Academic and practitioner theories of marketing

Abstract. The relationship between the marketing academy through the conduct of marketing scientific research and marketing practice has been at the centre of a series of debates throughout the 1980s and carried on into the early 1990s. The main out-come of these debates has been a heightened attention to academic and practitioner orientations to marketing research, while conspicuously leaving unexplored how both academics and practitioners theorize upon their observations as well as deal with, evaluate and use marketing theory. An extended example illustrates the divergent orientations to the development and use of marketing theory by academics and practitioners. Key Words • academic and practitioner orientations • marketingmanagement • marketing theory • theory-in-use The relationship between academia, the conduct of scientific research, and pro-fessional fields of practice has been a subject of continuing debate in most disci-plines within the physical and social sciences. Fuelled by a number of societal forces, including shrinking federal support for research, pressures from global competitiveness, the increasing importance of science-based knowledge to the technology and innovation process, and perhaps also a proactive public policy, industry’s share of academic research more than doubled from 3.1 percent in 1975 to 6.9 percent in 1995 (NSB, 1996). In the larger scientific community, reactions to these developments have been mixed. Most observers have emphasized the benefits which can be attributed to these partnerships including improved trans-fer of knowledge and technology, increased relevance of education, and, in the case of practically useful science-derived technology and knowledge, improved competitiveness and economic development. However, others have been less enthusiastic, emphasizing the potential costs of a closer alignment of the domain