Historical Roots and Future Directions: New Challenges for Management Learning

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This article explores the development of Management Learning from nascent publication for a trade association focusing on applied research to an esteemed international and learned journal. Since the mid 1970s editors and contributors have dedicated themselves to the publication of scholarly, theoretical and critical approaches. They have achieved considerable success. On the whole a much more scholarly approach has been developed in understanding management learning and has helped to legitimize it as an acceptable and appropriate field of study. Conversely there have been costs associated with this mission. We reveal a relative decline of practical, user led and collaborative research papers and contributions directly addressing the concerns of executive education and development, particularly in terms of design, delivery and evaluation. The article concludes with a plea for rigorous, scholarly contributions that are also contextual and accessible to practitioners.