nations: Taking effectiveness into account , 1998, Scientometrics.

[44]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Knowledge for Theory and Practice , 2006 .

[45]  Leslie A. Baxter,et al.  Engaging theories in interpersonal communication : multiple perspectives , 2008 .

[46]  A. Meyer,et al.  The future of doctoral education in business administration , 2013 .

[47]  Paul Saenger,et al.  Colard Mansion and the Evolution of the Printed Book , 1975, The Library Quarterly.

[48]  Eric Abrahamson.  Managerial Fads and Fashions: The Diffusion and Rejection of Innovations , 1991 .

[49]  Alexander Serenko,et al.  Citation classics published in knowledge management journals. Part I: articles and their characteristics , 2015, J. Knowl. Manag..

[50]  Nigel Almond,et al.  The transportability and dissemination of knowledge ‐ A surveyor’s perspective , 2001 .

[51]  Nick Bontis,et al.  Evidence‐Based Management and Academic Research Relevance , 2012 .

[52]  Niels G. Röling,et al.  The emergence of knowledge systems thinking: A changing perception of relationships among innovation, knowledge process and configuration , 1992 .

[53]  S. Hannabuss.  A wider view of knowledge , 2001 .

[54]  Cecile M. Jagodzinski.  The University Press in North America: A Brief History , 2008 .

[55]  J. Michael Pearson,et al.  The Relevancy of Information Systems Research: The Practitioner's View , 2005, Inf. Resour. Manag. J..

[56]  David A. Wolfe,et al.  Universities and regional economic development: The entrepreneurial University of Waterloo , 2008 .

[57]  David Knights,et al.  Myopic rhetorics:reflecting epistemologically and ethically on the demand for relevance in organizational and management research , 2008 .

[58]  N. Burns,et al.  The Practice of Nursing Research: Conduct, Critique, & Utilization , 1987 .

[59]  Alexander Serenko,et al.  Meta-analysis of scientometric research of knowledge management: discovering the identity of the discipline , 2013, J. Knowl. Manag..

[60]  Lorne Olfman,et al.  A Model of Knowledge Management Success , 2006, Int. J. Knowl. Manag..

[61]  A. Geuna,et al.  Factors affecting university-industry R&D projects: The importance of searching, screening and signalling , 2006 .

[62]  Jessica Schluter,et al.  Critical incident technique: a user's guide for nurse researchers. , 2008, Journal of advanced nursing.

[63]  Roger J. Calantone,et al.  Tacit knowledge transfer and firm innovation capability , 2003 .

[64]  D. King.  The scientific impact of nations , 2004, Nature.

[65]  M. Mcluhan.  The Gutenberg galaxy : the making of typographic man , 1963 .

[66]  Koen Frenken,et al.  The Evolution of Inventor Networks in the silicon Valley and Boston Regions , 2007, Adv. Complex Syst..

[67]  C. O'Reilly,et al.  Becoming a Leader: Early Career Challenges Faced by MBA Graduates , 2011 .

[68]  Nick Bontis,et al.  Practical Relevance of Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Scholarly Research: Books as Knowledge Translation Agents , 2011, AMCIS.

[69]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[70]  Itesh Sachdev,et al.  Status differenttals and intergroup behaviour , 1987 .

[71]  Merle Jacob,et al.  Managing the Institutionalisation of Mode 2 Knowledge Production , 2001 .

[72]  Karl E. Weick,et al.  Gapping the Relevance Bridge: Fashions Meet Fundamentals in Management Research , 2001 .

[73]  Murray E. Jennex,et al.  Research Relevance-You Get What You Reward , 2001, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[74]  A. Link,et al.  Toward a model of the effective transfer of scientific knowledge from academicians to practitioners: qualitative evidence from the commercialization of university technologies. , 2004 .

[75]  Anders Hanberger,et al.  Strategies to Evaluate a University-Industry Knowledge-exchange Programme , 2004 .

[76]  A. House,et al.  Knowledge Brokering: The missing link in the evidence to action chain? , 2009, Evidence & policy : a journal of research, debate and practice.

[77]  Steven J. Taylor.  Introduction to qualitative research methods , 1975 .

[78]  G. Hodgkinson,et al.  Not Simply Returning to the Same Answer Over and Over Again: Reframing Relevance , 2011 .

[79]  Edmund J. Zolnik.  The role of postdoctoral fellows in technology transfer: evidence from the National Capital Region of the USA , 2010 .

[80]  R. Fisher.  Social Desirability Bias and the Validity of Indirect Questioning , 1993 .

[81]  David A. Erlandson.  Doing Naturalistic Inquiry: A Guide to Methods , 1993 .

[82]  P. Berger,et al.  The Social Construction of Reality , 1966 .

[83]  Helvi Kyngäs,et al.  The qualitative content analysis process. , 2008, Journal of advanced nursing.

[84]  C. H. Roberts,et al.  The birth of the codex , 1984 .

[85]  H. Estelami,et al.  The State of Scholarly Journal Publishing: 1981-2000 , 2006 .

[86]  Qiuping Li,et al.  Knowledge communication and translation - a knowledge transfer model , 2009, J. Knowl. Manag..

[87]  Michael Huberman,et al.  Knowledge dissemination and use in science and mathematics education: A literature review , 1994 .