Reconcilation of the Dichotomies in Marketing Theory and Practice

Abstract

Although marketing researchers have aimed to discover theories in marketing, the level of theory development within the discipline is low. The paper reviews the knowledge development practices in marketing to identify a set of dichotomies that constrain theory development in the field. These dichotomies include (i) Dichotomy between positivist and relativist research paradigm, (ii) Dischotomy between theory testing and creation and (iii) Dichotomy between academics and practice. The paper then proposes means of reconciling these dichotomies so as to accelerate the level of theory development within the discipline.