Do We Understand Each Other? Discussing Academic Exchange from a Cross-Cultural Communication Perspective

Abstract

This article takes a communication perspective to explore the divide between practitioners and academics and also looks at the exchange within the scholarly community. While the relevance debate for business and management related research is frequently pointing at communication problems, there is little systematic inclusion of communication research. We look at contributions in other fields and disciplines and adopt insights from communication theory and cross-cultural communication research to explain (mis)communication in exchanges with practitioners and the academic peer group. This article contributes to a more systematic understanding of academic exchange focusing on how source, recipient, message, channel, and context as prominent communication inputs affect the communication outcomes. This allows a better understanding of the process of research as well as its dissemination, suggesting areas of potential misunderstanding and pointing at the benefits of a cross-cultural communication lens.