The Intellectual Link Between Management Research and Popularization Media: A Bibliometric Analysis of theHarvard Business Review

We explore the intellectual link between management research and popularization media. In the “dominant view” of popularization in the sociology of science, the process of popularization is understood as a one-way movement of ideas from the field of science to the general public. Thus, it is seen as unlikely to influence management research. However, more recent research has challenged the assumptions of this view and has offered an alternative perspective, which can be termed the “revised view” of popularization. In this view, interactions between science and popularization media are much more complex, and relevant feedback effects from popularization media to scholarly journals are possible. Against this theoretical background, we investigate the role played by an important example of popularization media in the field of management, the Harvard Business Review, in management discourse. Using a bibliometric analysis of 231 Harvard Business Review articles, we analyze the degree, direction, and type of intellectual influence of the publication. Our findings suggest that this magazine's role differs significantly from the traditional view of popularization. According to our results, the Harvard Business Review is not only a widely quoted scientific source, but it also has a significant impact on the scientific discourse in management research.