PREBEM Conference Evaluation 2006

9th PREBEM conference ‘Back to Business: Creating and Translating Scientific Knowledge,’ Amersfoort, 5 October 2006

Keynote Speech & Panel Discussion Report

The objective of PREBEM 2006 was twofold. On the one hand it was intended to give PhD researchers in the field of Business Economics, Management and Organization Studies the opportunity to present their work, in some cases for the first time, to an audience of peers and more experienced researchers. The conference thus featured two sessions with four parallel tracks each, which meant that sixteen PhD researchers were given the opportunity to present their papers ranging in topic from ‘marketing strategy’ and ‘academic entrepreneurship’ to ‘innovation & organization’. We also welcomed six poster presenters who managed to engage people in discussion and contributed to a very lively poster session.

The second goal of PREBEM 2006 involved the overarching theme of the day: that of the relevance gap between business science and business practice. Some of the papers were actually relevant to this theme, either through topic choice or through an indication of the research’s practical implications. Mostly, however, this theme was addressed in the morning session’s keynote speech and panel discussion, which was centered around a number of propositions about the complex relationships between business and science. Prof. dr. Arjan van Weele agreed to be discussion leader, and the consensus was that he did a great job.

We were honoured to welcome Prof. Dr. Geert Hofstede as our keynote speaker. In his speech he addressed the first proposition suggested by the discussion leader: “There is a gap between the knowledge developed by academic research and knowledge required by business.” His succinct answer was: “Yes, you bet there is!” Professor Hofstede proceeded to explain the existence of the relevance gap by pointing at: the different experiences of practicing managers and scientists; the different criteria for success between the two worlds; different personalities of academics and practitioners; the ‘disciplinary parochialism’ existing in science unsuited to practical questions that require multidisciplinary approaches; academic arrogance; but also practitioner inertia, which may cause practitioners to ignore academic solutions if these solutions require practitioners to think outside the box.

Hofstede also addressed the second proposition: “The gap arose because academic researchers don’t know how to communicate their research findings to practice (Research schools should oblige them to take courses on this topic).” He responded by saying that there are, as he indicated earlier, various reasons for the existence of the gap - it is not just a communication problem. Unless researchers actually start perceiving the relevance gap as a problem, no course can help her/him.

After the keynote, Arjan van Weele introduced the other panel discussants: Prof. dr. Ed Vosselman (NOBEM President, Radboud University Nijmegen); Prof. dr. Peter Vervest (Executive Director of the Smart Business Network Initiative, Professor of Business Telecommunications at Rotterdam School of Management); Dhr. Rob van Hattum (Documentary Filmmaker and Editor-in-chief for the Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO, Content Director of the Science Center NEMO); Mr. Ir. Murk Peutz (Business Unit Director South of Syntens - Initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs).

Peter Vervest started the panel discussion by defending the first proposition: “There is a gap between the knowledge developed by academic research and knowledge required by business.” Not only that, he also claimed that there should be a gap, arguing that business is perfectly capable of solving its own problems, and academia is primarily interested in producing knowledge that is generalizable, not necessarily applicably in specific business contexts.

Murk Peutz argued against the following proposition: “Academic researchers fail to fill the gap because of their focus on academic publications. Next to the ‘fundamental scientific output measures’ academic researchers and faculties should also be evaluated on an ‘applied research output measure’ and thus should be rewarded based on the relevance of their output for society.” He argued that developing such a measurement system is difficult and brings unwanted consequences with it, and that the translation from scientific results to applicable knowledge is best left to other companies or institutions.

Ed Vosselman was asked to comment on the following proposition: “Due to technical improvements (computer; statistical software packages, etc.) the gap between fundamental and applied research will increase. Hence, new institutions should be founded in order to fill this gap.” He argued that researchers in the first place should choose to ignore the gap and do the type of research that makes them enthusiastic. However, a way to bridge the gap would be to do research together with people from practice; not to investigate or solve specific practical problems, but to look together at the same problems.

The discussion closed with the proposition: “The gap arose because academic researchers don't know how to communicate their research findings to practice. (Research schools should oblige them to take courses on this topic.)” Rob van Hattum believed that this problem is first and foremost a generational problem; people who grow up now are much more media-savvy than older researchers and know very well how to communicate. Courses may help, but mostly if the entire educational system is supportive of developing communication skills - for instance, in Anglo-Saxon cultures people are more skilled at getting their message across.

Arjan van Weele ended the discussion by asking all the panel discussants for one single advice they would give to PhD students. This is what they said:

Use it to your advantage!

Yours sincerely,

The PREBEM Team

Elise du Chatenier (Chair)

Anna Nehles (Secretary)

Michiel Pieters (Treasurer)

Wouter Stam

Jurriaan Nijholt

Ting Li

Pieter Terlouw (Scientific director of NOBEM)

Miriam Iliohan (Office Manager)