A SPARC for bridging the research-policy gap

Abstract

A novel research-policy gap exists in management. Encouragingly, some journals (e.g., Business Horizons) have purpose or mission statements that explicitly call for business practice implications in manuscript submissions. However, these journals rarely call for policy implications, even though such implications may have a broader impact on business practice. Moreover, researchers lack concrete and actionable guidance for bridging the research-policy gap. As such, we address this challenge by developing SPARC: a framework that helps management scholars design impactful research and derive policy implications. SPARC is an acronym for societal challenge (S), pragmatism (P), action (A), result (R), and connections (C). In this article, we describe each component and provide specific, sequential, and actionable steps for maneuvering this framework. We aim not just to tell but also to show its effectiveness and usefulness in enhancing research’s impact on policymaking, and we demonstrate how to apply SPARC for 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.