Rigorous Engaged Scholarship

Scholars are increasingly asked to address societal grand challenges. Yet forms of scholarship that pursue these aims through engagement with practice are often treated with suspicion. In this Point, we intend to zoom in on this paradox. We argue that engaged scholarship requires rethinking what it means to be rigorous when working closely with practitioners. We advance this conversation by defining a novel set of six principles to guide its rigor: articulating positionality, orienting prospectively, collaborating critically, experimenting systematically, appearing visibly, and reflecting inwardly. These principles enhance current norms in management studies regarding knowledge production, leading us to suggest how the institutional environment will need to change to support rigorous engaged scholarship.