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The Network for Business Sustainability (NBS) is building resources that will help researchers have greater impact on practice through their research. Researchers often want to affect the way managers and other practitioners think and act, in order to help solve real problems, such as inequality or climate change.

Often, achieving impact is seen as a translation problem. Findings need to be translated into language managers can understand, and disseminated effectively. But translation is only part of the solution.

What if we reframe impact as a knowledge production problem*? Then, the focus shifts from just changing language to figuring out how to integrate academic and practitioner knowledge for unique insights. To tackle this, we need to answer important questions such as:

·         How do I do collaborative research (e.g., engaged scholarship, insider-outsider research) and how do I do it well?

·         How do I publish such research in top journals?

·         How do I manage my researcher identity in academic circles that may not value such collaborative work?

NBS is taking action by developing resources that can guide researchers. Please help our efforts by responding to this survey https://goo.gl/forms/deKpZqZxNB8DQhW32 or emailing Garima Sharma gsharma@ivey.ca.

About NBS: A non-profit established in 2005, the Network for Business Sustainability is a network of international academic experts and business leaders. We connect thousands of researchers and professionals worldwide who are interested in corporate social responsibility and who believe in the value of research-based practice and practice-based research.  

Subscribe to NBS for future resources on these topics.

* Van de Ven, A. H., & Johnson, P. E. 2006. Knowledge for theory and practice. Academy of Management Review, 31(4): 802–821.