Responsible Research for Better Business

This book gathers original, empirical and conceptual papers that address the complex challenges of conducting responsible research in the business and management professions. It includes contributions related to, and reflecting on, the vision of the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) network, which proposes that business can help provide a better world if it is informed by responsible research. The responsible research agenda requires new methods of scholarly assessment that include criteria for measuring impact, systemic solutions and practitioner relevance. Theories greatly influence business and management practices, and as the late Sumantra Ghoshal warned, bad management theories are destroying good management practices. The authors of this book believe that good management theories can help to create new and better business practices.

László Zsolnai is a Professor and Director of the Business Ethics Center at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. He is the Chairman of the Business Ethics Faculty Group of the CEMS - The Global Alliance in Management Education - and serves as President of the European SPES Institute in Leuven, Belgium.

Mike Thompson is the Leader of People Services at Anthesis, the global sustainability services group. He was formerly a Professor of Management Practice at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and is now a Visiting Professor at the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, BC. Mike is the Co-editor of The Macau Ricci Institute Journal.

Auteur

László Zsolnai is Professor and Director of the Business Ethics Center at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. He is the Chairman of the Business Ethics Faculty Group of the CEMS The Global Alliance in Management Education and serves as President of the European SPES Institute in Leuven, Belgium.

Mike Thompson is the Leader of People Services at Anthesis, the global sustainability services group. He was formerly a Professor of Management Practice at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and is now a Visiting Professor at the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Mike is the Co-editor of The Macau Ricci Institute Journal.

Contenu

Short synopses of the chapters

Part 1 Introduction

RRBM: A Vision of Responsible Research in Business and Management: Striving for Useful and Credible Knowledge

This position paper presents a vision of a future in which business schools and scholars worldwide have successfully transformed their research toward responsible science, producing useful and credible knowledge that addresses problems important to business and society. This

vision is based on the belief that business can be a means for a better world if it is informed by responsible research. The paper begins with a set of principles to support responsible research and proposes actions by different stakeholders to help realize this vision. It explains the impetus for the proposal by describing the current business research ecosystem, which encourages research oriented toward scholarly impact much more than societal relevance.

Changing the incentives and culture around publications are essential to promoting responsible research. Research is the foundation of business education and practice, yet business research has failed to live up to its promise in promoting better policies and best practices. If nothing is done, business research will lose its legitimacy at best; at worst, it will waste money, talent, and opportunity.

Part 2 Methodologies for Responsible Business Research

Tilman Bauer (Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland): Standards for Responsible Research A Literature Review with a Twist

What exactly does it mean to conduct responsible research? How do the 'principles' of responsible research relate to generally accepted standards for high-quality business and management research? What are the characteristics of such research that make it 'good,' 'rigorous,' 'credible,' and 'responsible?' This paper shall be a literature review with a twist.

First, extant research methods and philosophy of science literature is reviewed for the purpose of identifying standards for high-quality business and management research. The emphasis here is to deduce standards that apply to all kinds of research whether quantitative or qualitative, empirical or theoretical and to juxtapose those standards with the principles of responsible research. For example, how do scientific due diligence, rigor, coherence, and construct clarity relate to a study's potential to be of 'service to society?' Are there differences in the value of different types of research?

Second, on the basis of the literature review, this paper argues that theoretical research should receive a more prominent position within responsible research/scholarship. All forms of research aim at creating new knowledge based on some (empirical or non-empirical/logical/theoretical) evidence as well as on a deep understanding of reality and extant literature (prior theory). Indeed, the quality of all research depends (among other things) on the credibility and trustworthiness of the evidence. Yet, empirical research alone seems to be the eminent category of research in academia at business schools, as researchers are encouraged to arrive at novel findings through 'collecting' and 'analyzing' empirical 'data.'

However, this way of understanding research is prone to limiting the extent to which a study can be revelatory or groundbreaking in terms of solving the world's wicked problems. While empirical research certainly has its place, this paper argues that theoretical research has greater power to come up with groundbreaking ideas because empirical research, by definition, operates within the bounds of ideas that others have already, consciously or unconsciously, undergone in some form. After all, creating a better world through research requires pioneering approaches that transcend the limits of current practices. The paper concludes with a set of standards for such research in the field of business and management scholarship.

Benito L. Teehankee (De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines): Critical Realism and Responsible Business and Management Research

While the critical role of business and management in society has been increasingly highlighted by frequent business scandals with widening impacts in the past decades, most ...