The relationship between business schools and the real world of business has been the subject of a rumbling debate since the very first schools saw the light of day. Over recent years, the gulf between the two sides has often seemed to be widening.

Schools throughout the world have emphasised the power of research, seeking to turn business into an exact science rather than the often random combination of art and science that practitioners encounter.

Some business school academics have a bad case of what has been called “physics envy”, an urge towards ever more obscure research in the quest for academic credibility.

But reality is striking back. Increasingly, business school faculty lists have reassuring nods in the direction of business reality. A growing number of faculty members call themselves professors of “management practice”. And many schools now include an “executive in residence”, an experienced business leader in situ to teach and offer guidance.

Some have taken this a stage further with entrepreneurs in residence, working on the theory that magic dust will somehow be dispersed by the very presence of an entrepreneur. James Caan, one of the stars of TV’s Dragons’ Den, spent time as an entrepreneur in residence at London Business School.

Among those leading the way is Columbia Business School in New York, which has a long-established executives-in-residence programme. Retired and semi-retired executives lecture and teach on the school’s MBA programmes but also act as career counsellors. The executives — currently ten — are appointed by the school’s dean on renewable one-year terms. They include Robert Essner, former chairman and chief executive of the healthcare and pharmaceutical company Wyeth, and Richard Zannino, former chief executive of Dow Jones, the business information provider.

Closer to home, the UK’s Ashridge Business School has two executives-in-residence: Jon Walmsley, a British publisher, and Maximilian Kammerer, a Nokia vice-president.

Lancaster University Management School has an entrepreneur-in-residence, Ian Gordon, who is researching the role of non-executive directors and business mentors and their impact on small business growth.

The University of Surrey’s entrepreneur-in-residence is Nigel Biggs. The founder of Pixology and Passionate Innovation says: “My role is to help students and staff to be enterprising and find that passion inside to do something to make a difference.”

At Manchester Metropolitan University Business School Mark Simms has been appointed to a new post of entrepreneur-in-residence within Innospace — the school’s start-up business incubator. Simms is a former marketing director of Kellogg’s and a serial entrepreneur. He will combine his new post with working on the launch of a new company producing sports protection equipment.

A long-term supporter of the concept is Cambridge’s Judge Business School, which has had a chief executive-in-residence programme since 2001. The current occupant is Kevin Roberts, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. Roberts holds masterclasses for students and hosts topical discussions.

Sceptics would suggest that all this is window dressing, but entrepreneurs and executives do tend to throw themselves into new roles with energy and enthusiasm.

The sign that business schools are genuinely influencing the world of business is when academics move in the opposite direction. Vijay Govindarajan, of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School, is currently professor-in-residence and chief innovation consultant at General Electric. If one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world can involve a professor so closely in its development, many more are sure to follow.