The Study of Important Marketing Issues: Reflections

This paper details how marketing scholars can address important marketing issues. It starts by clearly distinguishing importance from relevance and, on that basis, discerns four types of research projects: (1) thought leadership; (2) science leadership; (3) applied science; and (4) puzzling science. It proposes to funnel more resources from applied and puzzling science to thought leadership and to sustain science leadership. To do so, it offers a research funnel (awareness-consideration-choice-execution) and how ability and motivation throughout the funnel guide a scholar towards more important research. It offers three key takeaways on how to achieve more important research: (1) socialize with practice; (2) embrace residual ambiguity; and (3) do not get bored or boring from hyperspecialization.