Fads and Fashions in Management Practices: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

Established management practices – such as Six Sigma or business process re‐engineering, as well as more recent practices such as agile management processes, HR analytics and beyond budgeting – are viewed by practitioners as the basic tools of their trade. Yet they have been known to wax and wane in popularity, often quite unpredictably, with one technique following the other in wave‐like fashion. The scholarly observation of this phenomenon has given rise to the literature on fads and fashions in management studies, which – building on earlier work in allied disciplines – has sought to explain the transience, persistence, and overall trajectory of management practices. In this paper, we review and integrate the existing literature on management fads and fashions, taking stock of the sizable body of work that has accumulated over the past three decades and which has, to our knowledge, never been reviewed comprehensively before. At the same time, we also note that technological change – with the advent of social media and the ubiquity of Internet connectivity, for example – has radically transformed how practitioners seek, consume, and engage with new practices, as well as the way in which such practices are broadcast and diffuse. In our review, therefore, we try to make this well‐established body of literature current by explicitly discussing how well its central tenets and theoretical arguments have stood the test of time, and propose useful directions for moving forward.     

Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research

This report examines the relevance gap in management research. Its focus is the nature of knowledge created by research at the interface between business and academia in the context of major changes likely to affect the nature of demand for such knowledge. Management research has been accused of a lack of relevance to managerial practice and of too narrow a discipline base. The report examines the conditions giving rise to this criticism, in the UK and elsewhere, and identifies an important strategic need to increase the stakeholding of users in various aspects of the research and knowledge creation and dissemination process. The report concludes with recommendations concerning new forms of research partnership and research training that will address the relevance gap. However, bridging this gap does not only require changes in the academic mind-set. Managers and firms too need to rethink their involvement in the research process.     

创建中国特色管理学的基本问题之管见

分析了当前中国管理学研究的主要流派,从应用和理论两个角度阐释目前研究的现状和问题,并指出未来发展的方向以及研究的方法.     

The Conventions of Management Research and their Relevance to Management Practice

This paper recognizes the failure of management research to communicate with practitioners, and speculates over the reasons why this may be the case. It is possible that the researchers’ interests may not always coincide with management practitioners’; however, even when such interests are congruent, it seems that relatively little management research is published in practitioner journals. We suggest that this is because academic research is written in a style that tends to alienate most practitioners. This paper isolates the stylistic conventions associated with research targeted to academics (typically published in academic journals) and research targeted to practitioners (typically published in practitioner‐oriented journals). Such stylistic differences are illustrated through a study of organizational change whose findings have been published in both academic and practitioner format, namely in the Administrative Science Quarterly and the Harvard Business Review. We suggest that the gap between these two types of research could be narrowed through processes of translation (i.e. academic jargon could be translated in practitioner language). In addition we might consider greater use of Mode 2 research over Mode 1 research (academic). Mode 2 research presupposes that teams of academics and practitioners assemble to define the research problem and methodology in terms appropriate to a particular context and in a way that accounts for all existing interests so that translation processes are seamless. However, Mode 2 creates its own gap in that the knowledge is more contextual and may not reach a wide audience.     

Information Systems Management Issues: Reporting and Relevance*

Reports of key information systems issues have been published over the last two decades in many journals. Leading IS journals (e.g., MIS Quarterly, Information & Management, among others) have published key IS management issue reports every three or four years over the last 15 years, and will probably continue to provide such reports in the future. Although these reports claim to provide decisional guidance to practitioners, researchers, consultants, etc., the authors in their experience have noted concerns about their usefulness. While not questioning the validity of the methods and analysis conducted in these studies, we address two important questions in this article: the manner of reporting of the key issue results (which might be misleading), and the relevance of the results (are they providing what they intended to?). We hope that our discussion will provide new perspectives in making resource allocation decisions to both readers and authors of key issue articles.     

Enhancing the Practical Relevance of Research

This article seeks to encourage scholars to conduct research that is more relevant to the decisions faced by managers and policymakers, and addresses why research relevance matters, what relevance means in terms of a journal article, and how scholars can increase the relevance of their research. I define relevant research papers as those whose research questions address problems found (or potentially found) in practice and whose hypotheses connect independent variables within the control of practitioners to outcomes they care about using logic they view as feasible. I provide several suggestions for how scholars can enhance research relevance, including engaging practitioners in on‐campus encounters, at managerial conferences, and at crossover workshops; conducting site visits and practitioner interviews; working as a practitioner; and developing a practitioner advisory team. I describe several ways that scholars can convey relevant research insights into practitioners, including presenting at practitioner conferences, writing for practitioners in traditional crossover journals and in shorter pieces like op‐eds and blogs, and attracting the interest of those who write columns, blogs, and articles about research for practitioners. I conclude by describing a few ways that academic institutions can encourage more relevant research, focusing on journals, professional societies, and doctoral programs.     

指示优先级的程式化管理科学研究方法——治理学术界与企业界脱节顽症的一种手段

为治理管理学领域学术界与企业界脱节的顽症,基于法理学和指示优先级程式方法,提出指示优先级的程式化管理科学研究方法:将研究复杂管理问题的过程分解成相互关联的4个活动方面和8个主要活动,构成管理科学研究中的"指示优先级轮",以保持各个活动方面和主要活动的均衡为原则,纠正研究过程中的不平衡现象.分析了该方法的理论含义,剖析这一方法为什么有助于促进理论与实践相结合,从而解决理论与实践脱节问题,并阐述指示优先级程式方法的实践应用.实践应用表明:该方法的应用,可避免管理科学研究中重理论轻实践或重实践轻理论2种偏向,使管理研究过程的管理科学理论与管理实践行为相结合.     

Integrating Behavioural and Economic Concepts of Risk into Strategic Management: the Twain Shall Meet

This paper develops an integrated framework of risk management and strategic competitive advantage that incorporates behavioural and economic notions of risk. The resulting model argues for the importance of risk-taking to sustainable competitive advantage and ultimately to firm performance. The model integrates framing effects of attainment discrepancy, transaction costs from implicit contracts theory and capital costs from finance theory. The proposed model suggests that continuous risk-taking by firms may help sustain competitive advantage and thus lower firm risk. This, in turn, effectively increases market returns to shareholders by ensuring earnings growth while simultaneously reducing the risk premium discount attached to a firm’s future income stream.     

管理理论的实践相关性问题研究综述

介绍了管理理论缺乏实践相关性问题产生的历史背景以及其主要证据,并从管理理论传播过程、管理理论生产过程、管理研究方法论和管理理论框架、管理学者的价值观和管理学院追求的目标4个方面,对问题的原因进行了综述和分析,最后提出了需要进一步研究的几个问题。     

作为研究者的管理者:链接理论与实践的重要桥梁

不仅理论本身的原因会导致理论与实践的脱节,管理者不愿意使用理论或者不正确使用理论也会造成理论与实践的脱节,因此对管理者实践逻辑本身的分析就非常必要。基于对管理者实践逻辑的分析,管理者不仅应作为研究对象进入研究过程,即对管理者的实践智慧进行研究、吸纳和提炼,而且应作为研究主体进入研究过程。弥合管理理论与实践的距离,不仅要基于实践的逻辑去构建理论,更要研究实践者如何才能成为一个高效的研究者。     

金融结构与中国产业升级的关联机制研究

金融结构如何更好地为经济增长和产业升级提供支持是中国金融业供给侧改革过程中的首要任务。本研究基于金融市场的资金资源配置功能,将金融市场供给体系按照"二分法"分为以银行体系为主的间接金融市场和以资本市场为主的直接金融市场;从银行、股票和债券3个维度设定指标,基于CHOW检验工具探讨金融结构和产业升级关联机制。实证结果显示,中国产业升级的时间转折点发生在2003年;高技术新兴产业升级与全社会固资产及研发投入相关性增强;资本市场等金融供给侧对中国产业升级尤其是新兴产业发展的作用还有待加强。     

Intuition in Management Research: A Historical Review

In this historical review we chart the progress of intuition research over the past eight decades. We highlight the distinction between intuition research in management and intuition research in base disciplines and related fields, and offer a critical commentary on the ways in which the dynamic between these two historical threads has affected progress in the study of intuition in organizations. We conclude by identifying several promising new directions for intuition research, and offer a number of recommendations to intuition researchers in management which may help in taking this topic forward in ways that do not recapitulate previous errors, diversions or digressions.     

基于实践导向的管理研究成果评价探析

基于管理学的技术科学属性,回顾了经典管理研究及其理论成果的特征,构建了管理研究成果在实践导向维度上的"问题挖掘-理论构建-效益贡献"QTB评价模型,并进一步探索设置了相应的评价指标体系。     

一种新的管理范式——基于研究证据的管理

在分析经验、理论的可错性基础上,指出了现行管理的问题;在吸收当代美国学者研究成果的基础上,通过移植溯因推理和双环学习概念,开发了一种将具体组织作为实验对象的新管理范式--基于研究证据的管理;认为基于研究证据的管理是企业做大、做强的基础,是管理者胜任力提高的有效途径.基于管理的本质特征和其所隐含的逻辑机制,论证了新管理范式的有效性;对实施基于研究证据的管理的难点做了较系统的分析,指出加强"元技能"的培养是推广该范式的有效途径.     

论管理学与意识形态——兼与李平商榷

"话语"是承载了一定的意识形态的"陈述",中国管理学界完全可以创建自己的学派,可是如果仍然采用主流的方法,虽然也可以称之为中国学派,但谈不上话语权问题。《试论中国管理研究的话语权问题》基于"话语能力"的所谓"策略"实际上是将"中国管理研究话语权策略"演变成"西方主流管理理论在中国进行扩散的策略"。当然,若将学术本土化演变成学术民族主义,将重点放在对西方主流的价值评判与道德批评上,同样无助于"管理的中国理论"话语权的取得——学术研究的话语权应在学术市场的竞争中取得——因此,其策略就只能是理解、宽容与构建学术竞争的公平市场。     

Intervention Research as Management Research in Practice: Learning from a Case in the Fashion Design Industry

Research in the field of management and organizational sciences has yielded a deeper understanding of many emerging business issues. However, the relevance of the contributions has been increasingly criticized, in both the academic and public spheres. We propose the intervention research approach – originally developed by the research group at Ecole des Mines de Paris – as a design science approach able to address both the relevance gap issue and the growing complexity of management practice. It is argued that increasing our understanding of management requires research that is more insightful, influential and immediately applicable. This in turn requires closer collaboration between management and researchers during the inquiry process, which is not always easy to achieve. An illustrative case study of an intervention research project focusing on creativity, conducted in Italy in collaboration with a fashion company, demonstrates how intervention research can be rigorous and relevant to practitioners, and how it can advance theoretical knowledge in management science.