Not so simple: Integrating new research into textbooks

Textbooks have been described as vehicles through which research is transferred to future practitioners. However, the sociology of scientific knowledge suggests that textbooks are not simply collected accounts of discrete "findings," but rather represent a highly stable and institutionalized pedagogy. The question then becomes, to what extent are new areas of research that have gained traction in the academic literature moved into textbooks, particularly when that research would introduce a new paradigm to a coherent pedagogical story? To explore this question, we examine textbooks to uncover the extent and manner of integration of recent research using institutional theory to study topics in strategic management. Finding significant variation in integration among textbooks, we discuss factors that can explain this variation and suggest avenues for systematic, theory-driven research on the textbook. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]