KNOWLEDGE FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE

We examine three related ways in which the gap between theory and practice has been framed. One approach views it as a knowledge transfer problem, a second argues that theory and practice represent distinct kinds of knowledge, and a third incorporates a strategy of arbitrage—leading to the view that the gap is a knowledge production problem. We propose a method of engaged scholarship for addressing the knowledge production problem, arguing that engaged scholarship not only enhances the relevance of research for practice but also contributes significantly to advancing research knowledge in a given domain. Understanding the relationship between the-ory and practice is a persistent and difficult problem for scholars who work in professional schools, such as business, engineering, social work, medicine, agriculture, education, public administration, journalism, and law. Profes-sional schools typically build their raison d’être on the mission of developing knowledge that can be translated into skills that advance the practice of the professions (Kondrat, 1992; Simon, 1976; Tranfield & Starkey, 1998). But, as evi-denced by the often lamented gap between the-ory and practice, this mission remains an elusive ideal. Several special issues in leading academic journals1 have highlighted growing concerns that academic research has become less useful for solving practical problems and that the gulf between theory and practice in the professions is widening (Anderson, Herriot, & Hodgkinson, 2001; Rynes et al., 2001). There is also increasing criticism that findings from academic as well as consulting studies are not useful to practitioners and do not get implemented (Beer, 2001; Gibbons et al., 1994). Academics are being criticized fo