Bridge Between B-Schools and Business

Business facing an operating challenge turns to consultants, pays them a fee, shares data and expects solutions. In turn, consultants, who are neither trained in rigorous research nor do they adopt very rigorous methods of research, deliver workable solutions, as expected and accepted by business.

Contrast this with the fact that academics, though anticipated to be through in methodologies, are neither expected nor accepted to be delivering solutions. But why does that happen?

Research in B-Schools

There is something uncanny about the perception and credibility of research conducted in b-schools. Academics from the science stream often consider the research methods used in b-schools as weak.  Researchers in liberal arts believe that research at b-schools is too applied and not theoretical enough for the b-school academics to be considered as real scholars. It is somewhat ironic that, at the same time, b-school research is being criticised by people in business for being too academic and not relevant enough. Some of the b-school researchers also side with a few of such perceptions.

Science and business do not operate the same way. Scientific knowledge and research is owned by the society, except in case of 'contract-research' and 'proprietary-technology', both of which have commercial or business motives. Business operates within the society but has different owners and stakeholders with interests that may or may not be prime facie for social or non-commercial gains.

Science and scientists operate under a 'open-source' model where information is shared openly and ideas are discussed  freely, where it is accepted that not all  ideas are equal and therefore have shifting validity, and where issues and answers are  often complex. The 'open-source' model of research in science has several shortcomings from a purely business perspective, such as the absence of easily measurable outcomes (other than the publication of even more papers!), the absence of clear connections to a given "customer," the fact that this model challenges some basic ideas concerning individual gain, and the fact that the scholars who participate in this model are often poorly equipped to explain it to others—managers or even students in some cases!  But science can only progress through its reliance on the 'open-source' model.

Therefore, it is critical that we retain this model.

Business, on the other hand, operates under a model where secrecy is valued, where there is an emphasis on results and utility, and where the owners, stakeholders, leaders and managers need answers—not ambiguity. Research motivations of academics and business or industry are traditionally at odds with each other—academics research as a contribution to a public body of knowledge vs. corporate profit-driven applied research.

Business and B-Schools Void

The idea of a "gap" between research done in academia and its translation into marketable and usable solutions certainly is not new. Academics would like to deliver universal principles, technologies and solutions as an outcome of research. Such deliveries are not ready-to-use when a business is dealing with some specific problem. For business to be able to benefit from the universal solutions there is still a need for someone who would adapt and customize the general solution for application in specific instances. Such customization and adaptation would be done in do-it-yourself mode by the business managers or would be provided by the business consultants. Consequently, managers and consultants are treated as more practice oriented or simply more practical people.

The intermediation by 'practical' persons in the theory -to- solution chain could face the risk of –  "mediocre technology in the hands of a superb team can soar, whereas superior technology in the hands of a mediocre team will go nowhere." Yet without this team, superb or mediocre, no knowledge can be translated into solutions.

Business researchers live in b- schools, and they quite like to think of themselves as operating on a "business" model and being able to "talk to" real-world managers. But they are not managers; they are scholars, scientists, and educators, and they operate with a different model. These differences may ensure that there will always be some disconnect between the outcomes of their research and what practicing managers need, but they can certainly do a better job at their end to help narrow this gap.

While business-schools cannot and should not ignore pure research, which feeds the future of knowledge and applied research, they need to appreciate that the longer time cycles from conception to delivery in case of pure research and the absence of immediacy of its use to the problems of business fuels the scepticism of business about practical usefulness of such academic efforts.

It cannot be a one-way bridge

The academic-business partnership introduces students to professionals working in their subject in the real world who they would not otherwise have encountered. These interactions help instil a work ethic in students and inspire them towards success.

Business links are crucial for students when they are looking for internship opportunities and employment positions. With unreal focus on placements as the predominant indicator of the quality of a b-school, particularly in India, b-schools nearly chase business organizations for work opportunities.

Truth about the quality of the b-school is the first casualty when students and b-schools make sales pitch to the potential recruiting businesses. The second casualty is truth about actual recruiting that happened when the b-schools flaunt the placement data that is all padded up. Most b-schools want to ride this paper tiger of placements and once they begin ridding it, there is no way for them to get off because this tiger can annihilate the b-school.

Unfortunately, it might seem that the business to b-school relationship is rather one sided in favour of the b-school and students.

This is not really the case. The business partner also benefits from access to b-schools. They get to work with students throughout their course. This means that they get to identify the greatest minds and the students who will benefit their workforce. They get first pick of the best graduates. Through a shared project, many students also produce useful work for the business partner at the same time as completing the requirements of their academic award.

A successful academic-business partnership can extend beyond work with students. Business does realise the potential for academic expertise centres to fill the need for applied research but the engagement is quite often limited to philanthropic contributions or sharing of Business data via personal networks of the academics. Academics in B-school are active in academic research and generating new knowledge. Business partners can call upon them and ask for additional help, particularly in areas where they lack academic expertise or staff capacity. Such collaboration can be fruitful for both parties and lead to the development of new ideas and products. Business will partner with institutional network that exhibits capability and undertake responsibility for delivery of usable solutions

Research as a Bridge between Academia and Business

Business knows about solutions to old problems from past learning and experience. Solution to current problems of business requires a unique framework of experimentation and exploitation.

Industry and business will more easily partner and participate in research where they expect solutions to their problems as outcomes rather than some esoteric research which is good for public and society in general. Rightly so, if business is about action, business research has to be action oriented, notwithstanding the truth that academic research in the domain of business has to be much broader and deeper, replicable and universal.

B-schools don't usually work with real world managers to develop a research agenda. Perhaps b-schools should be encouraging young PhD scholars to develop coherent research programs, rather than rewarding them for publishing the "2-3 required A-level articles" necessary for their degrees and tenured jobs.  

Academic research needs to transform itself into research that goes beyond the limits of classical approaches to the study the management and regulation of innovation. It has to be grounded to an integrated systems approach to economic, environmental and social performance, spanning producers, consumers and other social interests. Business research has to pursue the development of new business models and technologies that create and capture tangible value for firms and society.  It has to connect business and social innovation and place partnership and collaboration at the heart of its design.

B-schools can do a better job of training their students to translate their research findings into useful knowledge.  Globally some b- schools are quite good at this, and some of their academics are very good at demonstrating the practical relevance of their research findings, but most business schools are content to train students to be pure scholars without concern over showing the relevance of their work.

In fact, consultants and management "thought leaders" have to get their ideas from somewhere, and many of them get their ideas from research journals, or from books where authors take ideas from research journals and explain their applied value. In either case there are individuals involved who are simply more talented at reading research papers, which at times are arcane, esoteric and unfathomable papers and extracting the kernel of useful information from them.

Managers who read research journals often complain that academics spend too much time on details of measurement and analyses, but this is what they need to do in order to establish to their readers that they should have confidence in the research findings. Reporting of research has to be acceptable to both, the users and the other researchers. A simple way forward is just the restructuring of the scholarly writing. It might serve the interest of the readers to explain things in the simplest terms possible. The methodological rigour, measurements and academic jargon that are usually coined by the academic fraternity could shift to the annexure and appendices for more critical examination and evaluation by other academics.

Preparations inside the B-school

Without any cutting back on pure research, just a little refocus in the doctoral level research programmes would be enough to make a real beginning.

As a first step, redesigning the course work so as to offer a scientific training that crosses conventional boundaries and silos within academic institutions and which exposes young scholars to the reality of Sustainability Driven Innovation in practice in the real business world could be initiated. Few business schools today offer this kind of interdisciplinary learning experience and environment to their PhD candidates.

More heroic decisions on the part of appointments and promotion committees are however required. The simple truth is that so far these committees reward faculty for publishing one-shot studies with little external validity. Not every paper that has been published makes an equal contribution to the field. Unpublished papers, regardless of their brilliance, can also make much of a contribution. Appointments and promotion committees would have to be persuaded to judge and reward faculty on the basis of programmatic research and real contributions.

While academic research has to be monetised, there are risks in pure monetisation of research. Over concern for monetisation is the primary reason the biotech business never really fulfilled its potential. So while b-schools should not become too enamoured with measurable outcomes in their research endeavours, they must do a better job of connecting their research to the world around.

The faculty and research scholars in a B-school may not have the critical size and diversity of research team to deliver such solutions. It may therefore, be advisable to form networks with other B-schools, locally and globally.

Building the Bridge

Let each network B-school partner with one leading company, business platform or an NGO. Let the partner define the central research questions and then supervise and/or host a PhD researcher for 6-12 months of applied investigation and learning in the field. Make researchers, supervisors and stakeholders meet often, in different milieus, to pool insights and to work on skills development. These intensive learning experiences of meeting together would develop new empirical evidence to advance the innovative solutions to emerging problems of Business and would integrate "real world" concerns of stakeholder into research design and execution.

Task each doctoral student with developing a piece of a much larger scientific "puzzle" with a focus on innovations in business models and processes and management frameworks. This includes a deeper understanding of  the range of organisational capabilities that innovative solutions require, new inter-organisational structures that support effective solutions, how firms engage with other key stakeholders through multi-actor platforms, networks and ecosystems  or through "blended or hybrid innovation" combining social, environmental and business perspectives.

Aggregation of such applied research may eventually also satisfy some of the academic hunger of pure researchers in terms of providing empirical evidence in support or rejection of their theories and may actually initiate a spiral of advancement in knowledge through a symbiotic and synergistic relationship between pure and applied research at one level and between business and b-school at the other.

Emerging Opportunities for Research Linked B2B-School Partnership

At this time, there is an unprecedented level of intergovernmental consensus to tackle global sustainability challenges. The climate accords, UN Sustainable Development Goals and EU Circular Economy Strategy provide clear frameworks and targets for companies, governments and other stakeholders to pursue.

Emerging opportunities will be seized by organisations embracing business model transformation, new collaborative capabilities and strategic repositioning within existing markets. B-schools are failing to keep pace with these macro shifts and emerging opportunity landscapes. There are opportunities for the new partnership to bid for external funding, securing jobs and generating future income both for business and b-schools.

One of the worst forms of class-divide—the separation of those who generate new knowledge from those who apply and disseminate that knowledge – is what this bridge can bridge. Fully integrating some members of the practice community with the academic community and vies-a-versa integrating some members of the academic community with the practice community will only enrich both the banks that this bridge would connect.

Treading over the Bridge

It will be a big leap for many b-schools and businesses to work closely together. An academic-business partnership requires a lot of trust, as well as willingness for both sides to invest the time and energy needed to make things work. Business has to get used to the quality assurance processes in use at academic institutions and their need to follow sector standards. Academic institutions have to be empowered to change their course content and teaching style.

Most importantly, students gain from such new ideas and innovation. They get to emerge from b-schools with skills and experience that would otherwise be beyond them. Hence, it is important for academia and business to reach out to one another and explore how fruitful an academic-business partnership can be.

A word of caution for the academia - Refocus research to tackling complex societal problems and avoid applying a fresh coat of self-referential paint to the "ivory tower" or you will lose both, your credibility and your independence.

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