Compromise is so … compromised: Goldilocks, go home Available to Purchase

This paper aims to discuss issues concerning the desirability of finding ways to close the gap between academic research and management practice – especially in the case of marketing and consumer research.

The issues are addressed by means of a personal essay.

The discussion adopts the extreme viewpoint that achieving a reconciliation or resolution of the differences between scholarly inquiry and managerial relevance in either research or teaching constitutes an undesirable or even deplorable form of compromise.

The essay concludes that – contrary to the wisdom of Goldilocks – compromise between academic scholarship and practical relevance merits opprobrium rather than approbation.