Chapter 1 - 5

There is a growing amount of evidence displaying that reasonable research is not taken up by practitioners and one of the main reasons is that they fail to see how it is relevant to their work (Hutchinson, 2004). Research done by practitioners has two great advantages. First, it addresses issues that arise out of their day-to-day practice and therefore it is immediately relevant. Second, they can ‘sell’ their findings to other practitioners because they can explain how their findings can be used in practice. They are more likely to present their findings in public fora (such as business conferences and practitioner journals and magazines) that are designed for practitioners. Academic conferences and publications in academic journals can be daunting and inaccessible to managers looking for solutions to their problems.