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For several years, there has been a debate as to the choice between rigour and relevance in management research. While initiated in North America in the late 80s, the issue has been attracting attention in France for a decade or so. From our perspective, the challenge is to ensure that management research is successfully transferred to practice. Towards that end, we propose various means to enhance relevance throughout the research process. Furthermore, we discuss contextual changes that we deem necessary to reconcile the criteria for relevance and for rigour as well as to increase knowledge transfer towards organizations and society in general. Finally, we show how various economic, competitive, sociological and technological changes are conducive to raising the relevance of academic research in management as well as to potential synergies between research, teaching and knowledge transfer.