{"id":35162,"date":"2026-04-23T09:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/?p=35162"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:54:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:54:54","slug":"investigating-practical-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/article\/investigating-practical-implications\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating Practical Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-ncst-summary\">\n\t\t<p class=\"eyebrow\">At a Glance<\/p>\n    \n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A meta-analysis of 232 entrepreneurship articles found that nearly 20% offer no practical advice at all.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Authors often prioritize theoretical elegance over actionable guidance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publishers and universities could help close this gap with better reviewer guidance and impact-based incentives, respectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Almost every academic paper on management and entrepreneurship topics includes a practical implications section. It should be the place where theoretical ideas become useful practices. But there can be challenges to this effort, according to new research co-authored by Jon Carr, Jenkins Family Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those \u201cpractical implications\u201d sections often get the least attention from authors, Carr and his authorship team across several universities discuss in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/jkm\/article-abstract\/doi\/10.1108\/JKM-05-2025-0754\/1341308\/Research-to-knowledge-driven-action-practical?redirectedFrom=fulltext\">Research to Knowledge-Driven Action: Practical Relevance of Entrepreneurship Research<\/a>.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The meta-analysis assessed 232 articles published between 2007 and 2019 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sms.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/journal\/1932443x\"><em>Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal<\/em><\/a>. Carr and his coauthors identified eight characteristics of the articles\u2019 practical implications sections. More than half (56.5%) sought to extend management knowledge around their topics. A little more than a third (36%) offered actionable, operational steps readers could take to use research insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly one in five (19.4%) of the papers analyzed offered no practical counsel at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA lot of times, we don\u2019t do a really good job of having solid, practical implications,\u201d Carr says. \u201cExtending management knowledge is a big part of what we do, but putting more emphasis on measurable, immediate, actionable things should be a priority as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-red-heading-stripes\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th><strong>Characteristic<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>% of articles<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Extends management knowledge<\/td><td>56.5%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Actionable\/operational<\/td><td>36%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Not practical<\/td><td>19.4%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Novel<\/td><td>18.7%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Generalizable<\/td><td>16.3%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Thorough<\/td><td>10.2%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Measurable<\/td><td>6%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Immediate<\/td><td>1.4%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Carr and his fellow researchers find several culprits for the short shrift given to practical implications. Among them: Doctoral programs invest time and resources in developing future scholars\u2019 ability to gain both broad and deep knowledge about theory and their fields. They pay less attention to translating theory into practice. There could also be mismatches between the questions that interest scholars and the problems practitioners need help solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The meta-analysis suggests several ways publishers, reviewers, scholars and universities could improve the quality of practical implications guidance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Journals could include characteristics of practical implications in their instructions for article reviewers. They could also add specific questions about how manuscripts can impact practice to surveys completed during review submission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In tenure and annual reviews, universities could give more weight to publications that focus on application, and on the actual impact of candidates\u2019 published articles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scholars could also seek feedback from practitioners on their manuscripts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Carr recently discussed the paper, its effects on his own approach to practical implications and more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why does giving clear practical implications matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our scholarship should understand and operate at the speed at which businesses and individuals are operating. This paper got published very quickly because this is a very fundamental aspect of what we should do as academic scholars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We catalogued these characteristics associated with whether something\u2019s practical or not. Is it actionable? Can you actually execute on it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it novel? Is it generalizable\u2014can it apply to many, many different things? Is it thorough? Is it measurable? How immediate is it? Can I do it now, or is it something we still have to figure out over the course of time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using that framework, we catalog all these studies, and we see that, for instance, extending management knowledge is a big part of what we do. But putting more emphasis on measurable, immediate, actionable things should be a priority as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What surprised you during the course of this research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authors themselves don\u2019t really spend a lot of time on these practical implications portions. Editors and reviewers emphasize these implications as part of the decision-making process. They tend to focus more on the academic insights, and the practical implications are just sort of another component that we have to have to have. And that\u2019s true of all research in business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As social science areas mature, the desire for the elegance of the study can take over its practical relevance and applicability. We\u2019ve got to come to grips with that. That\u2019s why we&nbsp; wanted to do a paper on this topic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>As an entrepreneur yourself, you\u2019ve been on both sides of this. When an entrepreneur looks at a piece of academic research, how do they view it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Entrepreneurship is, in many ways, a very applied field. How do you build teams? What are their characteristics? How do you pursue money? How do investors look at you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of our best, most cited work touches on these actual phenomena. There are things that come out of our studies that are absolutely useful and can be applied to a launch or how you bring money into a company. But if it\u2019s some faraway conversation about something nebulous that could someday happen, it\u2019s not as useful to entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do you have any other work planned on this line of inquiry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these characteristics\u2014the idea of actionable, operational research\u2014is very important to look at more deeply. That would be the kind of study where you would ask: To what degree are good, actionable studies more relevant than others that aren\u2019t?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ncst-featured-people\">\n      <p class=\"eyebrow-label\">featured expert<\/p>\n    <div class=\"featured-people__container\">\n    \n<div class=\"wp-block-ncst-featured-person\">\n    <figure class=\"headshot-container\">\n      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \n        src=\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/423\/2025\/06\/MAH1802-500x500-1.jpg\" \n        alt=\"\" \n        class=\"headshot wp-image-33965\"\n        style=\"object-position:50% 50%\"\n srcset=\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/423\/2025\/06\/MAH1802-500x500-1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/423\/2025\/06\/MAH1802-500x500-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/423\/2025\/06\/MAH1802-500x500-1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>\n    <\/figure>\n    <div class=\"person-container\">\n      <h3 class=\"name\">Jon Carr<\/h3>\n              <p class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/people\/jccarr\/\">Jon Carr<\/a> is the Jenkins Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. He focuses on three domains within management: entrepreneurship, family business and organizational behavior, as well as interfaces among those domains.<\/p>\n            \n\n\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false,"raw":"<!-- wp:ncst\/dynamic-header {\"block\":\"ncst\/default-post-header\",\"isSummaryActive\":true} -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/default-post-header {\"displayCategoryID\":642,\"subtitle\":\"Entrepreneurship papers can struggle with helping readers and other stakeholders turn academic scholarship into practice, according to new Poole research.\u00a0\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:ncst\/summary -->\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>A meta-analysis of 232 entrepreneurship articles found that nearly 20% offer no practical advice at all.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Authors often prioritize theoretical elegance over actionable guidance.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Publishers and universities could help close this gap with better reviewer guidance and impact-based incentives, respectively.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/summary -->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/dynamic-header -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Almost every academic paper on management and entrepreneurship topics includes a practical implications section. It should be the place where theoretical ideas become useful practices. But there can be challenges to this effort, according to new research co-authored by Jon Carr, Jenkins Family Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Those \u201cpractical implications\u201d sections often get the least attention from authors, Carr and his authorship team across several universities discuss in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/jkm\/article-abstract\/doi\/10.1108\/JKM-05-2025-0754\/1341308\/Research-to-knowledge-driven-action-practical?redirectedFrom=fulltext\">Research to Knowledge-Driven Action: Practical Relevance of Entrepreneurship Research<\/a>.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The meta-analysis assessed 232 articles published between 2007 and 2019 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sms.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/journal\/1932443x\"><em>Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal<\/em><\/a>. Carr and his coauthors identified eight characteristics of the articles\u2019 practical implications sections. More than half (56.5%) sought to extend management knowledge around their topics. A little more than a third (36%) offered actionable, operational steps readers could take to use research insights.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Nearly one in five (19.4%) of the papers analyzed offered no practical counsel at all.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cA lot of times, we don\u2019t do a really good job of having solid, practical implications,\u201d Carr says. \u201cExtending management knowledge is a big part of what we do, but putting more emphasis on measurable, immediate, actionable things should be a priority as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:table {\"className\":\"is-style-red-heading-stripes\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-red-heading-stripes\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th><strong>Characteristic<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>% of articles<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Extends management knowledge<\/td><td>56.5%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Actionable\/operational<\/td><td>36%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Not practical<\/td><td>19.4%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Novel<\/td><td>18.7%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Generalizable<\/td><td>16.3%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Thorough<\/td><td>10.2%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Measurable<\/td><td>6%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Immediate<\/td><td>1.4%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:table -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Carr and his fellow researchers find several culprits for the short shrift given to practical implications. Among them: Doctoral programs invest time and resources in developing future scholars\u2019 ability to gain both broad and deep knowledge about theory and their fields. They pay less attention to translating theory into practice. There could also be mismatches between the questions that interest scholars and the problems practitioners need help solving.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The meta-analysis suggests several ways publishers, reviewers, scholars and universities could improve the quality of practical implications guidance:<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Journals could include characteristics of practical implications in their instructions for article reviewers. They could also add specific questions about how manuscripts can impact practice to surveys completed during review submission.<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>In tenure and annual reviews, universities could give more weight to publications that focus on application, and on the actual impact of candidates\u2019 published articles<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\n\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\n<li>Scholars could also seek feedback from practitioners on their manuscripts<\/li>\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Carr recently discussed the paper, its effects on his own approach to practical implications and more:<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Why does giving clear practical implications matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Our scholarship should understand and operate at the speed at which businesses and individuals are operating. This paper got published very quickly because this is a very fundamental aspect of what we should do as academic scholars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>We catalogued these characteristics associated with whether something\u2019s practical or not. Is it actionable? Can you actually execute on it?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Is it novel? Is it generalizable\u2014can it apply to many, many different things? Is it thorough? Is it measurable? How immediate is it? Can I do it now, or is it something we still have to figure out over the course of time?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Using that framework, we catalog all these studies, and we see that, for instance, extending management knowledge is a big part of what we do. But putting more emphasis on measurable, immediate, actionable things should be a priority as well.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>What surprised you during the course of this research?<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Authors themselves don\u2019t really spend a lot of time on these practical implications portions. Editors and reviewers emphasize these implications as part of the decision-making process. They tend to focus more on the academic insights, and the practical implications are just sort of another component that we have to have to have. And that\u2019s true of all research in business.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>As social science areas mature, the desire for the elegance of the study can take over its practical relevance and applicability. We\u2019ve got to come to grips with that. That\u2019s why we&nbsp; wanted to do a paper on this topic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>As an entrepreneur yourself, you\u2019ve been on both sides of this. When an entrepreneur looks at a piece of academic research, how do they view it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Entrepreneurship is, in many ways, a very applied field. How do you build teams? What are their characteristics? How do you pursue money? How do investors look at you?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>A lot of our best, most cited work touches on these actual phenomena. There are things that come out of our studies that are absolutely useful and can be applied to a launch or how you bring money into a company. But if it\u2019s some faraway conversation about something nebulous that could someday happen, it\u2019s not as useful to entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p><strong>Do you have any other work planned on this line of inquiry?<\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>One of these characteristics\u2014the idea of actionable, operational research\u2014is very important to look at more deeply. That would be the kind of study where you would ask: To what degree are good, actionable studies more relevant than others that aren\u2019t?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:ncst\/featured-people {\"label\":\"featured expert\"} -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/featured-person {\"name\":\"Jon Carr\",\"title\":\"\\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/people\/jccarr\/\\u0022\\u003eJon Carr\\u003c\/a\\u003e is the Jenkins Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. He focuses on three domains within management: entrepreneurship, family business and organizational behavior, as well as interfaces among those domains.\",\"headshot\":{\"id\":33965,\"url\":\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/423\/2025\/06\/MAH1802-500x500-1.jpg\",\"alt\":\"\"}} -->\n<!-- wp:ncst\/bold-link {\"placeholder\":\"Enter optional link\"} \/-->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/featured-person -->\n<!-- \/wp:ncst\/featured-people -->"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All scholarly articles on management offer practical implications. But useful guidance is rare, Poole scholar Jon Carr finds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50146,"featured_media":35164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"displayCategoryID\":642,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Entrepreneurship papers can struggle with helping readers and other stakeholders turn academic scholarship into practice, according to new Poole research.\u00a0\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,77,642],"tags":[584,705,690],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-35162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-newswire","category-research-from-poole","tag-jon-carr","tag-publishing","tag-q-and-a-2"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":642,"name":"Research From Poole","slug":"research-from-poole","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":642,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Discover groundbreaking original research from Poole College faculty, featuring rigorous analysis and actionable business insights direct from the experts.","parent":0,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35165,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35162\/revisions\/35165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35162"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=35162"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/thought-leadership\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=35162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}