Understanding the impact of scholarship: the relationship between research and practice through the production and dissemination of management knowledge

Taking part in the debate on the impact of scholarship, this article suggests a heuristic framework for possible knowledge exchanges between the figures of practitioners and the figures of researchers. A typology of the modes of knowledge exchange is proposed, combining both temporality, depending on the synchronic or a-synchronic production and dissemination of knowledge, and the way of interacting, whether there is a co-production or not. This framework is systematically illustrated. We suggest then a dynamic analysis of the modes of knowledge exchanges through three examples of production and dissemination of management concepts and tools. Finally, the framework is discussed, particularly in its capacity to renew our view of the relationship between researchers and practitioners and their mutual influence. This analysis questions the forms of performance that prevail in the evaluation of academics, and the ability of this evaluation system to promote the social utility of research in strategic management.