Understanding the academic scholarship: Insights from the field of marketing

The scholarly profession plays a critical role in shaping, and contributing to, contemporary society, in which marketing is perceived to be a dominant factor in the culture of our time and, thus, is a most central aspect of our lives. Yet the scholarly profession has not been explored sufficiently through the lens of the marketing discipline. Therefore, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the underpinnings of the scholarly profession from various academic and scientific perspectives as they relate to marketing, and to offer advice to the marketing discipline. Science is the tool by which scholars provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities in the world and contribute to the betterment of humanity. Because marketing is one of the fastest growing disciplines and has become one of the most central phenomena in contemporary society that has an enormous effect on our lives, it is crucial for scholars to contribute to the marketing discipline. We suggest that this can be accomplished if scholars focus on providing new insights for the discipline through the provision of macro approaches and theoretical and philosophical criticism from within the discipline.