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The 2013 AACSB accreditation standards are built around three central themes: Innovation, Impact and Engagement. The Preamble to the standards states, “[t]he fundamental purpose of AACSB accreditation is to encourage business schools to hold themselves accountable for improving business practice through scholarly education and impactful intellectual contributions.” With regard to impact in particular, the Preamble notes that “business schools must document how they are making a difference and having impact.” The Academy of Legal Studies in Business sets forth these guidelines to assist business schools in assessing the impact of the activities of the legal studies faculty.

PREAMBLE

The purpose of this document is to address how legal studies faculty can demonstrate impact. There are several points to emphasize with regard to measuring impact:

1)     The impact measures are not necessarily tied to any promotion or tenure criteria. Business schools should have specific and well-defined promotion and tenure criteria. Impact measures may be defined differently, more broadly or more narrowly than those criteria. They also may have a different time criteria than promotion or tenure criteria (for example, a research paper may not have a discernable impact for several years after publication but it may count for promotion and tenure when it is accepted for publication).

2)     Impact measures should be consistent with the mission of each business school. These measures could be focused on topics (for example, globalization, demonstrated change in local business processes, or the religious values of the institution) or be more generally defined (for example, citation counts, specific journal lists, or placement rates).

3)     There should be multiple measures of impact at the business school. They should be defined and articulated.

Business schools are expected to document the impact of their mission statement’s expected outcomes (Standard 1), the impact of intellectual contributions on theory, practice and teaching (Standard 2), the impact of student/faculty and student/student interactions (Standard 10), the impact of innovative teaching on student learning (Standard 12), and the impact of processes and procedures in executive education (Standard 14). The Appendix to the 2013 Standards contains examples of metrics that can be used by business schools to demonstrate impact. The Appendix identifies impact in several categories which can be summarized in to three main categories: Publication Impact, Practice/Community Impact, and Student Impact.

IMPACT MEASURES

Given that each institution will have different measures, this paper will review each of the three categories of impact specifically as they relate to legal studies faculty.

A.     Publication Impact

It is evident from the standards that impact of research publications is a key concern. There are several measures of publication impact. Publication impact can focus on discipline-based discovery scholarship, pedagogical scholarship or practice/applied scholarship.

1)     Traditional Direct Measures

Academic research impact may be demonstrated through “traditional” measures of scholarly activity. These measures include citation counts, download counts for electronic journals, publication counts in top tier journals, research awards and other recognition, and grants awarded.

Legal studies faculty may demonstrate impact in terms of grant dollars, market share for textbooks, download counts for journal articles or case studies, or counts of publications.  Where legal studies faculty publish in journals of other business disciplines, demonstrating impact through citation counts or general business journal rankings also may be appropriate.

With regard to a majority of discipline-specific journals, very few law journals are listed in journal indexes such as Cabell’s, the Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Quality Guide, the Financial Times 45, or other cross-discipline ranking systems.  As such, legal research is better analyzed using evidence such as acceptance rates and discipline-based rankings (such as the Washington and Lee ranking system found at http://lawlib.wlu.edu/LJ/) as opposed to general journal rankings.

In addition, citation counts are not a reliable measure of impact in legal research because primary emphasis is placed on citation to original sources of law, such as constitutions, statutes, administrative regulations, official government interpretations, and court opinions.

Finally, legal studies faculty may have research cited in extremely influential outlets, such as court opinions, legal briefs, administrative regulation documentation and other policy-making documents. These are highly impactful and legal studies faculty should work to ensure their inclusion in the impact measures for their institution.

2)     Less Traditional Indirect Measures

In addition, academic impact can be measured by use of intellectual contributions in courses taught by other faculty, invited participation in scholarly programs or research conferences, editorial or reviewing work on journals, and leadership positions in academic organizations.

Legal studies faculty can demonstrate academic impact based on these measures in several ways. Involvement in the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) or its regional organizations is highly impactful. In addition, serving as reviewers or editors for the national and regional journals is effective. Invitations to participate in colloquia at ALSB conferences and the Huber Hurst Seminar Series are other valuable measures.

3)     Mission Related Measures

A newly articulated measure of research impact looks to the linkages between the mission statement of the business school and the activities of its faculty. Evidence of mission alignment impact includes the number of faculty who have created intellectual contributions that align with the mission (or the number of intellectual contributions by faculty that so align). For example, if a business school has articulated environmental sustainability as part of its mission, that school may count the number of intellectual contributions by faculty where environmental sustainability is a focus. Alternatively, if a business school’s mission is tied to a set of religious values, a count of intellectual contributions where those values are used in analysis or discussion would indicate impact. Each school is left to determine what its mission is and what type of research or activities link to that mission.

Legal studies faculty in business schools may demonstrate mission alignment impact by writing in areas related to the mission, or by collaborating with other faculty to include elements of the mission. For example, if the regional economy is a focus in the mission, legal studies faculty can contribute to intellectual contributions by addressing issues related to state and local regulation that impact the regional economy.

B.     Community/Practice/Public Policy Impact

In addition to traditional publication impact, legal studies faculty are very well suited to create intellectual contributions that have significant impact in the community, in public policy development and on business practice.

Community and practice impact can be found in media citations, law-related blogs, publications in practitioner journals (such as bar journals), invitations to speak at community events, invitations to participate on community task forces related to academic expertise, consulting, giving workshops, or membership on boards of both for-profit and non-profit organizations.  In addition, legal studies faculty can contribute their expertise to local business publications. Serving as an expert witness also can demonstrate significant community impact.

In addition, the AACSB Appendix lists “research center” impact. Items that demonstrate impact in this category include projects funded by external agencies, attendance at center-sponsored events, or invitations to serve on policy-making bodies.

Public policy impact can be demonstrated when the work of legal studies faculty is used by legislative, administrative or executive bodies to craft statutes, regulations or public policies. Many communities lack the resources or expertise to hire experts (legal or otherwise) when crafting their public policy decisions. Particularly in smaller communities governments call upon higher education’s public service mission for assistance. Legal studies faculty possess unique knowledge and expertise, often contributing important research analyses pro bono to these efforts.

Legal studies faculty may have a tremendous impact of by producing discipline-based scholarly contributions that are

• utilized in the drafting of statutes, ordinances and/or regulations enacted by international, federal, state and local government entities
• filed with federal, state, local or international regulatory boards, commissions or other governmental bodies to assist them in their official charges
• filed as expert analysis in judicial or quasi-judicial matters
• used as expert analysis in applied corporate, non-profit, government agency or other related forums
• the basis for amicus briefs that shape the development of case law
• the foundation for federal, state or local legislative testimony

C.     Student Impact

Student impact relates to both the impact on students during their academic career and to the impact on students after they leave academia.

In working with students during their academic careers, legal studies faculty may serve as mentors for student research projects, or as committee chairs/members for theses or dissertations. Faculty impact can include participating in pre-law advising for the college when appropriate. Legal studies faculty may consider reaching out to other units on campus to offer support in their area of expertise for graduate students in other colleges who may need to address the law in their research.

As students leave academia, evidence of impact may be found in many areas. At institutions where legal studies is represented in the curriculum with a major, minor or certificate program, those departments hosting the academic program should track their students for job or graduate school placement. In addition, whether legal studies is a separate program or not, legal studies faculty may still demonstrate impact in this area.  Tracking the number of business students from the institution who attend law school can indicate impact. Passing rates on professional exams that include legal topics (e.g., the CPA and CFA exams) can demonstrate impact of the legal studies faculty and curriculum. Finally, entry in to certain law-related careers (e.g., real estate, insurance, and certain fields of consulting) may also indicate impact.

AACSB, 2013 Standards, Preamble.

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The term “legal studies” as used in this document refers to courses and programs in legal studies, paralegal studies, business law, real estate law, hospitality law, business ethics, and other law and ethics courses taught by law-trained faculty in colleges or schools of business.