‘The knowledgeable marketing practitioner’: practice and professional knowing in marketing work

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the knowledge constructs that professionals draw upon when engaging in marketing work. Our conceptual approach stems from a critical analysis of marketing work foregrounding the practitioners’ professional knowledge and practice of marketing work. We identify 13 pertinent knowledge constructs–some of which are illustrated by vignettes–showcasing the shared and multifaceted nature of professional knowledge in a small- and medium-sized enterprise. By exploring how practitioners deploy their knowledge of marketing in practice, we conclude what the marketing discipline can learn from professional knowing. We contribute to the marketing work literature by considering the ontological role of professional knowing in dereifying marketing work from textbook knowledge along with its implications for the critical understanding of the perceived gap between marketing theorising and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Marketing work
• professional knowing
• critical marketing
• ethnography
• case study
• technology

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Susi Geiger, Gazi Islam, Per Skålén, David Carson, Katrina Lawlor and Claire McBride for their advice and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The import of practice theoretical research in management is demonstrated by various ‘as-practice’ research streams, such as: accounting-as-practice (Hopwood & Miller, 1994), entrepreneurship-as-practice (Gross, Carson, & Jones, 2014; Gross & Geiger, 2017; Keating, Geiger, & McLoughlin, 2014), sales-as-practice (Geiger & Kelly, 2014) and strategy-as-practice research (Chia & Holt, 2006; Chia & MacKay, 2007; Golsorkhi, Rouleau, Seidl, & Vaara, 2010; Jarzabkowski, 2004, 2005; Rasche & Chia, 2009; Vaara & Whittington, 2012; Whittington, 1996, 2006, 2007).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Notes on contributors

Nicole Gross

Nicole Gross is Lecturer in Marketing at the National College of Ireland (Ireland). She is an active member of various research groups including EGOS, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group and Business Model Community. Her research interests include high-tech marketing, practice-research, entrepreneurship, business models and market innovation. Her research has been published in Organization Studies, Marketing Theory, the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Ivey Cases (supplies Harvard Business Review) and the Business Case Journal.

Mikko Laamanen

Mikko Laamanen is Lecturer in Marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom). His research investigates subversive politics in alternative economies and lifestyles as well as practice-theoretical approaches to marketing and organisational work. His research has been published in Marketing Theory, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Cleaner Production, the Springer Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, the Routledge Handbook on Consumption, the Springer Handbook on Contemporary Collaborative Consumption, and the Palgrave Handbook of Volunteering, Civic Participation, and Nonprofit Associations.