Instructor Resources Jaspersen et al., Management and Business Research, 8e SAGE Publishing, 2026
Answers to exercises in the book Note to readers This companion document provides model answers, illustrative guidance and instructor notes for selected exercises from the textbook. The purpose is to support teaching and learning by offering examples of the kinds of responses or discussions that might emerge in class, rather than to prescribe a single correct answer. Not all exercises lend themselves to written solutions. Many tasks in the book are intentionally designed as reflective activities, project-based explorations or open classroom discussions. For these, there can be no single „model‟ response, and the value lies in the process of inquiry, dialogue and personal interpretation. Accordingly, only exercises where a representative or instructive answer can reasonably be provided are included below. Instructors are encouraged to adapt, expand or localise these examples to suit their own teaching context and the specific projects undertaken by their students.
Chapter 1: Finding your feet in management and business research 1.1 Thinking about management and business research 3. Write a paragraph on why it is important that business and management research is conducted in different countries and settings. Discuss where we still encounter colonial assumptions in our concepts and theories (such as e.g. in modernisation or leadership theories), what this means, and what we can do to address this. Conducting business and management research across diverse countries and settings matters because concepts, measures and prescriptions are never context-free. Many foundational ideas – such as modernisation, leadership „universals‟ or efficiency logics –
Instructor Resources Jaspersen et al., Management and Business Research, 8e SAGE Publishing, 2026 were developed in and for wealthy, Western, corporate contexts and then generalised outward. This can smuggle in colonial assumptions: that development follows a single linear path; that „professional‟ management looks like Anglo-American models; or that practices from multinational headquarters are inherently superior to local know-how. The result is theory that travels poorly, overlooks informal and hybrid practices, and can legitimate oneway knowledge flows. Addressing this requires epistemic plurality (valuing local theories and categories), context sensitivity (treating place, history and institutions as explanatory, not background noise) and methodological openness (comparative, processual and participatory designs; multilingual data; co-production with practitioners). It also calls for humility about constructs (e.g. re-examining leadership and motivation scales), reflexivity about researcher positionality and publishing practices that welcome situated contributions rather than privileging „view from nowhere‟ generalisations. In short, studying management in different settings is not just about inclusion – it improves explanation, prediction and usefulness by aligning our theories with how organising actually works in the world.
1.2 Research with impact 3. Discuss research and impact in relation to the job of academics and different practitioners (e.g. Head of Marketing, CEO, Data Analyst, …). What are the main similarities, and what are the differences? In most universities academics on research contracts are required to produce research as part of their conditions of employment. In the 1960s, when management was seen as an applied discipline, emphasis was placed on the applied end of the research continuum. However, as a consequence of the rise of management and business departments within traditional universities, the kind of research conducted by research-active staff became more focused on achieving academic rather than empirical impact. The ability to conduct „rigorous research‟ became increasingly seen as being synonymous with the publication of articles in leading journals – the higher the impact factors the better. Evaluated in this way, research appeared as both a means and an end in itself. More recently, the pendulum has begun to swing back as the contribution research makes to management practice has become an
Instructor Resources Jaspersen et al., Management and Business Research, 8e SAGE Publishing, 2026 important criterion for the allocation of research funding. Academics conducting research are asked to demonstrate how their research may help to address societal challenges, such as the UK‟s relatively low productivity. Assessments of „research impact‟ require the researcher to show how their research has led to change in policy areas or practice. Such change may occur as a result of the dissemination of research outcomes but also from engagement with practitioners. Some academic researchers manage to inspire both fellow academics (e.g. with new theories) and practitioners (e.g. with new solutions). However, it can be difficult to achieve both with the same research. When compared to academic research, practitioner research often appears less theorydriven and more problem-oriented. It tends to aim at improving business and professional practice within a particular organisation rather than across a certain type of organisations or entire industries. This is not to say that practitioner research is less useful or does not have to be rigorous. Like academic research, the quality of practitioner research does not only depend on asking the right questions but also on using the appropriate methods in a research process that is both systematic and rigorous. With the rise of the so-called Big Data agenda, the work of practitioner researchers in management and business research has changed in insignificant ways. Today business analytics is seen as one of many bridges between academic and practitioner research. Collaborative research between academics and practitioners opens up new avenues for bringing into dialogue research conducted in both realms. Therefore, the methods introduced in this volume can be of great use to both academic and practitioner researchers.
1.2 Proposal writing 1. What are the functions of each of the elements of an academic research proposal? (Why do we need an introduction? What is the literature review for? Why is it important to highlight limitations? etc.) It has been said that a good research proposal should contain all the information needed for a similarly qualified individual to conduct the research themselves. The function of a