Balancing the Use of Behavioural Research and Design Science Research to Solve the Relevance Problem in Marketing Research

Contemporary marketing research has a value problem. Claims for the managerial impact of research appear in practically every research article. Nevertheless, managers in the field do not consider scientific outputs as relevant in helping them to address the multiple challenges that organizations face. Marketing typically conducts behavioural research, aiming to understand and explain real-world problems. Other disciplines, such as engineering, focus primarily on building solutions to solve practical problems. Such practice is often termed design science. This study proposes that marketing research should focus more on building solutions, hence calling for a better balance between behavioural and design research. An improved balance between these two paradigms in marketing should increase the value of academic research to practice. Four typical case studies are presented to illustrate key differences between design science and behavioural science.