Welcome to Real World Impact

A personal viewpoint by Dr Richard Teare, Managing Editor, Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes Dr Richard Teare, Managing Editor of  Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT)  gives his opinion on how practitioners can help strengthen research.  WHATT  aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development by focusing on key industry issues. “Hospitality research creates value when the questions researchers are investigating are the same ones industry is asking.” (Dr John Bowen, Theme Editor, Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes , v7 n3, 2015) Using questions to find and apply solutions to industry challenges Prior to establishing WHATT , I was the founding editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM) – a role that I held for 20 years. Established in 1988, IJCHM sought to facilitate an interchange between industry and academia, and we ran a series of conferences to encou

Dr Theo Gavrielides, Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare , believes that human rights can act as levers that can lift even the most powerful obstacles in the pursuit of dignity and justice, and argues that research can inform, support and, ultimately, greatly improve the delivery of care services. Do you agree? Theo really highlights the need for research evidence to influence what happens in practice. What steps do you think could be taken to turn research into deliverable improvements that create real world impact? “Human rights … oh, not again! Which celebrity had their picture taken without permission this time?” Unfortunately, these are the indignant thoughts that run through many people’s minds when human rights when they are mentioned by the media. Tabloids and the powerful have managed to paint – and, indeed, instil - a picture of human rights fit only for celebrities, or as a hindrance in the war against terrorism. Hu

‘Real world impact’ is an increasingly significant part of the research process. But immature and improper definition of the term is leading to misrepresentation. We need to refresh the debate,  argues Simon Linacre,  Emerald's Head of Business, Management and Economics Journals The need to demonstrate return on investment and social benefit is now commonplace, with pressure piled on researchers by business schools, institutions, corporate bodies, funders and via national assessment –  REF  (the UK’s Research Excellence Framework) being a clear example. Academic research conducted by business schools and social sciences researchers can have a strong role to play in affecting change in behaviour, practice and policy; particularly through co-creation.  But, whereas science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research is, by its very nature generally straightforward to identify, the diffuse nature of impact from social sciences or business research