A note on the concept of "relevance"

Recently there has been a growing concern about a practical irrelevance of the management sciences. Although many researchers talk about ‘relevance’ they hardly ever define what they actually mean by that. We will (a) provide a detailed account of different concepts of practical relevance, (b) analyse the implicit or explicit expectations concerning relevance that can be found in management science and (c) discuss what expectations concerning relevance appear justified in management science.