Viewpoint - The commercial-academic divide: never the twain shall meet?

Sheila Keegan examines the much-discussed divide between MR practitioners and academics, and argues that while each group sees the work of the other as exerting a limited influence on their own field, they should in fact look to combine their efforts in order to improve both the theory behind and practical application of market research.
  

Viewpoint – The commercial–academic divide: never the twain shall meet?

Sheila KeeganCampbell Keegan Ltd

I have been a commercial qualitative researcher for many years, several of them as an AQR committee member. I am also a Chartered Psychologist and currently on the committee of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology (QMiP) section of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Given that both associations have been set up to promote qualitative research and qualitative researchers, you might be forgiven for assuming that they are similar in outlook and interests. Not a bit of it. The commercial and academic qualitative research...

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