Enhancing Social Impact of Business Research through Engaged Scholarship: the BReSSI Approach

<i>Purpose: </i>This paper proposes a framework for conducting business research that achieves social impact by positioning the research process itself as a direct service to society. We develop the Business Research as Service for Social Impact (BReSSI) framework to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical application.<br/><br/><i>Approach:</i> Using qualitative research on the digital transitioning of non-profit services for people experiencing vulnerability as our empirical context, we focus on analysing the practices through which the social impact of our research was facilitated. Drawing on engaged scholarship principles, we examine how the research process itself can be structured to ensure value for academicians, organisations and society.<br/><br/><i>Findings: </i>We present four categories of findings through which engaged scholarship can enhance the social impact of business research - bridging knowledge gaps, enhancing practical application, fostering collaborative learning, and creating sustained value - which informed the four principles of BReSSI: collaborative problem formulation, strength-based theorising, inclusive research design, and iterative real-time problem-solving. We provide specific guidelines for implementing each principle to achieve social impact through business research.<br/><br/><i>Originality: </i>The BReSSI framework offers a novel approach by reconceptualising business research as a service to society rather than merely a knowledge-generating activity. It provides practical guidelines for business researchers to achieve social impact while maintaining academic rigour, addressing the longstanding challenge of bridging the academic-practitioner divide.<br/>