Faculty and graduate students from across the College of Business and Economics came together yesterday for the third instalment of the CBE Research Colloquium series, featuring a panel discussion on what research with impact – a strategic pillar of the College - means for researchers.
The panel discussion brought together some of the college’s most accomplished and impactful scholars from across business disciplines to reflect on how the idea of research impact is evolving and what that means for their research. In addition to the debate among the panel, the audience – including staff, faculty and graduate students from the college - had the chance to join the discussion.
The conversation began with a look into what research impact means to each panelist and their respective disciplines, before diving into several other important themes, including the need for a more pluralistic view of research impact that engages a variety of stakeholder groups and media, the variability of how impact is assessed across disciplinary fields, and the importance of traditional scholarly impact – publication in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals and citations of one’s work – which is the gold standard against which academics and their ideas are assessed.
“As academics, we’re facing great pressure to adapt to technological, societal, political and global change that is pervasive and deep,” said Sean Lyons, Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies. “That’s forcing us to re-examine our role as researchers and the impact of our research on the communities of stakeholders who benefit from it.”
The panel included researchers from every CBE department, providing a range of perspectives on what research with impact means across the vast disciplines that exist within the business college.
The panel consisted of CBE Senior Research Fellows and 2018 Research Impact Award winners:
- Tim Dewhirst, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies
- Jamie Gruman, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Management
- Yiguo Sun, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Economics and Finance
- Bruce McAdams, Research Impact Award Recipient, School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management
- Ilias Tsiakas, Research Impact Award Recipient, Department of Economics and Finance
The CBE Research Colloquium brings faculty and students together to listen, learn and debate leaders in industry and academia. Attendees will join together to engage in lively discussion about research and practice that will spark future collaboration across CBE faculty.
