Using Power-Law Science to Enhance Knowledge for Practical Relevance

Benbya, H. & McKelvey, B. 2011, Using Power-Law Science to Enhance Knowledge for Practical Relevance, In Leslie A. Toombs (Ed.), Best Paper Proceedings of the Seventieth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (CD), ISSN, 1543-8643

37 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2010 Last revised: 31 Jul 2014

See all articles by Hind Benbya

Hind Benbya

Deakin University

Bill McKelvey

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management

Date Written: January 14, 2011

Abstract

The debates about knowledge relevance have been around for years and several calls have been issued to change the methods used by researchers to improve the translation of academic research to management. We think a change in perspective about what phenomenon we study and how we study them is key to enhance knowledge for practical relevance. Specifically, most research produced by academics focuses on Gaussian science - the science of normal distributions, stable means, finite variance, and statistical significance. These help produce knowledge about normal phenomena but fails to provide solutions for organizations as truly dynamic systems. In contrast, we argue that research ontology and epistemology need to shift in some significant measure to the study of Paretian rank frequencies; what we call power-law science. This paper introduces Pareto rank frequency distributions and how they differ from normal methods of conducting research and suggests methods to use at various points on Pareto distributions to offer practical knowledge about phenomena faced by managers.

Keywords: Knowledge relevance, Normal science, Power Laws, Extremes, Limits of Averages

Suggested Citation

Benbya, Hind and McKelvey, Bill, Using Power-Law Science to Enhance Knowledge for Practical Relevance (January 14, 2011). Benbya, H. & McKelvey, B. 2011, Using Power-Law Science to Enhance Knowledge for Practical Relevance, In Leslie A. Toombs (Ed.), Best Paper Proceedings of the Seventieth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (CD), ISSN, 1543-8643, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1560610 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1560610

Hind Benbya (Contact Author)

Deakin University ( email )

221, Burwood Highway
Melbourne, VIC 3125
Australia

Bill McKelvey

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management ( email )

110 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
186
Abstract Views
1,171
Rank
311,691
PlumX Metrics