Applied geography antecedents: Marketing geography

There is a tradition of interaction between academic and practitioner, and the benefits of this tradition are well exemplified by the development of the body of knowledge of marketing geography. Marketing geography has existed as a subdiscipline longer than most other areas of applied geography; it then offers an example to the larger discipline. An historical overview reveals that the interaction has not always been appreciated or welcome, but has still generally brought benefits for both sides. The academic has benefited from the practitioner's sense of problem. The practitioner has benefited from the academic's advancement in methodology. But today the origin of the diffusion of the geographer's technology has shifted from the university to the larger commercial marketplace. Therefore, in the world of marketing geography, the gap between the academic and the practitioner shall become quite narrow. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.