Marketing Theory Matters

Abstract

There have been concerns about the slow pace of theory development inside and outside of marketing for a number of years. Rarely have some of the possible reasons for this lack of development been considered, or an assessment of the ways in which a more theoretically driven focus might emerge been discussed. This paper addresses these gaps in the current debate. Potential difficulties have emerged as a result of a lack of theorists, lack of theory courses, business school strategies and misguided perceptions of practitioner‐oriented research amongst other things. Suggestions for future action to drive a more theoretically driven marketing are proposed.

Busca da informação em marketing: a perspectiva da ciência da informação

“…No presente trabalho, pretende-se examinar essas questões na área de Marketing. O hiato entre a academia e a prática (academic/practitioner gap), observado na literatura técnica de Marketing, as dificuldades na operacionalização da orientação de empresas para o mercado e ainda o baixo retorno dos investimentos em sistemas de informação demonstram com clareza a dimensão desse desafio (MCCOLE, 2004;GREENLEY e outros, 2004;HACKLEY, 1998, BURTON, 2005GUMMESSON, 2002;WIERENGA, 2002;HEEKS, 2002;KOTLER, 2004).…”

“…Essas críticas se concentram mais fortemente sobre o distanciamento entre a teoria acadêmica e o exercício prático de marketing nas empresas (MCCOLE, 2004;GREENLEY e outros 2004;HACKLEY, 1998;BURTON, 2005;GUMMESSON, 2002;WIERENGA, 2002). Patriotta (2003, p. 350) leva sua crítica mais além, ao apontar para o fato de que a ênfase dada pela literatura técnica à exploração instrumental do conhecimento [...] parece negligenciar os processos através dos quais o conhecimento é socialmente construído e aceito como válido.…”

The Speed of Experience: The Co‐narrative Method in Experience Economy Education

“…eir scope encompasses all organizations, including those from outside the material production sphere, such as knowledge intensive rms (Davenport and Glaser, 2002). Slowdown is a condition to be abhorred, whether it applies to market growth (Dawson and Larke, 2004) or theory generation (Burton, 2005).…”

Modeling in branding: a critical ethnography approach

“…The former is, however, the dominant approach in marketing (Malhotra et al 1999;Leeflang and Wittink, 2000;Burton, 2005). For many, such an obsession with (thesis-testing) positivism is dragging theory construction (thesis-building) in marketing down, creating self-imposed isolation from its open/multidisciplinary theoretical and practical base (Leeflang and Wittink, 2000;Burton, 2002Burton, , 2005Brownlie, 2006).…”

“…As a result, the critical approach, a rapidly growing stance in marketing (Saren et al 2007), is felt to have the greatest potential to offer a continuous critique of existing marketing knowledgegrounded in actual practices and inspired by a multi-disciplinary orientation -and to construct the more macro and inclusive views that constantly develop marketing theory (Burton, 2005;Brownlie, 2006). Furthermore, befitting the empirically grounded and multi-disciplinary nature of critical theorizing, the ability of ethnographic inquiry to empirically link the 'part to the whole' has proved central to critical theory construction (Thomas, 1983;Baszanger and Dodier, 1997 (p.8); Kincheloe and McLaren, 2000).…”