Purpose This paper aims to demonstrate how business research can facilitate social impact by positioning the research process itself as a service to society. The paper develops the Business Research as Service for Social Impact (BReSSI) framework to address the gap between academic knowledge production and meeting societal goals. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a single-case study with two methodological components: firstly, research process implementation involving interviews, focus groups and observations guided by Engaged Scholarship principles, and secondly, reflexive analysis examining how this research process facilitated social impact. Findings The study presents four mechanisms through which business research can facilitate social impact: bridging knowledge gaps, enhancing practical application, fostering collaborative learning and creating sustained value. These mechanisms informed the study’s four BReSSI principles: collaborative problem formulation, strength-based theorising, inclusive research design and iterative real-time problem-solving. The paper provides implementation guidelines and a checklist for operationalising each principle. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the BReSSI framework is the first operational framework to position business research explicitly as a service to society. It offers a novel approach by presenting research as more than a knowledge-generating activity. BReSSI provides guidelines for business researchers to facilitate social impact while maintaining academic rigour, addressing the longstanding challenge of bridging the academic-practitioner divide and enhancing the social impact of business research.
Raki et al. (Fri,) studied this question.