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Journal article
Marketing as Practice: Resolving the Hunt-Anderson Stalemate Through Practice Theory
Journal of applied marketing theory, Vol.13(1), pp.36-50
06/2026
Abstract
This paper revisits methodological debates in marketing theory, tracing the progression from Sidney Levy’s work on symbolic consumption to the Hunt–Anderson empiricist–relativist debate. We argue that this debate rests on a category error: marketing has been misclassified as either a science or an interpretive discipline. Drawing on contemporary practice theory, we reconceptualize marketing as a professional practice oriented toward creating and managing exchange relationships within cultural contexts. This perspective resolves the Hunt–Anderson stalemate, clarifies the epistemological foundations of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and Transformative Consumer Research (TCR), and generates distinct research questions and methods. Through comparative exemplars, we show how practice-based approaches reveal mechanisms obscured by existing frameworks. We conclude by outlining methodological and managerial implications, emphasizing practice-based knowledge as contextual, action-oriented, and cumulatively developable.
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Details
- Title
- Marketing as Practice
- Publication Details
- Journal of applied marketing theory, Vol.13(1), pp.36-50
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Georgia Southern Commons
- Copyright
- Permission granted to the University of West Florida Libraries by the author to digitize and/or display this information for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires the permission of the copyright holder.
- Identifiers
- 99381836533906600
- Academic Unit
- Commerce; Lewis Bear Jr. College of Business
- Language
- English