By Scott Armstrong
ESI Special Topics,
July 2004
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2004/july-04-ScottArmstrong.html
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Scott Armstrong answers a few questions about this month's
new hot paper in the field of Economics & Business.
From
•>>July 2004
Field:
Economics & Business
Article Title: THE OMBUDSMAN: REAPING BENEFITS FROM MANAGEMENT RESEARCH: LESSONS FROM THE FORECASTING PRINCIPLES PROJECT
Authors: Armstrong,
JS; Pagel, R
Journal: INTERFACES
Volume: 33
Page: 91-97
Year: NOV-DEC 2003
* Univ Penn, Wharton Sch, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA.
* Univ Penn, Wharton Sch, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA.
* Emory Univ, Goizueta Business Lib, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
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 Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
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“To improve the use of knowledge, we must focus on the development and communication of useful principles”
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Using evidence from a specific field, we describe
steps that can be taken to improve the development and communication
of knowledge. For example, one finding was that invited papers have
20 times the impact of papers submitted in the traditional fashion
(and they are less expensive to publish). Another was that fewer
than 3% of the papers published on forecasting provide useful inputs
for the development or validation of principles. Nevertheless,
almost all knowledge on forecasting comes from academic research.
Does
it describe a new discovery or new methodology that's useful to
others?
To improve the use of knowledge, we must focus on the development
and communication of useful principles. While other fields have
developed principles websites (e.g., the Cochrane Collaboration in
health care and the Campbell Collaboration in education, crime, and
other areas), there had been no such sites in management or
business.
Based on current practice, some of the findings are
counter-intuitive. Researchers should directly
study forecasting principles. Journal editors should actively
solicit papers. Textbook writers should focus on principles that
readers can apply; few textbooks do so. Some findings are not
counter-intuitive, but are ignored: software developers can provide
practitioners with low-cost means of using principles.
Could
you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
The current system for the communication of knowledge in
management science is not cost-effective for practitioners. It is
difficult to identify important papers as only 13% of the abstracts
of papers describe findings. Once found, the papers are expensive to
obtain. Of the few papers that are useful, the writing is often
nearly incomprehensible to practitioners.
Principles sites solve these problems. The aim is to provide all
useful knowledge by putting it in an easily usable form that is
available when the need arises. In addition to forecastingprinciples.com,
I have developed advertisingprinciples.com
which MERLOT selected as the best online educational site in
business for 2004.
How
did you become involved in this research?
This research grew out of my dissatisfaction with the rate of
progress in the development and communication of management science,
a field in which most published papers have no value and the reward
system does little to encourage the publication of useful findings.
As a result, practitioners have little interest in academic
research. I was looking for a ways to improve the market for useful
research. The Internet provides the key, making it possible for
those with useful research to reach practitioners in a
cost-effective manner.
Professor J. Scott Armstrong
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, USA
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ESI Special Topics,
July 2004
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2004/july-04-ScottArmstrong.html
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