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Forschungskooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis zum Thema „Corporate Social Responsibility“ am Beispiel von IKEA Deutschland

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Zusammenfassung Kooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis sind häufig durch beiderseitige Skepsis geprägt. Der vorliegende Artikel beschäftigt sich am Beispiel der mit dem Wissenschaftspreis 2016 ausgezeichneten Forschungskooperation zwischen IKEA und einer Forschergruppe damit, wie solche Kooperationen ausgestaltet sein könnten, um für beide Parteien gewinnbringende Erkenntnisse zu generieren. Insbesondere wird dabei die wichtige Rolle von Feldexperimenten beleuchtet. Der Artikel schließt mit zehn Erfolgsfaktoren für eine erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wissenschaft und Unternehmenspraxis.
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SCHWERPUNKTTHEMA
DOI 10.1007/s00550-016-0429-0
uwf (2016) 24:383–391
Forschungskooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis zum
Thema „Corporate Social Responsibility“ am Beispiel von IKEA
Deutschland
Laura Marie Schons1· Sabrina Scheidler2
Online publiziert: 25. November 2016
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Zusammenfassung Kooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft
und Praxis sind häufig durch beiderseitige Skepsis geprägt.
Der vorliegende Artikel beschäftigt sich am Beispiel der mit
dem Wissenschaftspreis 2016 ausgezeichneten Forschungs-
kooperation zwischen IKEA und einer Forschergruppe da-
mit, wie solche Kooperationen ausgestaltet sein könnten,
um für beide Parteien gewinnbringende Erkenntnisse zu ge-
nerieren. Insbesondere wird dabei die wichtige Rolle von
Feldexperimenten beleuchtet. Der Artikel schließt mit zehn
Erfolgsfaktoren für eine erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit zwi-
schen Wissenschaft und Unternehmenspraxis.
Abstract Joint research projects between academia and
managerial practice are often marked by a high degree of
mutual skepticism. The paper at hand carves out how to
approach such cooperation projects in order to generate
valuable insights for both parties. The paper reports a re-
search collaboration between IKEA Germany and a group
of researchers that was honored with the “German Science
Award 2016”. Special attention is paid to the importance
of conducting field experiments. As take-away learning,
the article sums ups ten success factors for joint research
projects between academia and management.
Laura Marie Schons
schons@bwl.uni-mannheim.de
Sabrina Scheidler
Sabrina.scheidler@rub.de
1Universität Mannheim, Schloss SO 053, 68131 Mannheim,
Deutschland
2Sales & Marketing Department, Ruhr Universität Bochum,
Universitätsstrasse 150, 44801 Bochum, Deutschland
1 Kooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft und
Praxis – Hindernisse & Hürden
Kooperationen zwischen Wissenschaft und Unternehmen-
spraxis sind – zumindest im Anfangsstadium – häufig durch
beiderseitige Vorurteile geprägt. Die Unternehmenspraxis
hat das Bild der Wissenschaftler im Elfenbeinturm vor Au-
gen, die vor lauter Theorieorientierung praktische Frage-
stellungen unnötig komplizieren und mit methodischen Ka-
nonen auf Spatzen schießen. Umgekehrt befürchten Wis-
senschaftler häufig, dass die Fragestellungen der Unterneh-
menspraxis so fallspezifisch sind, dass sich keine wissen-
schaftlich wertvolle, d. h. „generalisierbare“ Erkenntnis aus
einer Kooperation generieren lässt.
In diesem Artikel möchten wir von einer Forschungsko-
operation zwischen einem Team von Wissenschaftlern und
IKEA Deutschland berichten, die nicht nur zu interessanten
Erkenntnissen für das Unternehmen geführthat, sondern die
auch von wissenschaftlicher Seite honoriert und mit diver-
sen Preisen ausgezeichnet wurde. Die Verantwortung von
Unternehmen für soziale und ökologische Nachhaltigkeit,
auch als „Corporate Social Responsibility“ (CSR) bezeich-
net, stellte das zentrale Forschungsthema der Kooperation
dar.
Ein methodisches Thema, für das wir in diesem Zu-
sammenhang insbesondere die Lanze brechen wollen, sind
Feldexperimente, in denen zum Beispiel Kundengruppen
mit Kommunikationsbotschaften konfrontiert werden, um
die Effektivität dieser Botschaften durch Zwischengruppen-
vergleiche zu testen. Wir erläutern in diesem Beitrag warum
Feldexperimente sich besonders im Kontext von Koope-
rationen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis dazu eignen,
wichtige Erkenntnisse für beide Seiten zu generieren. Am
Ende dieses Artikels leiten wir zudem aus den Erfahrungen
K
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