‘It’s Difficult to Innovate’: The Death of the Tenured Professor and the Birth of the Knowledge Entrepreneur

Unless universities in general and business schools in particular are able to break out of their institutional straitjackets and redefine their roles in the production and dissemination of new knowledge, by the middle of the 21st century, management research will be carried out largely outside the groves of academe in networks of knowledge entrepreneurs linked temporarily through project foci on problems that intrinsically interest them. The market for PhDs in management (and in other business areas as well) will contract as new delivery modalities make the dissemination process more efficient and less tied to place. Doctoral programs will shrink, and many will disappear, as the market test will increasingly be linked to the originality, creativity, and relevance of the work they do.