The marketing academic/practitioner gap in Australasia

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study exploring qualitative perspectives on academic marketing research (AMR) by commercial marketing practitioners (CMP) in Australasia. The study found that CMPs have mixed understandings of what AMR is, and that use of AMR in practice is limited. AMR is sometimes used to justify practice, improve decision making or to keep abreast of the latest developments in marketing thought and practice, but CMPs are more likely to rely in quickly digestible sources with questionable credibility, like blogs. CMPs also face several utilitarian barriers to using AMR such as time and money. The results indicate there is an opportunity for marketing education to integrate use of AMR for practice better and for marketing scholars to rethink how they are disseminating AMR. Utilising basic marketing principles to increase the impact of AMR may be useful.