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The aim of this paper is to introduce the topic of poster presentation as legitimate area of academic study and practice within the marketing discipline.

The paper presents the output of one part of a research project that reviewed the state of knowledge and practice within poster presentation as a dissemination medium for research information. The results of the literature search are presented as an annotated bibliography.

The literature search reveals a sizeable body of material on the use of poster presentation as a dissemination media, indicative of a set of key themes that guide good practice in poster design, construction and presentation. It also includes material that has studied the use of poster design and presentation exercises as pedagogical devices.

The research on which the paper is based is limited by virtue of not offering a more complete survey of contemporary poster presentation practice across the sciences. It draws observations from the author's attendance at several marketing and management‐related conferences where poster presenters have been interviewed and examples of poster presentation have been collected. However, in the sciences, especially the medical sciences, poster practice is well‐established and in some cases moving towards digitisation.

The aesthetics of poster design remain unclear in the case of poster design for the dissemination of scientific information. However, a set of templates has been produced based on the close study of a database of over 600 poster designs and ten years' experience of using posters as teaching tools for research training. A methodology for poster design has also been developed known as “The Block Architecture Method of Poster Design”. It uses the software Powerpoint and Photoshop to develop poster design electronically.

The bibliography will help interested teachers and students explore the various issues surrounding poster design, construction and presentation. It will also help to understand some of the advantages of using poster‐design exercises as creative and critical devices in a pedagogical context.

Management practice is progressing at unprecedented pace and often academia is lagging behind, if not totally irrelevant, both in management research and in education. This paper strives to show how principles of pragmatism and action research are likely to increase the relevance of management research and education.

A reflection based on a broad review of ontological and epistemological issues leads to a call for philosophical re‐foundation of management academia.

Pragmatism defines truth seeking as reducing doubt, and therefore necessarily includes the notion of a client for the research effort. Action research is a practical embodiment of this approach and deserves a more prominent role.

The research limitations and implications are inherent in the chosen methodology/approach: a viewpoint that hopefully stimulates others.

This paper makes concrete suggestions as to how to bring research and education closer to the client to permit cross‐fertilization and improve problem‐solving processes.

The paper offers a meta‐synthesis of ontological and epistemological approaches to the theory‐praxis gap. It outlines the imminent pertinence of pragmatism as a philosophy and as a practice of management science and relates pragmatism to theory of action, purporting pragmatist paradigms of management knowledge socialization.

The purpose of this paper is to explore introspection in marketing research, its controversial origins, its positioning as an art form, the possibilities and the pitfalls of research based on this method, and how to successfully enter into its creative spirit.

Although its overall approach is broadly conceptual, in a similar fashion to the dramatic device of a‐play‐within‐a‐play, the paper makes a habit of using introspection to reflect on introspection.

While it is clear that well‐written introspections can deliver rich stream‐of‐consciousness accounts of marketing‐relevant goodness from beginning to end, they provide more than just frivolous entertainment. The innermost imperative of introspection equates well with consumption, creativity and aestheticisation, the corner‐stones of arts marketing.

The inherent mucky‐mindedness of introspection as a formal method lays its success or failure on the shoulders of the paper's author.

Whatever their interpretive methodology of choice, arts marketers, indeed all marketers, should give serious thought to integrating introspection into their research approach.

While many of the ideas in the paper are pilfered from other sources (see long list of references), the author is proud to assert that precisely these words have never been written in precisely this order.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

This paper reconsiders the role of critical theory within the field of consumer culture theory.

The paper is documentary evidence of a roundtable held at the 10th annual Consumer Culture Theory conference on the subject. The roundtable uses discussion and conceptual methods.

The author begins with a brief introduction to the use of critical theory in the academy and in CCT more specifically. In the course of the roundtable, it was discovered that the reason we do not talk about critical theory more often may be attributable to its success, rather than failure – indeed, it has inspired so many new academic traditions, that we rarely pause to think of the various critical traditions in one place. Building on this foundation, participants were asked to discuss what critical theory means to them; what theorists they have used; what engagement they have had with critical theory traditions in CCT; and what their vision for critical theory influenced consumer research would be. Participation came from both planned and emergent participants. The final conclusion was the felicitous discovery that critical traditions are alive and well in consumer culture theory, and that there are many pathways to pursue critical consumer research in the future.

The roundtable session and paper are a direct response to the conference theme, which asked conference attendees to reflect on the history of consumer research, and specifically the role of critical theory within it. Moreover, the paper builds upon important debates about the philosophy of science and the role of critical theory within consumer research.

In considering my academic history as a professor both in marketing and management, I hope to demonstrate that it is possible to research challenging and interesting topics in a variety of guises.

The presentation is primarily chronological but also, to some degree, selective. I have focused on my research activities but not forgotten the importance, at least to me, of both academic administration and indeed a broader set of interests in more general terms.

While there is inevitably a significant degree of path dependency in my academic career, I have also been quite keen to explore more broadly both the boundaries of my subjects and the application of various different research methods. I have been particularly fortunate to have worked with some excellent academic colleagues and stimulating doctoral students.

I believe there are a twin set of implications for other academics; however, I would emphasise that there is no single right way. For me it has been important to pick topics which are of interest to others and at the same time try and demonstrate some distinctive value added in my approach.

I hope that those who are earlier in their career will take heart from two principles, one being to do one’s best to be in interesting places and the other to work closely with colleagues who have challenging and different perspectives.