Editorial

• Date: 01 June 2015
• Published date: 01 June 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1322

Editorial

In previous editorials I have talked about evidence-

based management as a promising movement toward closing

the gap between management research and its practice. In or-

der for one to manage using the best available evidence, the

evidence has to be generated, codif‌ied and made available to

the practicing manager in a timely fashion. For evidence-

based management to become an inf‌luential paradigm

guiding the profession, it requires a sustainable dynamic

supported by all the stakeholders in the system.

Evidence-based management begins with a relevant re-

search question. And while CJAS publications pose and

seek to answer these research questions, it is not enough to

sustain evidence-based management. The research question

must be of relevance to practicing managers so that they

are motivated to consider the research when making a deci-

sion. For that we need an organization to facilitate ongoing

consultation between management researchers and practic-

ing professionals, which would ensure that the research

questions are more relevant to the profession. This is where

rigor meets relevance. Rigorous research hinges on the train-

ing that researchers receive in our business schools. One of

the problems that I see as an editor is that our research train-

ing seems to favour aesthetics over realism. Often we pick

research questions that give rise to elegant answers as

opposed to cumbersome solutions to real problems that con-

front the practicing manager. Ideas inf‌luence research while

problems inf‌luence practice. Evidence–based management

calls for broad-based research training that is both idea

driven and problem driven. The eventual purpose of the re-

search is to offer practical insights that enrich management

practice. To that end, evidence-based management envisions

a collaboration among the producers, arbiters and users of

management research. Practical insights gleaned through

this collaboration will lead to the incorporation of all the ev-

idence available—both research outcomes and professional

intelligence—into an actionable systematic review.

Over the past three decades, evidence-based medicine,

which traces its origins to McMaster University in Canada,

has become the hallmark of competent medical practice

around the globe. Hospitals have become learning organiza-

tions. This has yielded enormous benef‌its to patients around

the globe, but more importantly, it has made the latest

medical evidence—research and clinical—available to any

practicing physician. When evidence-based management

becomes established practice, every organization becomes a

learning organization. I am interested in management theory

and I see the potential. Sound management practice allows

for the development of theory grounded in practice. As men-

tioned in my earlier editorials, business schools exist because

business exists. Likewise, it is business that legitimizes busi-

ness scholarship and contributes to business theory. That

said, management as a profession becomes stronger when

the guiding theory is both inf‌luential and enduring.

Evidence-based management is a force that is likely to

change both management research and management practice,

making the profession more aligned with its knowledge base.

Evidence–based management draws its strength from

systematic reviews. Systematic reviews cannot be produced

without journals publishing research. This issue is, as are

all CJAS issues, a contribution in this direction. We report

a broad range of research f‌indings in a variety of settings.

Our f‌irst two papers are studies based on datasets in Spain,

one dealing with the role of affective commitment in

predicting purchase intentions in the performing arts while

the other deals with the impact of R&D cooperation on prod-

uct innovation. Innovation seems to be a topic of interest in

this issue. Following that is a Canadian study investigating

how internal and external knowledge is utilized in leverag-

ing innovation in the Canadian wine industry. The next

paper explores the phenomenon of outsourcing military

logistics in foreign theatres by the Canadian armed forces.

The last paper probes the impact of psychological capital

on innovative performance and job stress among a

multiorganizational sample in Pakistan. The investigative or-

igins of these papers include interdisciplinary research, mar-

keting, organizational behaviour and strategic management,

which are all areas very much in line with the CJAS mission.

Until next time,

Vishwanath Baba

Editor-in-Chief

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

32: 73 (2015)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1322

Can J Adm Sci

32(2), 73 (2015)Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 73