Forging a path forward: How to get more value from management research

Thousands of scholars and millions of dollars are devoted to the study of management. In the last decade, the number of active members of the Academy of Management has increased by more than 50 percent, to 17,607 members. The number of management journals continues to grow as well. These rates of growth suggest that many academics are seeing benefit from management research, but not every study produces as much benefit as it might, and in aggregate, management research has not advanced managerial knowledge as much as many desire. Can we do better? This symposium offers five perspectives on how researchers and their societies can get more value from these significant investments of careers and money. The speakers draw on their extensive experiences – three have served as presidents of the Academy of Management and another is the president-elect – to find opportunities for higher yields of knowledge or societal benefits. In aggregate, they offer a set of actionable ideas that get us beyond bemoaning our current state and put us on a path toward better creation, accumulation, and dissemination of management knowledge.