ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the controversial point that the conventionally accepted schism between academic rigor and relevance to the world of practice is an unhelpful and indeed false distinction, one that obscures the often-times more nuanced ways in which genuine academic rigor and scholarship can contribute to the world of practice. It argues instead that the very best of rigor in scholarship mirrors and is, in principle, indistinguishable from that of the very best kind of thinking evident in business and management practices. The chapter suggests that British and European scholarship with its rich intellectual base and sense of history, culture and tradition is best placed to show the way to this exemplary form of academic openness and scholastic imagination that management research ought to emulate if it is to achieve the kind of relevance it seeks.
