19272: Practice Incubator: Bridging the Practitioner-Academic Gap in Research and Career

Saturday, July 26, 2025

13:45 - 14:45 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall A- A3-m1

Session Type: PDW (workshop)
Orientation: Practice,Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/7bp9Pg

Organizer(s)

JG

Jennifer Gutberg

U. of Toronto, Canada
TP

Tracy Hopkins Porter

Cleveland State U., United States

Facilitator(s)

CM

Cheryl Mitchell

Gustavson School of Business, U. of Victoria, Canada
MC

Michael Richard Cauley

Vanderbilt U., United States
AP

Andres A. Pinto

Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve U., United States

Participant(s)

MD

Matthew John DePuccio

Rush U., United States
JP

Jessica Peck

Cleveland State U., United States
ZM

Zach Mok

Simon Fraser University, Beedie School of Business

The academic-practitioner gap is a well-recognized and continually growing issue for management scholars. This gap is especially prominent in healthcare contexts, where hospitals, systems, and entire jurisdictions are often subject to wide-spread organizational (and system-level) interventions and restructurings. Given the fundamentally applied nature of healthcare management research, scholars in the field must find assurance that their work is equal parts theoretically insightful and practically relevant. We propose a contributing factor to this academic-practitioner gap is both a lack of emphasis on drawing from practitioner perspectives to inform research agendas, and a lack of awareness or understanding of career options that span a hybrid research-practice continuum. The aim of this professional development workshop is to provide researchers with a platform to receive mentorship and exchange ideas about practice-oriented careers. These can include academic researchers interested in partnering with practice organizations, those looking to shift to a practice-oriented career themselves, or early career scholars interested in exploring a practice-oriented trajectory. The PDW will involve a brief introduction to the issues around practice-oriented careers, and then delve into a roundtable approach, where participants will, in three rounds, move between designated topics at each table, ending in a large-group discussion about lessons learned from these discussions as well as action items to be taken forward in the future to improve the prospective of those interested in pursuing practice-oriented careers.