Managerial relevance in academic research: an exploratory study

Concern has been expressed by business and marketing scholars that academic research in these fields should be made more relevant to managers. In this paper the focus in on the views of marketing managers concerning the relevance of academic research to them. The empirical context of the work is business-to-business marketing. The experienced marketing practitioners interviewed knew very little about the current state of academic research in marketing, and considered that academic researchers did not understand the realities of business life and could not communicate effectively with managers. Marketing practitioners prefer to work with consultants, whom they consider understand business realities better and are more effective communicators. The paper discusses the barriers that marketing academies will have to overcome if they are to make their research more relevant to practitioners.