Have laboratory experiments become detached from advertiser goals? A meta-analysis

In 1985 Preston suggested that the exclusion of important aspects of advertising reality had become a growing problem in scholarly work.

Have laboratory experiments become detached from advertiser goals? A meta-analysis

Edward F. McQuarrie

Laboratory experiments have an important role to play in the development of advertising science. In a laboratory experiment the goal is to control extraneous factors in order to provide a powerful test of a causal sequence predicted by some theory. In turn, advertising is among the causal factors that managers are most able to control - copy strategy, media placement, and frequency of exposure can all be varied at will across a wide range of parameters. Hence, well-designed laboratory experiments can potentially provide practitioners with generally applicable...

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