Management Science: What Does it Have to Do with Management or Science?
Marketing Bulletin, Vol. 9, pp. 1-15, May 1998
13 Pages Posted: 17 Feb 2005 Last revised: 31 Dec 2011
Abstract
First, I want to tell you what I have in mind in talking about management and science. A broad view of management is that it involves procedures to forecast, plan, analyse, decide, motivate, communicate, and implement. On the scientific side, my definition is limited: science is the use of objective and replicable procedures to compare different approaches, techniques or theories.
Management science has delivered many useful things and it has made management more efficient, but it is capable of doing much more. Only a small percentage of the studies in management science are useful, and that proportion is declining. Meanwhile, useful findings that do occur are often unseen, or rejected, or ignored. So, in addition to talking about improving management science, I will also discuss how to improve the communication of important scientific findings.
Keywords: Management, management science, scientific findings
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