Research | - "Research has to make a difference, otherwise it is irrelevant"

Della Bradshaw, The Financial Times Business Education editor.

I have been really interested to read the comments about the relevance of research and its application to teaching.  I can't help thinking that the debate shouldn't be polarised around esoteric research on the one hand and on practical research and teaching on the other. Perhaps instead it should focus on how to develop really great ideas that can be researched, taught and used in the workplace. That is, how do you make sure research is provoking, whatever its remit and structure?

I'm afraid I'm on pretty shaky ground when I expound theories on high-level research, but clearly the best of it has changed the way businesses work, especially in the financial markets. I tend to think of it as being a bit like catwalk fashion - when I see some supermodel flouncing around in London or New York, I see clothes I would never wear in a million years, but eventually these designs influence the sort of clothes I buy in Marks and Spencer.

But that is the most exciting research - and clearly much research is neither exciting nor influential, particularly in second and third tier business schools.

I am reminded of the time when a subeditor on a UK national newspaper complained to the economics leader writer that he couldn't understand a word of his leader. The leader writer replied that there were only six people in the country would understand it - and the subeditor wasn't one of them! Clearly there are direct equivalents in the academic world, with academics publishing articles to impress other academics.

The same applies to "near-to-market" research: I often read case studies which only tell me things about a company that I have already read in newspapers. Unless they give companies new information on which they can develop strategies, what is the point of them?

Like Dean Danos, I believe the best teaching has to be informed by cutting-edge research. After all, teaching is about content as well as presentation. But it is what participants learn, not what the faculty teach, which is important, and there is a growing acceptance that other students, company internships or guest speakers are all contributors to this. 

I have just got back from China where the top business schools are working hard to write case studies of companies in the region. One dean made the point that China is changing so rapidly in areas such as investment opportunities and  banking, to name just two, that case studies are the most appropriate type of research. They capture the moment, if you will.

Perhaps the deep changes in the political, financial and business environments in Europe over the past 20 years have meant that lengthy research projects are less appropriate than in the US?