Purpose -This paper sets out to identify the knowledge and skills that marketing practitioners need to possess and use, to improve marketing management and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach -The data from a survey of marketing managers, academics and senior students in New Zealand, relating to the skills essential to work as a marketing manager, were analysed by analysis of variance to assess the extent of convergences or divergence among the responses of the three groups. Findings -The essential skills are an ability and willingness to learn about product-markets, to solve marketing problems, to communicate with internal and external stakeholders, and to work in teams, plus the knowledge of a wide range of marketing subject areas needed to set these skills in context. To progress from junior to senior posts, marketing graduates need to develop strategic thinking, leadership and management skills, and must demonstrate knowledge of strategic planning, product and brand management, communication and promotion, and consumer behaviour. Research limitations/implications -This study extends previous research by incorporating the views of three stakeholder groups about a broad range of knowledge and skills. Further, research is required to assess the generalisability of the results from these relatively small samples located in only one institution (albeit large and influential), and to investigate whether experience alone is a sufficient basis for junior marketers to acquire the knowledge and skills to become effective marketing managers and planners, or whether academics should help them to fast-track their careers by means of targeted courses for intending practitioners. Practical implications -Broad agreement between practitioners and academics suggests that relevant knowledge and skills are probably being taught. However, the differing view of students suggests that the effectiveness of university courses must be questioned. Originality/value -The study reports the opinions of three stakeholder groups on a vital aspect of marketing education.

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It is commonly assumed that a prime purpose of developing research‐based marketing knowledge is that it should be useful to marketing managers and other practitioners. However, evidence suggests that academic marketing knowledge is only to a limited degree utilised in practical life. It is thus important to understand why this is the case, as well as how use of academic knowledge can be enhanced. This paper focuses on scientific knowledge about market orientation and explores a range of factors, which might impair its practical application. More specifically, it examines what types of knowledge marketing practitioners might perceive as useful and discusses a range of potential barriers to successful transfer of market orientation knowledge from academia to practitioners. Substantial barriers are identified which relate to attributes of market orientation knowledge itself and characteristics of both academics and practitioners. Findings are discussed and implications highlighted.

PurposeIt is well known that the results of academic marketing research are not widely used by practitioners. This is attributed to a range of factors including language barriers and poor communication between the academic and practitioner communities. In spite of this, there exists little research within marketing that has focused on how potential users of academic research such as business or marketing managers prefer to receive research information. To start filling this void in the research literature, we report a study of managers' media preferences for receiving academic research information.Design/methodology/approachA survey of managers who had taken part in a larger study into the competitiveness of service enterprises was conducted. Cluster analysis was used to assess different media preference segments.FindingsFindings contradict expectations derived from media richness theory. For example, a substantial number of managers prefer written communication modes, which according to media richness theory are not effective ways of communicating complex information such as academic research results. Cluster analysis suggested that three media preference segments existed.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should investigate why managers appear to prefer particular communication modes, particularly printed media.Originality/valueThe paper examines the appropriateness of different types of media used to communicate complex academic research information to practitioners. Findings should be useful to academics that aim to disseminate effectively their findings to practitioners.

A key challenge to processing firms in the seafood industry is that they are exposed to a high degree of external uncertainty. Such uncertainty comes in several forms, but primary uncertainty due to more or less unpredictable changes in "states of nature" related to the supplies of raw materials, is particularly important. This paper explores how eight processing firms in the Norwegian seafood industry cope with primary uncertainty to secure timely and adequate supplies and compete effectively in their output markets. It was observed that different types of primary uncertainty are present, and that a wide range of different coping strategies exists. Different strategies are applied to cope with different types of uncertainties. Further, coping strategies are applied at the input, throughput, and output stages of firms' operations, indicating that supply uncertainty has a profound effect on processing firms' behavior.