A Reconciliation of the Dichotomies in Marketing Theory and Practice

Ever since the marketing concept grew in importance in the 1950s, there have been attempts to generate theories in the discipline. The role of theory in a discipline is to increase scientific understanding in order to explain and predict phenomena (Dubin,1978; Hunt 1976). Research in physical sciences (e.g. physics, biology) has led to discovery of theories that have enabled prediction and control of a range of real world phenomena. Like researchers in other disciplines, marketing researchers aim to discover theories and laws that will allow explanation and prediction of marketing phenomena. In the course of everyday decision-making, marketing practitioners address a range of important issues related to product launches, pricing and advertising. Marketing theories are expected to provide practitioners guidelines for predicting the impact of their marketing decisions.