Managing the “valley of death” between the management research and the management practice: An empirical academic evidence

The knowledge generated by academics in the field of Management is often criticized because of its reduced relevance for professionals. In recent studies, researchers agree that there is an important gap between management research and practice. However, the literature in this topic does not represent a finely structured discourse, and for the most part, it is not based on empirical works. In this paper, we make a double contribution to this literature: 1) First, an extensive literature has been developed with the aim of analysing and providing different solutions that allow linking both communities. In order to offer a more systematic view of literature in this topic, we classify these works into three different currents according to the ideas in which they are held. 2) On the other hand, the review of the literature shows that there is a need to develop more empirical evidence to help identify different causes or determinants of the gap between both communities in our field. Therefore, we identify different causes that may cause a disconnection with professionals in our field, through empirical evidence obtained in interviews with 15 academics belonging to the discipline of Management. Finally, this work concludes with a discussion of the main findings derived from the qualitative analysis and different practical recommendations that could help close the gap.