For young scholars embarking on their research journey, building impact is not only about publishing groundbreaking findings but also ensuring that the knowledge gained from your work resonates with a wider audience, translates into actionable outcomes, and contributes to meaningful change. Here’s how you can empower yourself and others to maximize the impact of your research through six essential tips:
Tip 1: Be a Visionary – Begin with the End in Mind
In the fast-paced world of research, it’s easy to get caught up in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. To create impact, start by envisioning the end. Ask yourself: What will success look like for your research? Having a clear goal from the beginning helps you stay focused and motivated.
Finding the balance between passion and strategy is crucial. While passion drives the pursuit of knowledge, strategy ensures that the research is purposeful and aligns with broader societal needs. Balance your zeal for discovery with a well-defined plan for application.
Tip 2: Move Beyond the Article – Communicating Your Research to New Audiences
Research impact extends far beyond academic journals. To reach new audiences and make your findings more accessible, you need to explore various mediums to share your work.
- Blogs allow you to break down complex ideas into engaging, digestible content for a broader audience. Write short, engaging articles that simplify your research while retaining its essence.
- Professional magazines enable you to tailor your research findings for industry-specific readers, ensuring your work reaches practitioners and decision-makers.
- Podcasts offer an informal platform to discuss your research, fostering conversations with experts, stakeholders, and even the general public.
Being innovative is key. Work collaboratively to determine the best ways to disseminate knowledge, such as establishing data-driven decision systems to track the effectiveness of research knowledge. Use dashboards or KPIs to measure the impact and adjust accordingly.
Leverage digital platforms like webinars, online courses, and interactive workshops to facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration. These platforms offer scalable, adaptable ways to communicate findings across industries or regions.
Tip 3: Plan, Plan, Plan for Impact
A clear roadmap is essential for creating impact. Start by asking yourself: What do you want to do with the knowledge from your research? Do you aim to change policy, influence behavior, develop new products or technologies, or simply advance scientific knowledge? Defining these goals early will guide your actions and help you design strategies to reach your intended audience.
Proper planning ensures that your research is not just confined to the lab or academic community but is translated into practical, real-world applications. Align your impact goals with the broader implications of your work to ensure lasting influence.
Tip 4: Make Some New Friends – Build and Maintain Research Partnerships
Building impact requires collaboration, and that means forging strong relationships with key stakeholders. Research is more impactful when it’s relevant and actionable for those who can benefit from it the most.
Establish partnerships that align your research with the needs of stakeholders, ensuring that it addresses both short-term and long-term priorities. Relationships should evolve as your research progresses and as the needs of your stakeholders change. Maintaining continuous communication and collaboration helps to sustain trust, creating partnerships that are mutually beneficial and sustainable over time.
Tip 5: Use Your Institution’s Expertise
Many institutions have dedicated staff or departments focused on research impact. These professionals are invaluable when it comes to navigating the often-complex pathways to translating research into practical, real-world applications.
Leverage the expertise of your research office or other internal resources to develop efficient and effective impact strategies. These experts can offer guidance on everything from scaling processes to refining knowledge translation mechanisms.
Tip 6: Create Feedback Loops
To ensure long-term impact, it’s important to continually refine your processes. Establish feedback loops that allow you to gather insights from evaluations and apply them to your knowledge implementation strategies.
Measuring short-term impact is crucial in understanding if your strategies are effective. Regularly assess the immediate effects of your work and use data-driven decisions to enhance your approach. These iterative adjustments will help you stay aligned with your objectives and improve the overall impact of your research over time.
By embracing these six tips, young scholars can move beyond simply conducting research and start building a lasting impact. Whether through innovative communication methods, strong partnerships, or leveraging institutional expertise, the key to empowerment lies in being proactive, strategic, and adaptive.
This article are written based on the input I gained from the online Webinar: Building Impact for Research: Empowering Young Scholars by Professor Ian Phau.
Speaker information:
Ian Phau is John Curtin Distinguished Professor at School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business and Law. He is also the Director of the Luxury Branding Research Cluster. He continues to maintain a high calibre profile in a wide range of industry sectors, where his extensive industry and research expertise have led to much success. Recent portfolios include LVMH, Shiseido, Prada and IWC. His publications appear in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Brand Management and Psychology and Marketing, Tourism Management, amongst others. He is the current Editor-in-Chief for the Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (Emerald). In recognition of Professor Phau’s continued commitment to innovative and progressive teaching, he has received several accolades during his teaching career such as Excellence in Teaching Award, Supervisor of the Year Award, Curtin Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award and to top it all, the prestigious national ALTC excellence in teaching award.