This paper aims to investigate the process of setting a prioritized research agenda that tackles the relevance gap in the management field as a method of academic branding for scholars. This is done by assessing the institutional and individual factors that affect research agenda prioritization for the management scholar. A conceptual approach, that is the outcome of theory analysis and the investigation of previous literature, is adopted. This results in a conceptual framework that tackles the relationship between the factors on one side and decision‐making styles on the other. The study has implications for scholars to keep in perspective a conceptualization of the factors that could influence their research agenda setting process. This study has two contributions. First, the delivery of a conceptual framework that is relevant to management scholars to help prioritize research agenda that contributes to academic branding, and second is the linking of decision‐making styles to these factors.