How to enhance scholarly impact: recommendations for university administrators, researchers and educators

What is it about?

Universities were founded for the purpose of creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge. If they fulfill these lofty aspirations, universities have a significant effect. At present, having impact is not just an aspirational statement—it is something that is demanded by societies around the world. First, we present a conceptual model to clarify different dimensions of scholarly impact (i.e., theory and research, education, organizations, and society) and four key stakeholders (i.e., other researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers). Second, we offer practical and actionable recommendations on how to enhance scholarly impact. For university administrators, we recommend (1) aligning scholarly impact goals with actions and resource-allocation decisions, (2) ensuring that performance management and reward systems are consistent with impact goals, (3) being strategic in selecting a journal list, (4) developing a strong doctoral program, and (5) promoting practical knowledge and applications. For researchers and educators, we recommend (1) developing a personal scholarly impact plan, (2) becoming an academic decathlete, (3) finding ways to affect multiple impact dimensions simultaneously, and (4) leveraging social media to broaden impact on external stakeholders. Implementing these recommendations will benefit other researchers, students, practitioners (e.g., managers, consultants), and policy makers. We hope our model and recommendations will result in more rewarding and extrinsically and intrinsically satisfying scholarship—scholarship that matters to both internal and external stakeholders.

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