A university Don, Professor Andy Wali, has posited that for marketing and business research from tertiary institutions to sufficiently impact on the civic community and industries, there is the urgent need to adopt new methodology, given the evolving change in market dynamics and technology.
Delivering his Inaugural Lecture titled, “Rethinking Impact In Marketing and Business Research Through The Interpretivist Lens,” Prof Wali, who delivered the 116th Inaugural Lecture of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt on Wednesday August 13, 2025 at the University’s Senate Building, said the time had come for scholars to rethink their marketing and business research findings for the benefit of the civic community and industry.
According to Wali, who is a Professor of Strategic Marketing and Social Constructivist Techniques at the Rivers State University, the eminent disconnect between the academic and civic communities is due to the “perceived negligence in conducting ethically and value oriented research in business sciences and specifically in marketing schools within the Ivory Tower.
Prof. Wali stated that his postulation was not aimed at discrediting existing researches in the areas of marketing and business, but with a view to redirecting the attention of scholars within business sciences and allied disciplines to the decline in research occasioned by certain ethical improprieties and those he termed “colonialists in the Ivory Tower “.
The university Don lamented that research in the ivory totally geared towards, and are made only for academic and promotion exercises, urging scholars to redirect their researches towards contributing in shaping business development and deepening service users’ experiences. He noted that a properly harnessed research output would bring about enhanced teaching quality, which would invariably lead to the production of quality graduates that can further translate to industry productivity and societal development.
Prof. Wali, at the lecture identified the rationale for declining impact in marketing and business research in industry and civic community, which he attributed to research misconduct, relevant departure in research value and policy making, poor mentorship and training, poor research archivization and management systems, inadequate funding and poor institutional infrastructure, poor communication and dissemination.
The university Don stated that over the years as a researcher and scholar, he had focused on closing the gap on poor research using qualitative paradigm through focus group interviews, single interviews, nethnography and narrative analyses to explore problems within consumer behaviour and experiences, higher education and marketing ethics in Nigeria and the United Kingdom context, respectively.
Furthermore, he mentored emerging scholars to embrace methodological diversity by using qualitative methodology, which can come through a reform in postgraduate programmes in marketing and business sciences.
Proffering solutions to the challenges of marketing and business research meeting the needs of the civic community and industry, Prof. Wali advocated the establishment of a Centre for Behavioural Science And Industry Studies, which, according to him, “will drive a new research order in all functional areas of Business and allied disciplines, and to attract industry-oriented researches and institutional grants.
Prof. Wali further advocated the establishment of a data repository for all researchers within the university, training and sharing success stories by researchers and integration with other paradigms.
The 116th Inaugural Lecture of the Rivers State University was well attended by renowned dignitaries, including the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Isaac Zeb Obipi, former Vice Chancellors of the University, scholars and researchers, members of the university community, and friends of the Inaugural Lecturer.
