Objectivity in Marketing Theory and Research

Abstract

Many marketers contend that recent developments in the philosophy of science imply that objectivity in marketing research is an illusion, a chimera, or impossible. Five arguments are customarily put forth that supposedly demonstrate the impossibility of objectivity: (1) linguistic relativism, (2) paradigm incommensurability, (3) theories are underdetermined by facts, (4) perception is theory-laden, and (5) epistemically significant observations are theory-laden. The author evaluates the five arguments, shows that there is nothing in the philosophy of science that dooms objective marketing research, and puts forth the “positive case” for objectivity.