Professors of marketing: Necessary luxuries?

Abstract

42 Does the marketing professor make a contribution to society? Is the marketing professor a social necessity or a disposable luxury? Aside from reducing unemployment by keeping students out of the labor market, does the professor provide any service that could not be provided better by someone else? While few persons would have the temerity to answer these questions with an unqualified no, there does seem to be substantial support for the hypothesis that marketing professors are, at least to some degree, irrelevant. Support for this hypothesis comes from several sources. In the popular press, testimony ranges from the lexicographic (onethird of the definitions of academic are pejorative) to the comic (witness the exploits of Professor Phumble and Professor Arid in the cartoon sections of many newspapers). In the business press, it is not uncommon for business men and women to comment on the rarified atmosphere of academia and the unread, incomprehensible models of the mar-