There is a common believe that research does not offer any value to people who work in the real world of business. I totally disagree with this statement. It is true that academic text tends to be complex and difficult to grasp. Especially, if one is not used to academic language and lack familiarity with the jargon used by most scholars. The good news is that reading an academic offprint is not the only way to get scientific information. Indeed, there are other ways of accessing the latest insights on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability research. But before we discuss these other ways, let’s talk about why CSR research matters in the first place.
How can practitioners benefit from CSR research?
As a practitioner, you may be asking yourself: what is there for me to learn from CSR research? There are many things you can learn from it. Here two of them: research insights can 1) support ethical decision-making and planning; and 2) trigger critical thinking and new ideas that can lead towards more responsible business practices. Another thing worth considering is that there are thousands of passionate researchers out there studying CSR and sustainability and they are willing to share their knowledge with you. Isn’t it awesome? Then, why wasting this opportunity?
Academic work in 280 characters
Nowadays, most academic journals can be found on Twitter and they are presenting research insights as simple as possible. Academic Twitter is an excellent resource for practitioners who would like to be kept updated with the latest cutting-edge research on responsible business. For example, the Journal of Business Ethics and Business & Society are very active on Twitter. For those working in tourism, you would also like to check the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Tourism Geographies. Although these journals use twitter as a channel for disseminating their latest publications, they also keep their followers informed about the latest news, webinars and many other things related to responsible business. Tip! Create a Twitter list for your favourite academic journals. To learn how to create and use a list click here. By the way, did you know that academic journals can also be found in Facebook?
Check out for blogs!
Academia is stepping out of the ivory tower. Indeed, many of us are working hard to disseminate knowledge beyond the academic community. As research insights cannot always be brought down to 280 characters, blogs are a suitable option for adding some few more words. Not only journals, but also research institutes are using blogs as a way to create academic content that is accessible to different audiences such as practitioners and students. Good examples of blogs that focus on responsible business are: the Bath Business and Society blog, the Business of Society blog (BoS) and the Business & Society blog. As scholars, we want to have a social impact and to achieve it we need the public to get in touch with our work. And social media has become an essential tool in helping scholars to do that.
Tip! The Centre for Business, Organisations and Society has a list (#thinklist30) of influential female scholars on social media around issues of responsible business. And for those fluent in Finnish, here two interesting blogs from Finland: Shareable tourism and Waste busters.
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