Closing the Gap Between Research, Education, and Practice

Effective educators, functioning as service providers, offer essential resources to students. These students, equipped with their unique skills, capabilities, and initiative, collaborate with instructors to collectively generate value. This created value is then utilized to develop practical and meaningful outcomes, empowering students to reach their full potential. The collaborative learning process goes beyond the conventional one-way flow of information from instructor to student. All participants play active roles in value creation and benefit from reciprocal value propositions. We present three tangible projects conducted at Copenhagen Business School aimed at bridging the divides between research, education, and practical application. The Civic Researcher project is a year-long collaboration between a senior business professional, a seasoned academic researcher, and a citizen who contributes their work and life experiences. This initiative enhances citizens’ lifelong learning and fosters robust connections with the business community. The Researcher-in-Residence project involves a marketing researcher collaborating with a company engaged in design science efforts aimed at enhancing management practices. This initiative grants the researcher access to company data, facilitating the identification of new scientific practices and generating valuable field data, novel insights, and fresh knowledge. Finally, in the Student-as-Business-Re-designer project, students tackle business challenges as part of their master’s thesis project. Students apply academic insights and theories to devise solutions for complex business issues, to the benefit of participating companies. We discuss how researchers, students, and practitioners acquire new skills, gain insights, and establish strong connections in all of these projects.