A SPARC for bridging the research-policy gap

A recently uncovered research-policy gap exists in management. Encouragingly, some journals have statements of aim or purpose that explicitly call for business practice implications in manuscript submissions (e.g., Business Horizons ). However, these journals rarely call for policy implications, even though such implications may have a broader-reaching impact on business practice. Moreover, researchers lack concrete and actionable guidance for bridging the research-policy gap. We address this challenge by developing SPARC: A framework that helps management scholars design impactful research and derive policy implications. SPARC is an abbreviation for societal challenge ( S ), pragmatism ( P ), action ( A ), result ( R ), and connections ( C ). We describe each component and provide specific, sequential, and actionable steps. Moreover, to not just tell but to show its effectiveness and usefulness in enhancing research’s impact on policymaking, we demonstrate how to apply SPARC for both research planning and dissemination. By narrowing the research-policy gap, SPARC provides researchers with actionable tools to become policademics , thereby improving the field of management’s societal impact, relevance, and stature. 1 1 See https://youtu.be/_fE0a0Be5Qc for a video on this article