Should academic research be relevant and useful to practitioners?

What is it about?

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.

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Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Why is it important?

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.