Research End-User Participation in Academic Conferences as a Pathway for Practical Impact Creation

This symposium will explore the practical/societal impact opportunity and potential of academic conferences in theory and practice. The symposium offers new insights on this topic based on empirical research on the practical impact of research including a practitioner study trip to the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2019 (as well as data from former trips). In doing so, the symposium will discuss academic conferences as a pathway of practical/societal impact of research as well as the nature of practical/societal impact from practitioner participation in research conferences and the circumstances under which knowledge uptake can take place.
The symposium will address the following aspects of practitioner value-added and practical knowledge up-take at academic conferences:
• How can knowledge uptake from academic conference participation for professional practitioners be supported/facilitated? What are the barriers and drivers?
• Why do practitioners choose to participate in academic conferences? What do they hope to achieve (expected outcomes)?
• What is the nature of the practical take-aways from practitioner participation in academic conferences, and how are take-aways transferred to practitioners’ own practice and to their organizations?
• What are the positions, roles and relationships between scholars and professionals at academic conferences?
• How can knowledge curation and facilitation of conference participation accelerate learning and knowledge transfer?