“Paradigms Lost”: On Theory and Method in Research in Marketing

Only recently have marketing scientists become concerned with issues in the philosophy of science. This paper points to one neglected area—the implications of a theoretical tradition for the selection of research methods (design, data collection, and data analysis). It is argued that marketing has been relying primarily on only one theoretical tradition. The dominance of this philosophy has led to marketing science growing more rapidly in the area of hypothesis testing than in the development of new, rich explanatory theories. Several suggestions are made to achieve a balance in theory construction and testing, with implications for reducing methods bias by a process of triangulating methodologies.

[1]  Raymond P. Fisk,et al.  Theory construction in marketing : some thoughts on thinking , 1984 .

[2]  Shelby D. Hunt,et al.  Marketing Theory: The Philosophy Of Marketing Science , 1983 .

[3]  Edward F. Fern.  The use of Focus Groups for Idea Generation: The Effects of Group Size, Acquaintanceship, and Moderator on Response Quantity and Quality , 1982 .

[4]  S. Hunt,et al.  Marketing theory, philosophy of science perspectives , 1982 .

[5]  Edmund C. Short.  Knowledge Application: The Knowledge System in Society Burkart Holzner and John H. Max Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1979 , 1981 .

[6]  J. Simon.  Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline , 1981 .

[7]  William R. Darden,et al.  Causal Models in Marketing , 1980 .

[8]  Randall L. Schultz,et al.  A Study of Marketing Generalizations , 1980 .

[9]  M. Patton.  Making methods choices , 1980 .

[10]  Thomas D. Cook,et al.  “Paradigms lost”: Some thoughts on choosing methods in evaluation research☆ , 1980 .

[11]  Robert E. Spekman,et al.  Environmental Uncertainty and Buying Group Structure: An Empirical Investigation , 1979 .

[12]  Thomas D. Cook,et al.  Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Evaluation , 1979 .

[13]  T. Cook,et al.  Beyond qualitative versus quantitative methods , 1979 .

[14]  Michael Quinn Patton,et al.  Utilization-Focused Evaluation , 1979 .

[15]  Yoram Wind,et al.  Organizational Buying Behavior , 1978 .

[16]  Jacob Jacoby,et al.  Consumer Research: How valid and useful are all our consumer behavior research findings? , 1978 .

[17]  J. Jacoby.  Consumer Research: A State of the Art Review , 1978 .

[18]  Rajendra K. Srivastava,et al.  Perceptions of Unfair Marketing Practices: Consumerism Implications , 1978 .

[19]  L. Phillips,et al.  Age Differences in Information Processing: A Perspective on the Aged Consumer , 1977 .

[20]  Bobby J. Calder,et al.  Focus groups and the nature of qualitative marketing research. , 1977 .

[21]  R. Rist.  ON THE RELATIONS AMONG EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PARADIGMS: FROM DISDAIN TO DETENTE' , 1977 .

[22]  Jac L. Goldstucker,et al.  What Techniques are Used by Marketing Researchers in Business? , 1977 .

[23]  L. Cronbach.  Beyond the Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology. , 1975 .

[24]  Steven J. Taylor.  Introduction to qualitative research methods , 1975 .

[25]  Patrick Suppes,et al.  The Place of Theory in Educational Research1 , 1974 .

[26]  I. Mitroff.  Emotion and Bias in Science. (Book Reviews: The Subjective Side of Science. A Philosophical Inquiry into the Psychology of the Apollo Moon Scientists) , 1974 .

[27]  S. Sieber.  The Integration of Fieldwork and Survey Methods , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[28]  D. Chirot.  QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY: FIRSTHAND INVOLVEMENT WITH THE SOCIAL WORLD. Edited by William J. Filstead. Chicago: Markham, 1970. 352 pp. Cloth, $10.00; paper, $4.95 , 1971 .

[29]  Ian I. Mitroff.  The Subjective Side of Science , 1969 .

[30]  Roger Nett,et al.  A methodology for social research , 1968 .

[31]  A. Strauss,et al.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory , 1967 .

[32]  D. Campbell,et al.  Unobtrusive Measures: Nonreactive Research in the Social Sciences , 1966 .

[33]  I. Deutscher,et al.  Words and Deeds: Social Science and Social Policy , 1966 .

[34]  B. I. Murstein.  Handbook of projective techniques , 1965 .

[35]  Handbook of Consumer Motivations: The Psychology of the World of Objects. , 1964 .

[36]  Ernest Dichter,et al.  Handbook of consumer motivations , 1964 .

[37]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[38]  H. Maxwell,et al.  Current Issues in the Philosophy of Science , 1961 .

[39]  J. Newman.  Motivation Research and Marketing Management , 1957 .

[40]  R. Merton.  Social Theory and Social Structure , 1958 .