Should academic research be relevant and useful to practitioners? The contrasting difference between three applied disciplines

Many within and outside of academia argue that research conducted in our universities should have impact on society, especially research from the applied fields. One discipline attracting disproportional criticism over the relevance of its research is business schools. While anecdotal evidence surro...

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Published inStudies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames) Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 129 - 144
Main Authors Fraser, Kym, Deng, Xin, Bruno, Frank, Rashid, Tarik A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
academic research
Accounting
Business Schools
comparative study
Criticism
Educational Finance
Educational Research
Engineering
Engineering Education
Information Sources
Medical Education
Medical personnel
Medicine
Periodicals
public funding
Relevance (Education)
Research funding
Research Utilization
Research-practice gap
Theory Practice Relationship
Universities
Usefulness
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Summary:Many within and outside of academia argue that research conducted in our universities should have impact on society, especially research from the applied fields. One discipline attracting disproportional criticism over the relevance of its research is business schools. While anecdotal evidence surrounding the practical usefulness of business schools research is growing, empirical support for the problem is limited. This study explores the issue from the perspective of accounting practitioners by examining their sources of information, including the use of articles from academic accounting research journals. The issue is further examined by comparing accountants with practitioners from two other applied disciplines, engineering and medicine. A survey of 560 practitioners was undertaken and the data analysed using both descriptive and regression methods. The study found that accounting practitioners' perception of academia and use of academic research is very low, and when compared with engineers and medical practitioners, the differences were found to be statistically significant. Due to a disconnect from the real-world of practice, academic business researchers and business schools become increasingly vulnerable to adverse research funding decisions in the future.
ISSN:0307-5079
1470-174X
DOI:10.1080/03075079.2018.1539958