The Consumption of Management Publications

This paper focuses on the consumption phase of the process of ProductionDiffusion-Consumption of management knowledge. We argue that consumers play an important role in that process, a role we feel has been overlooked by most of the literature. The first part of the paper is mostly theoretical. In it we first situate our contribution within the existing literature about management knowledge, and then address the issue of the selection of knowledge sources by knowledge consumers. We sustain that managerconsumers have a strong impact on the success or failure of management ideas (selection) and also shape their content. The second part of the paper is mostly empirical, consisting of an analysis of a questionnaire designed to help understand knowledge consumers’ behavior. Lastly, we offer our conclusions. NOTE: We would like to acknowledge the financial support received from the CEMP Research Program for this research. THE CONSUMPTION OF MANAGEMENT PUBLICATIONS Introduction Up to now, analysis of the organizational field of management publications has mostly focused on economic and institutional aspects. CEMP Report 5 (The Management Publishing Industry in Europe) focuses on the basic economic features and the institutional actors in the industry. CEMP Report 9 (