Social Marketing as a Catalyst for Building New Relationships between Sport Practitioners and Academicians

Social marketing is a significant means to address communication, conceptualization, and intellectual gaps between groups, which often results in clarifying differences in product and value outcomes; and the need for change and shifts in paradigms associated with practitioner-academician interaction (Hanna, 2001). Research shows there is fragmentation within the sport industry between academicians and practitioners, resulting in a large intellectual gap (Schwarz, 2008). Further analysis of theoretical research and application methods related to this interaction utilizing documented research and current best practices provides information to help understand the disparities and provide a conduit to create real change in the sport industry.