CROSSROADS—Applied Science Deserves a Bigger Role in Business Research

The business world has much to gain from the direct application of research findings to daily business operations. Nevertheless, a large gap remains between the work of business academics and that of business practitioners. With an eye toward closing that gap in applied science, medical publishing has three important lessons for business journals and scholars. First, borrow selectively from medical publishing’s best practices—most notably, by emphasizing evidence over discursive prose; seeing application of research findings as intrinsic to the very purpose of research; elevating the prominence of expert opinions on how and why to implement research; and accelerating research-publication timelines while maintaining rigor. Second, make novel innovations in publishing, such as academic–practitioner coauthorship, recruitment of carefully vetted practitioners to be on industry advisory boards to journals, and journal sponsorship of conferences where academics and practitioners freely exchange ideas. Third, explicitly encourage business researchers to see their published work as actually intending to influence business practices and societal well-being. Just as medical publishing aims, at its core, to improve people’s lives, business research should seek to make a concrete difference in people’s lived experiences.