This paper discusses why commissioned research is often neglected and misunderstood, as well as how its use can be enhanced. We argue that the lack of use of such research can be attributed to differences in researchers' and practitioners' knowledge and expectations regarding research problems,...

Purpose – Due to their limited resources small‐ and medium‐sized firms are often assumed not to influence or “drive” their industries or markets. However, based on insights from social cognition and studies of firms' reputations it is argued that small firms might benefit from actively...

Purpose – Given that marketing practitioners often perceive theory as something abstract, with little relevance to their work, the objective is to explain why and how competent application of theory can be highly useful and even lead to competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – This paper sets out to identify the knowledge and skills that marketing practitioners need to possess and use, to improve marketing management and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – The data from a survey of marketing managers, academics and senior students in New...

Purpose – Aims to address the important but little researched question of why so many firms fail and so few succeed in their pursuit of opportunities. Design/methodology/approach – By reporting investment behaviour and performance among firms in the turbulent seafood industry, it was...

Purpose – To examine whether upstream firms in the food chain are knowledgeable about end‐users or consumers and to identify factors that might influence their acquisition of such knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – A cross‐disciplinary approach is used to gain theoretical insights...

Purpose – It is well known that the results of academic marketing research are not widely used by practitioners. This is attributed to a range of factors including language barriers and poor communication between the academic and practitioner communities. In spite of this, there exists little...

This paper studies the accuracy of small‐ to medium‐sized (SME) managers' perceptions of their information exchanges with important market actors such as customers, competitors and suppliers. In this way, examines an important dimension of managers' network perceptions, which are assumed to...

This paper explores whether and how firms and their management are influenced by two types of environmental turbulence which have only been given scant attention in past research on market orientation, i.e. turbulence due to unpredictable supply conditions and turbulence created by frequent and...

It is commonly assumed that a prime purpose of developing research‐based marketing knowledge is that it should be useful to marketing managers and other practitioners. However, evidence suggests that academic marketing knowledge is only to a limited degree utilised in practical life. It is...