Appendix: Seven Principles of Responsible Research in Business and Management
Principle 1—Service to Society: Business research aims to develop knowledge that benefits business and the broader society, locally and globally, for the ultimate purpose of creating a better world.
The aim of research is to systematize knowledge of best practices, past and current, and to shape the future by creating knowledge based on emerging conditions. Innovative research can inform future practice. Business research serves a critical social function by illuminating the blind spots and potential downsides of the business world.
Principle 2—Valuing Both Basic and Applied Contributions: Business school deans, journal editors, funders, accrediting agencies, and other stakeholders recognize and value contributions in both theoretical and applied research.
Theories are important to guide our collective understandings and to explain empirical patterns that defy common sense. Applied research aims to analyze management practices such as incentive systems and governance (economics, finance, management), consumer and firm behavior (marketing, strategy), or customer service and supply chain (marketing, operations, information systems). Integrating theory and practice-led problems in business research will both contribute to basic knowledge development and enhance its applied utility.
Principle 3—Valuing Plurality and Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Research reflecting the plurality and complexity of business and societal problems through diverse research themes, methods, forms of scholarship, types of inquiry, and interdisciplinary collaboration is valued by scholars, editors, funders, and accreditation agencies.
Business and management research supports pluralism in its theories, grounded in different assumptions about human nature, multiple perspectives, and alternative models of business and its role in society. Rich, in-depth ethnographic studies of corporate practices yielding reflective and imaginative thinking that contributes to new theorizing are as valuable as quantitative or experimental studies. In the global context, business and management research values both “global” and “local” knowledge development. Stakeholders value interdisciplinary research, both within business disciplines and across other social science disciplines as well as engineering, medicine, education, or humanities. Interdisciplinary research has the potential to provide new understandings of business due to complementarities between disparate disciplines.
Principle 4—Sound Methodology: Research advances theory and improves practice when it employs sound scientific methods and processes in both quantitative and qualitative aspects, and in both theoretical and empirical domains.
The best empirical business research adopts emerging practices in good science. For example, in quantitative research, practices that value replication, falsification of theory, and reproducibility are encouraged. Journals and professional societies adopt open science practices such as repositories of data, materials, and codes, and transparency of sample construction and measures. Mathematical models are calibrated using real data, and assumptions are validated using empirical evidence. Practicing data transparency might reduce the volume of studies generated, but could improve the quality and comprehensiveness of studies by discouraging data slicing and other questionable practices. In excellent qualitative research, the corpus of data is sufficient, sites and informants are substantively important and/or appropriate for the research agenda, and it is clear how the data have disciplined the analysis.
Principle 5—Stakeholder Involvement: Research yields stronger theory and better practice when it incorporates key stakeholders to play critical roles at different stages of the scientific process, without compromising the independence of inquiry.
The research ecosystem contains many participants in addition to researchers who produce knowledge: journal editors, tenure and promotion committees, school leaders, Ph.D. program directors, accreditation agencies, funding organizations, publishers, and business leaders and students who apply knowledge. The broader society also has a stake in business research. Business and management schools can benefit from “co-creation” of knowledge with all types of organizations (businesses, NGOs, trade unions, governments, industry associations, social enterprises, and consumers.) However, academic integrity and independence require that research not be “captured” or reported findings influenced by vested interests.
Principle 6—Impact on Stakeholders: Business and management schools, funders, and accrediting agencies recognize and reward research that has an impact on diverse stakeholders, especially research that contributes to better business and a better world.
Business and management schools recognize that the publication itself is not the end goal, but a step in the journey to scholarly and/or societal impact. Assessing influence may require multiple papers, dissemination of findings to non-academic circles, and tracking whether companies, communities or policy makers benefit from this program of research. Impact also includes the teaching of the findings from evidence-based responsible science in undergraduate, masters, doctoral, and executive education programs. Promotion and tenure requirements reflect this requirement to institutionalize research’s positive influence on society.
Principle 7—Broad Dissemination: Business and management schools value diverse forms of knowledge dissemination that collectively advance basic knowledge and practice.
The digitization of the global economy has created new forms of dissemination of research findings, including online, open source, and open access publishing. Researchers have opportunities to improve the visibility of ongoing research through creative publishing and dissemination methods, as well as by drawing insights in simple and powerful ways to influence target audiences and non-academic stakeholders. At the same time, we reaffirm the centrality of rigorous peer review of research for identifying and legitimizing credible knowledge.
