This HEPI blog is the second in a series by Adam Lindgreen, Professor of Marketing at the
Copenhagen Business School and Extraordinary Professor with the Gordon
Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, Professor of Marketing at Temple University, Pennsylvania, and Constant Pieters, Professor of Management at the Copenhagen Business School.
A business school’s success is built on its reputation as a high-quality research institution. To achieve this reputation, the school needs to establish a strong research culture. Though challenging, it is possible for a business school to foster and strengthen its research culture and achieve its long-term research objectives.
Business school leaders can learn from psychologist Kurt Lewin, who proposed a three-step model of organisational change back in the 1950s, to develop a game plan to establish a research culture. In Lewin’s original model, an organization can effect change by (1) unfreezing current organizational behaviours by recognizing the need and importance of changing, (2) adopting the desired behaviour, and (2) freezing or reinforcing the new behaviour with rewards and recognitions for successful adoption. Here, we propose a version of this model to support a strong research culture within a business school.
The first step is to recognize the importance of a research culture. For most schools, this is defined as one where the faculty consistently provides a healthy stream of publications in prestigious publications (such as those recognized by the Academic Journal Guide [AJG]). With this in mind, the business school must ”unfreeze” current practices that are not conducive to strong research output, and replace them with initiatives more strongly linked with research productivity. These initiatives include:
Hiring and retaining high-research-potential faculty. Metrics for assessment include publication in nationally- or internationally-ranked journals, citation numbers, scholarly output, or other common indices such as the h-index. The research productivity of peer and/or aspirant schools can be set as targets. Other criteria can be used, including contributions to theory, practice, or society, level of research accountability, or research ethicality.
Providing a sufficient research budget. The business school or department can consider allocating a modest annual research budget for tenure-track assistant professors, who are developing their networks and honing their expertise. This budget can attract recent graduates considering tenure-track job offers. For tenured, experienced professors, the research budget could be tied to publication in highly-rated journals.
Developing personal research and funding plans. Annual faculty reviews should include realistic research plans including recent publication records, funding applications, doctoral student supervision, research visibility, evidence of national or international recognition, and contribution to society. The review may contain a research-funding strategy; early-career faculty writing a big grant application may work with a senior colleague who can support their research project (even financially).
Other activities. The business school leader can create mentor plans for junior faculty; organize seminars on research and research funding; and organize other activities such as brown-bag seminars or writing clubs.
The second step toward a strong research culture is the development of a strong foundation of academic citizenship, which includes several components:
Ambassadorship. Faculty can serve as ambassadors to the larger community by showing the applicability and relevance of their research findings. Best practice studies can show the benefits of business research and the implications for practicing managers. Faculty accomplishments can be highlighted in local or regional media, or published on LinkedIn and other social media.
Collegiality. Outward-facing collegial activities include serving as manuscript reviewers, editing journals and books, or serving as board members of academic organizations. Inward-facing activities include serving on tenure or merit committees, organizing a seminar series, or serving as an ad-hoc mentor or ”friendly” reviewer for a junior colleague. Also, participation in the upkeep of the doctoral program is a critical activity for the business school to maintain its research reputation.
Engagement. Academics can show engagement with students, colleagues, and society at large in several ways: by being physically present on campus and available to doctoral students and other faculty; by taking part in active dialogue with colleagues; and by being open to the perspectives of all parties. Business schools often expect doctoral students to live relatively close to campus and to take a full load of courses and may be assigned a mentor to shepherd them throughout the program, ensuring that they too are engaged with their colleagues and fellow students.
Other activities. Show a commitment to maintaining academic integrity, including how plagiarism and other academic ethical issues are handled; promote scholarship to the highest level to support the credibility of research findings.
In the third step, the new and improved research culture is ”frozen” in place. To accomplish this, a reward system should be put in place to motivate participating faculty members. Rewards can include awards, celebrations, promotions, or other kinds of recognition.
Celebrating successful outcomes. Visible research success, such as publication in a top journal or obtaining a prestigious grant, can be recognized and celebrated in numerous ways in line with the business school’s hiring and remuneration policies: tenure, promotion, merit pay and/or research budget increases, or a mention in the business school’s online newsletter or in a university press release.
Celebrating the research culture. The research culture itself can be celebrated: awards to top researchers, best research by junior faculty and doctoral students, journal publishing productivity, academic citizenship, and so on. A retiring scholar can be honoured with a reception in recognition of a lifetime of research leadership.
Adding institutions that further support the research culture. Appoint an advisory board on research strategy; appoint a research-funding coordinator; support and recognize applicants to granting institutions.
In sum, business schools can use the three-step model for organisational change to build and sustain a strong research culture. We offer the following overall policy recommendations:
To unfreeze current behaviour: Focus on hiring high-research-potential faculty, offering competitive research budgets and providing assistance in research plan development. Offer mentoring opportunities and research seminars to help faculty prepare and hone their research, and organise other informal activities.
To achieve the newer, higher research culture level: Take action that builds academic citizenship. This includes supporting ambassadorship, fostering collegiality and internal/external engagement; encouraging academic integrity and scholarship.
To freeze behaviour and maintain the higher research culture level: Celebrate research successes in ways which are meaningful for the faculty; celebrate the research culture itself; appoint a research strategy advisory board; appoint a coordinator for research funding activities; and recognize funding applicants.