A scientific realism perspective on scientific progress in marketing: An analysis of theory testing in marketing's major journals

Thomas P. Kenworthy and John R. Sparks

European Management Journal, 2016, vol. 34, issue 5, 466-474

Abstract: Marketing's scientific progress depends on, among other things, the development and testing of theories that explain and predict marketing phenomena. Ultimately, theory testing should advance the discipline toward broader theories with greater explanatory and predictive power. Using the inductive-realist model (Hunt, 2012) as a framework for scientific progress, this study analyzes three decades of theory testing published in five major marketing journals. The study examines issues of the amount of theory testing, the extent to which theories are tested multiple times, and the disciplinary origins of the theories that are tested. The results show that marketing has been remarkably productive in the development and testing of theories; however, that progress is tempered by the relatively few theories that are tested multiple times.

Keywords: Marketing; Theory testing; Theory borrowing; Scientific progress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237316300676
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:34:y:2016:i:5:p:466-474

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2016.06.012

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().