There is a considerable overlap between industry and higher education (HE) in attempting to explain changes taking place in industry. However, this paper argues that, despite this mutuality of interest, the explanations of change will inevitably vary in style. The paper highlights differences between industry and HE styles of explaining change in industry. Industry and HE styles of explaining change are compared and contrasted with illustrative examples of actual explanations of change drawn from the banking sector. The differences between the industry and HE styles of explaining change are identified in terms of five dimensions: people, precision, persuasiveness, sophistication and time. The paper establishes implications for three groups of stakeholders in change explanations – HE, mediators and industry.
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