ABSTRACT

This chapter summarizes research on forms of advertising practitioner cognition. It situates current research in the context of the relationship between theory and practice in advertising. It focuses on advertising practitioners’ theories of advertising and offers an empirically-based explanation for the academician–practitioner gap in advertising: practitioners’ knowledge autonomy. We locate our discussion in the broader meta-theoretical context of theory and practice and the literature of professionalization. Our chapter contains new theoretical and empirical directions since the first edition of this book: mental models, integration, and practice theory.