Marketing Intelligence & Planning

Managerial relevance in academic research: an exploratory study

Paul Ankers Ross Brennan
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 Managerial relevance in academic research: an
exploratory study
Keywords
Research, Industry, Managers,
Co-operation, Universities
Abstract
Downloaded by McMaster University At 19:22 30 January 2016 (PT)
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.
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
# MCB UP Limited
[ISSN 0263-4503]
[DOI 10.1108/02634500210414729]
Paul Ankers
Pegasus Limited, Waterlooville, UK
Ross Brennan
Middlesex University Business School, Hendon, UK
Introduction
The relevance of research conducted by
business academics to management
practitioners is a topic of enduring interest,
and one to which marketing academics have
recently devoted considerable thought (Sheth
and Sisodia, 1999; Calder and Tybout, 1999;
Cunningham, 1999; Dunne, 1999). The
millennium year conference of the Academy
of Marketing (the UK association for
marketing academics) featured ``Bridging the
divide: when theory meets practice'' as its
title, and incorporated a set-piece debate by
four prominent UK marketing professors on
the matter of research relevance. The
purpose of this paper is to contribute a
practitioner perspective to the debate.
Opinions on whether ``relevance is
relevant'' (Easton, 2000) differ. Some business
school academics certainly see their goals as
being closely aligned with those of the
business community, others would argue for
a balanced view of the stakeholders in
business research and education, and still
others would contend that the purpose of
academic research is simply to advance
knowledge ± regardless of whether this is
``useful'' or not. Nevertheless, managerial
relevance is close to the hearts of many
business school researchers. Brennan and
Turnbull (2000) found that 82 per cent of
researchers in the field of business-to-
business marketing considered it
``important'' or ``very important'' for
academic research to be of potential practical
value to managers. The October 2000 issue of
the Journal of Marketing Management
reported on ``the most pressing issues in
marketing theory'', as perceived by samples
of UK, French and US marketing academics.
The integration of theory with practice, or a
stronger relationship of theory to practice,
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters
was identified as the most important issue by
UK academics, and the third most important
issue by French and US academics (Baker
and Erdogan, 2000; Hetzel, 2000; Polonsky and
Mankelow, 2000).
What seems to be missing in this debate is
the practitioner point of view. Our aim in
this paper is to discuss the views of
marketing managers on the relevance of
academic research, and on the relationship
between the marketing academy and the
practitioner world. The findings are based on
in-depth interviews with ten experienced
business-to-business marketing managers.
The specific focus for the research was the
relevance of academic research in business-
to-business marketing to practitioners.
Following a brief discussion of recent
research into university/industry
cooperation, and a description of the field
research methods employed, we present an
analysis of the views of the interviewees on
research relevance and the academic/
practitioner interface. We conclude with
some recommendations for academic
researchers, and some propositions for
further research.
University/industry cooperation
The topic of university/industry cooperation
is currently attracting considerable
attention. Valentin (2000) highlighted the
obstacles to effective cooperation, namely
limitations placed on research topics by
industrialists, delays in publishing results,
communications problems and cultural
differences. Parellada and Sanroma (2000)
compared the perceptions industrialists have
of universities and consulting firms. Not
surprisingly perhaps, universities were
perceived to have an overly theoretical
approach and to have clumsy, unresponsive
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-4503.htm
[ 15 ]
 Paul Ankers and Ross Brennan
Managerial relevance in
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
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[ 16 ]
management structures, whereas consulting
firms were perceived to adopt a practical
approach and to have responsive structures ±
although universities were seen to be
cheaper!
Winer (1999, p. 349) commented that ``as we
move into the twenty-first century, the
current status of business schools in which
marketing academics reside will require
more and more that our research is not only
of a high quality but relevant''. Academics
and executives alike have lamented that
research and related curricula are long on
theory and rigour but short on information
directly applicable to managerial success
(Benson, 1985; Buckley et al., 1989; Porter and
McKibbin, 1988; Serey, 1985).
Specifically in the field of business-to-
business marketing, Brennan and Turnbull
(2001) argued that business-to-business
relationship research had failed to make a
substantial contribution to management
practice. GemuÈnden (1997) analysed research
findings in business-to-business
relationships, and found a very low incidence
of studies in which researchers had
investigated the corporate performance
impact of relationships: ``researchers have
rarely analysed explicitly how, when, why,
and to what extent relationships and
networks really do influence the
performance of a firm'' (GemuÈnden, 1997, p. 9).
In contrast Linde (1999) presented a case
study exploring the relationship
development process between small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and
universities and concluded that over a period
of three years the knowledge transfer process
was much improved. Linde found that a
common language, mutual knowledge and
mutual trust were success factors in the
development of the relationship between
universities and SMEs.
Research questions and
methodology
Three research questions were posed:
1 To what extent do marketing managers
believe that academic marketing research
is relevant to their working lives?
2 How effective do marketing managers
perceive communications to be between
themselves and the academic business
research community?
3 What barriers do marketing managers
perceive to exist to the transfer of
academic knowledge into companies?
Rather than attempt to address these
questions for the whole of the marketing
subject area, the decision was made to focus
the research on a single sub-area. Business-
to-business marketing was selected as a
well-defined sub-area with which both
researchers were familiar ± one as a current
practitioner and the other as a full-time
academic.
Qualitative interviewing was the chosen
method of gathering field data. This was
essentially an exploratory study, since no
prior research into managerial perceptions
of academic marketing research could be
found. The semi-structured interview was
considered to be the best method to explore
with the respondents their attitudes towards
academic research and their views on
university/industry relationships.
Respondents were selected on a non-random
basis. The key characteristics sought in
informants were that they should be
currently employed in business-to-business
marketing management or consulting
positions, and that they should have a
minimum of five years' managerial
experience. The aim of the study was to
understand the views of experienced
managers, who were fully socialised into
managerial life. It is to be expected that the
views of young, graduate managers might be
coloured by their recent experience of
university ± this study did not set out to test
this proposition, but focused on mature
managers.
Tables I and II provide basic information
about the sample of managers interviewed.
The sample is considered to provide a
reasonable cross-section of business-to-
business marketing practitioners.
Respondent age ranges from 33 to 57, and
years of marketing experience from two to 30.
Three of the ten respondents were women.
There was considerable variation in terms of
qualifications and professional body
membership ± the Diploma in Marketing was
the commonest qualification, and
membership of the Chartered Institute of
Marketing the most common professional
affiliation. Company size ranged from a self-
employed marketing consultant up to a 900
strong firm with £130 million turnover.
An interview topic guide was used,
covering the following topic areas:
. basic interviewee and company data (see
Tables I and II);
. use of textbook marketing tools and
techniques;
. company links with universities;
. relevance of academic research in
business-to-business marketing to
marketing practitioners;
. barriers to effective university/industry
cooperation, and to university/industry
knowledge transfer; and
 Paul Ankers and Ross Brennan . how would you advise a business school to
Managerial relevance in make its research relevant to managers?
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning Findings
20/1 [2002] 15±21
Managerial relevance of academic
research
Questions designed to elicit a response on the
relevance of academic research focused on
both ``textbook tools'' and current research.
Where respondents commented positively on
relevance, this tended to be with reference to
standard textbook models rather than
current research. Strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis, the
Boston Consulting Group growth-share
matrix and environmental analysis using the
familiar PEST framework come under this
Downloaded by McMaster University At 19:22 30 January 2016 (PT)
textbooks neglects the relationships between
buyer and seller'', and interviewee J
remarked that ``what tends to be neglected in
textbooks is that business-to-business
marketing depends more on interpersonal
relationships''. However, at least one chapter
on relationship management is now de
rigueur in all business-to-business marketing
textbooks (e.g. Hutt and Speh, 2001; Dwyer
and Tanner, 1999) and an entire textbook has
recently been published in the UK on
business-to-business marketing as a
relationship management process (Ford et al.,
1998). The relationship marketing
``revolution'' that has swept through the
academic world seems to have left our
interviewees strangely unaffected ± although
they were keen to bemoan the lack of a

relationship orientation in academic

heading. While most respondents were
favourably disposed in general terms
towards continuing professional
development, there was very little evidence
that they were familiar with anything that a
business school academic would recognise as
state-of-the-art theory. One generalisation
that emerged was a dislike for the
prescriptive, step-by-step approach to
marketing that is advocated in many
textbooks.
What the marketing academic may find
surprising is that none of the respondents
referred to, nor even seemed to be aware of,
academic research on business-to-business
marketing relationships. Interviewee D
commented that ``to adopt tools as shown in
marketing research.
When questioned directly about the
relevance of current academic research in
marketing to practice, few positive comments
were forthcoming. Interviewee A, whose
company has university links both for
technological research and business
education, commented: ``from our
perspective we drive the research and
manage the outcomes so as far as we are
concerned the research is relevant''. Other
interviewees were frank about their lack of
awareness of the current state of
management research, while giving the
impression that this was not a matter that
greatly concerned them. Despite the fact that
all interviewees reported that their

Table I
Interviewee data
Years in Membership of
Interviewee marketing professional
identification Business sector Age role Sex Qualifications body
Business development A Defence 57 17 M ± ±
director
Marketing manager B Healthcare 38 3 F CMS IPD
IOD
Marketing director C Fire detection 56 30 M BA MCIM
AMIPR
Sales and marketing D Medical filtration 42 10 M PhD ±
director MSc
BSc
Sales and marketing E Gas detection 39 2 M DipM MCIM
director
Marketing executive F Healthcare 33 7 M MBA ±
BA
Marketing manager G Healthcare 33 6 F BSc ±
DipM
Marketing director H Training consultancy 49 20 M ± IPD
Consultant I Organisational development 48 16 M DipM MCIM
Consultant and lecturer J Marketing consultancy 44 15 F MBA MCIM
DipM

[ 17 ]
 Paul Ankers and Ross Brennan
Managerial relevance in
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
Downloaded by McMaster University At 19:22 30 January 2016 (PT)
companies were sympathetic to continuing
professional development, and half of the
companies had formal CPD schemes, most
respondents were neither aware of current
academic research in their professional field,
nor apparently concerned about this state of
affairs.
Consistently, and unprompted, the
interviewees attributed the low relevance of
academic research to a conflict between the
perceived idealism of academic research and
the need for managers to receive ready
solutions to problems, concisely packaged
and produced in a timely manner. For
example: ``research projects need to be
concise and quick to provide solutions'', and
``unless academics are working closely with
industry there is no way that research can be
``in my entire career I don't think I can think
of anything'' (interviewee C), and ``I'm not
aware of any disciplines that have been
transferred from academia to business-to-
business marketing'' (interviewee D).
Interviewee J, despite holding the
qualifications of Dip M and MBA,
commented that: ``I am not aware of any
research being undertaken in academia that
is based on management disciplines''.
Communications between the academic
and practitioner communities
Clearly the effective communication of
academic findings to practitioners is a
necessary condition for knowledge transfer.
The interviewees had a generally negative
perception of university/industry

relevant''. This theme is echoed later in the
discussion of university/industry
communications processes and barriers to
knowledge transfer.
Interviewees were asked explicitly
whether they could think of instances where
their company had adopted a management or
marketing technique recommended in
academic literature. Interviewee A expressed
the hope that, through the company's
relationship with a university business
school, their employees would learn and
adopt new management techniques. Apart
from this rather vague example, the
interviewees could think of no instances of
technique transfer. Typical comments were:
communication processes. The greatest
concern was to do with use of language.
Clearly organisations, whether academic or
industrial, have their own cultures.
According to Dierdonck et al. (1990) ``different
cultures are the roots of barriers to the
university/firm relationship''. Interviewees
were concerned about the incompatibility of
academic and commercial cultures. There was
a strong perception that academics write in
grandiose language, which is unnecessarily
complicated and uses jargon that is
incomprehensible to practitioners. The
preferred written style would be
straightforward, emphasising the action
implications of the research findings.

Table II
Company data
Company Marketing
Company Is company Employees turnover expenditure
Interviewee position in an Investor Number of in marketing in 1999 in 1999
identification Business sector market place in people? employees department (£ million) (£ '000)
Business development A Defence 1st UK Yes 900 8 130 1,200
director
Marketing manager B Healthcare 1st UK No 246 10 70 300
3rd globally
Marketing director C Fire detection 1st UK Yes 400 3 33 500
5th globally
Sales and marketing D Medical filtration 3rd globally No 500 10 25 ±
director
Sales and marketing E Gas detection 1st UK No 250 2 22 25
director
Marketing executive F Healthcare 3rd USA No 180 2 20 100
4th globally
Marketing manager G Healthcare 1st UK No 200 2 18 200
Marketing director H Training Top 25% Yes 50 4 2 30
consultancy
Consultant I Organisational ± No 3 1 0.5 ±
development
Consultant and trainer J Marketing ± No 1 1 ± ±
consultancy

[ 18 ]
 Paul Ankers and Ross Brennan
Managerial relevance in
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
Downloaded by McMaster University At 19:22 30 January 2016 (PT)
Academic writing was adversely compared
with the written style characteristic of
consultancy reports, which is perceived to be
more accessible to management practitioners.
What is disconcerting is that the
interviewees although able to describe
deficiencies in communication seemed
unconcerned and did not demonstrate any
desire to improve the situation. This suggests
that the perceived value of academic
research may be the underlying issue. If they
had felt that they were missing out on
something really important because of
perceived deficiencies in academic
communications skills, would they not have
emphasised the need to deal with this
problem?
Barriers to effective university/industry
cooperation
Interviewees identified a range of barriers
that they believed hindered closer
cooperation between universities and firms.
They saw universities as being deficient in
terms of response speed, having poor
understanding of commercial realities, and
academics as being aloof. They pointed to
cultural differences, to conflicts of interest
over intellectual property rights and to
different working styles as hindering
collaboration. These findings were very
much in line with prior research into the
barriers to university/industry technology
transfer, which were summarised by
Brennan and Turnbull (2001) as:
. Different attitudes towards the intrinsic
worth of research.
. Different preferences towards the public
dissemination of research findings.
. Incompatibility of reward and promotions
systems, which makes it difficult for
individuals to move easily between the
academic and industrial communities.
. Fundamentally different aspirations and
goals of the two communities.
. Bureaucracy involved in managing joint
initiatives, which is reflected in a slower
rate of progress than one or both partners
would prefer (often, the industrial partner
finds the academic bureaucracy
frustrating).
. Legal barriers, notably different attitudes
towards the exclusivity of research
findings (the industrial partner wants
exclusivity, the academic partner wants to
disseminate the findings publicly and
quickly).
. While there is a need for a dedicated
linkage manager, neither party wants to
resource such a position, preferring to add
the responsibility to the portfolio of an
existing employee.
Once again the interviewees saw the use of
consultants as a solution. Consulting firms
are perceived to employ individuals capable
of analysing situations objectively, often
qualified to masters and doctoral levels, who
appreciate the pressures of business and can
deliver solutions within agreed time scales
and costs. In contrast, although academic
departments are perceived to employ highly
qualified staff, they are believed not to
understand the day-to-day pressures of
marketing management, not to be capable of
reliably meeting deadlines, and to be at least
as interested in pursuing their own agenda as
in addressing business needs. For example,
interviewee G commented that: ``business-to-
business companies tend to feel more
comfortable with people coming in from
consultants who they feel are more in tune
with the needs of their business and the
realities of the commercial world and
pressures'', and interviewee B that: ``industry
has a bottom line to look at, it has to move
faster than perhaps academia is able to
move''.
To summarise, commercial issues need
urgent attention, organisations can rarely
afford to wait while detailed research is
carried out. The need to maintain
competitiveness requires speedy answers
and efficient implementation. There is a clear
view that academics are unable to respond
quickly, will not be driven by business needs,
and do not have the commercial awareness
needed.
Remembering also that the interviewees
were selected specifically for their
involvement in business-to-business
marketing, it was clear that the interviewees
believed that this branch of marketing was
less well understood in business schools than
consumer marketing. This is a view shared
by some business academics. Brennan (2000,
p. 1) commented that in business schools
``business-to-business marketing seems to be
both ubiquitous and unloved'', and Brown
(1998, p. 173) that ``industrial or business-to-
business marketing (is) a disciplinary sub-
field long overshadowed by consumer goods
marketing''. It may be that a less negative
view of the academic-practitioner interface
would have been found had consumer goods
marketers been interviewed, although this
hypothesis will have to await further
research.
Conclusion, implications and
further research
It is always difficult to justify generalising
from a small-scale qualitative study such as
[ 19 ]
 Paul Ankers and Ross Brennan
Managerial relevance in
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
Downloaded by McMaster University At 19:22 30 January 2016 (PT)
[ 20 ]
this one. The views gathered and analysed
were those of only ten managers, in business-
to-business marketing roles. Nevertheless,
those ten managers have a combined total of
106 years of marketing management
experience, and operate in companies of
different sizes across a range of industry
sectors. Certainly, an interesting next step
would be to take the findings from this
exploratory study and test them using a
large-scale quantitative survey. The
following propositions emerge from this
study and could readily be converted into
hypotheses for investigation using a
quantitative approach.
P1. The textbook marketing tools familiar
to experienced marketing managers are
those from a previous generation of
marketing textbooks.
P2. Experienced business-to-business
marketing managers are largely
ignorant of the recent body of academic
research concerning relationships and
networks in business markets.
P3. Experienced marketing managers are
largely indifferent towards generic
academic research in marketing.
P4a. Experienced marketing managers
prefer to use consultants rather than
academics to undertake commissioned
research projects.
P4b. Experienced marketing managers
believe that consultants understand
business realities better than academic
researchers.
P4c. Experienced marketing managers
believe that consultants have better
business communications skills than
academic researchers.
The implications of this project are largely
for academic researchers rather than
managers. We know that many academic
researchers see it as a high priority to make
their work relevant to managers (Brennan
and Turnbull, 2000). The interviewees were
invited to comment on this matter, and their
advice was consistent with the views
expressed on matters of communications,
barriers to cooperation, and the academic
research agenda. In essence, business
academics wanting to cooperate more
successfully with commercial firms should
demonstrate their ability to manage projects
to agreed timescales, show an affinity for the
pressures under which managers operate,
write succinctly and in language accessible
to managers, and seek to manage university/
industry relationships actively. This advice
is most relevant where contract research is
involved, i.e. where the academic researcher
is funded by a company and working to a
brief. Nevertheless, it can also be applied to
generic academic research in marketing. In
particular, an understanding of the practical
realities of marketing management, and
greater sensitivity to the preferred
communication style of the managerial
community, would enable researchers to
make their ``managerial implications'' more
helpful. For example, there is little point in
proposing a complex, multivariate analytical
method requiring extensive field data
collection to a busy sales or marketing
manager whose staff are over-worked and
whose budget is over-spent. The onus is on
researchers to find a better way of getting
their message across to marketing
practitioners.
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Managerial relevance in
academic research: an
exploratory study
Marketing Intelligence &
Planning
20/1 [2002] 15±21
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