Contents lists available at ScienceDirect The International Journal of Management Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme The use and usefulness of academic research: An EMBA perspective Basil P. Tucker a,∗ , Vicki Waye b , Susan Freeman c a School of Commerce, UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia b School of Law, UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia c School of Management, UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Research-learning nexus Research-practice nexus Research-practice gap Student engagement EMBA ABSTRACT The extent to which academic research informs both student learning and practice has been repeatedly debated in the management literature. Despite the supposed symbiotic relationship between research, learning, and practice, few studies have sought to identify the potential sy- nergies between these relationships. Moreover, studies investigating these separate relationships have been largely confned to a single discipline. Based on perceptions of 47 practicing managers enrolled in accounting, law and international business courses within an Australian Executive MBA program, our fndings suggest that the nature of the ‘gaps’ between research and learning, and research and practice are quite diferent. Although the value of academic research is re- cognised, barriers impeding its capacity to more efectively speak to and be utilised by students and practitioners are common to all three disciplinary areas. These barriers do not relate to the ‘use’ of research per se, but rather to the ways in which academic research fndings are typically communicated, which thus impacts its ‘usefulness’. Our fndings contribute to the literature on the relationship between research, practice, and learning, by suggesting how academic research may be positioned to more efectively impact learning and practice. 1. Introduction Universities across the globe repeatedly emphasise the importance of academic research to national prosperity and well-being (Alajoutsijärvi, Juusola, & Siltaoja, 2015), and have therefore embedded the obligation to incorporate research within curricula (Erikson & Erikson, 2018) as well as the necessity of demonstrating how research informs practice (Docampo & Cram, 2017) within their quality assurance frameworks (Chubb & Watermeyer, 2017) and performance measurement systems (Martin-Sardesai, Irvine, Tooley, & Guthrie, 2016). Nevertheless, despite the emphasis placed by many universities on the pivotal importance of the role of research, concerns about the efectiveness of research infuencing both teaching and learning and practice have prevailed (Tight, 2016). For example, studies have found that research and teaching are disparate activities for most academics (Burke-Smalley, Rau, Neely, & Evans, 2017), thus, remaining separated, with neither activity illuminating nor informing the other (Burke & Rau, 2010). Other barriers preventing the integration of academic research within curricula relate to professional accreditation demands that mean less time or space is available for students to engage with contemporary thought through greater engagement with academic research (Duf & Marriott, 2017); an over-emphasis on the acquisition of technical knowledge in the curriculum at the expense of conceptual and inquiry based learning (Grifths, 2004, p.721); and the insufcient background that students typically have to read and understand academic research (Hamilton, 2018). In a more pessimistic vein some commentators have even proclaimed that the integration of research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100314 Received 16 May 2019; Received in revised form 23 July 2019; Accepted 12 August 2019 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: basil.tucker@unisa.edu.au (B.P. Tucker). The International Journal of Management Education 17 (2019) 100314 1472-8117/ Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T