What impact has practitioner research had in the marketing academy?

Abstract

Purpose

Given marketing's fundamentally applied nature, to compare the relative impacts in the academy of work published by three groups – practitioners, practitioner‐academic alliances, and academics.Design/methodology/approach – Social Sciences Citation Index data were used to estimate the influence of 438 articles published by practitioners, practitioner‐academic alliances, and academics in five marketing journals over the period 1970‐2000.Findings – Citations for academic research were more than twice as high as those for practitioners. Conversely, citations for practitioner‐academic research rival those of the academics, and sometimes exceed them.Research limitations/implications – Only considered US marketing journals.Practical implications – Despite some excellent citation evidence for practitioner‐academic work, additional cooperative efforts must be pursued to ensure the relevance of academic marketing research to practitioner needs.Originality/value – This is the only study to “objectively” address the impact of practitioner, practitioner‐academic alliance, and academic research in the academy.

Citation

Hubbard, R. and Norman, A.T. (2007), "What impact has practitioner research had in the marketing academy?", Management Research News, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170710724278