In this study, we explore the behavioral intention of Indian B-school academicians towards teaching and research. Data regarding various motivators, barriers, advantages and disadvantages of choosing teaching and research as preferences in career development were collected from academicians of top Indian B-schools. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews, focus groups and netnography. The study resulted in an instrument that can measure the intention of academicians behind the choice of teaching and research. The implications of this study are twofold. First, it contributes to the literature by identifying the impact of choices made by academicians between research and teaching on the effective learning of students. Second, the findings of the study will further aid university administrators in designing the right interventions for enhancing teaching and research practices, which propose that intention is a strong determinant of behavior.

A large and growing body of literature has acknowledged the gap between research and teaching at various levels of schools and universities and raised our general awareness of its severity. Indeed, a significant portion of recent issue of Academy of Management Journal was dedicated to address this issue (AMJ, 2007). The focus of this issue was to lay out various possibilities for bridging this gap between research and teaching and making them a contributing factor for the industries. Several studies have investigated the nature and causes of this fissure between research and teaching. The size and causes of the research-teaching gap are based on the relative emphasis on teaching versus research across business schools. The gap may be more prominent in teaching schools than research-intensive schools. As a matter of fact, there is a link between research and teaching; almost everything that is taught in the colleges is a product of somebody’s prior research and its publication. But the need to establish a strong, overt and enduring link between research and teaching at all levels has a wider agenda. Researchers are increasingly focusing on bridging the gap between research and teaching so that it can lead to effectiveness of college and the students’ performance.

It is also confirmed that strengthening the teaching-research nexus holds vast potential to deliver not only the skills needed to understand research to upcoming generations of managers, but also to instill values that recognize the validity of research. The questions that need to be explored, however, are: What are the factors that influence the preferences of the academicians for research and teaching? Is the decision to select research and teaching dependent on some variables? What are the motivating and de-motivating factors that affect the choice of academicians towards research and teaching? What causes this gap and what efforts should universities take to reduce this gap? All these queries are not explored exhaustively. Very limited study has been done to investigate the academicians’ intentions behind the choice of research and teaching. Thus, through this study we aim to explore these intentions of academicians which trigger the preference of academician for research or teaching.

Soft Skills Journal, Behavioral Intentions, Academicians, Research-Teaching, Academicians, Competency, Teaching and Research, Indian B-School, Nature of Research-Teaching, .