Research | -"Business Schools' unique research capabilities"

Paul Danos, Dean Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Dean Iñiguez asks about cutting edge research and the debate about how and where this fits into a business school setting, especially in light of the recent HBR article by Bennis and O'Toole.

I believe that business school researchers have special insights into best business practices and that they can therefore give students unique knowledge that non-researchers may miss. Of course, there are no absolutes here, and exceptions can be found in both directions.

The greatest researchers I have known are among the greatest teachers I have known, and because researchers are often generalizing across many observations, they bring a breath of knowledge that is hard to match. Many of the critics of current business school faculty seem to imply that these brilliant people are in some way engaging in frivolous research behavior and that their schools blindly support that behavior. On the contrary, I believe that for the most part business school research is serious and relevant, and most importantly it leads to truly exceptional learning experiences for students.