Concerns about the slow progress of theory development in marketing have existed over a significant number of years (Alderson and Cox, 1948; Bartels, 1976; Halbert, 1965). The perceived lack of theoretical discourse has prompted several AMA Educators conferences and special issues in high-profile journals in an attempt to generate more interest (Bush and Hunt, 1982; Hunt, 1983; Lamb and Dunne, 1980). At the end of the millennium a more theoretically driven marketing was identified as an important area for future development in special issues of the Journal of Marketing (Day and Montgomery, 1999), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Malhotra, 1999) and Psychology and Marketing (Taylor, 1999), amongst others. Alongside academics that favour a more.
