The present paper is an addition to the relevance debate in marketing literature. Research is said to be ‘relevant,’ if it leads to change, alteration or validation of how managers think, talk or act. However, the majority of the literature on relevance debate talks about the decline in relevance, yet no study has scientifically measured it. The present study uses content analysis to analyze the trends in different types of relevance across three different eras of marketing eras (i.e., commoditization, generalization and post-debate era). We also conducted a second study to check the relative importance of different types of relevance to the managers using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results reveal a U-shaped curve of the relevance across these different eras. They also reveal the influence of the relevance debate on the research conducted by academicians. Out of the eight types of managerial relevance identified, “Forecasts” was ranked the highest, followed by “Rhetoric devices” and “Uncovering causal relationships.” Finally, the study also presents a view for an academician to shape his/her research concerning the current needs of the industry.

• Shivan Sanjay Patel(Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India)
• Shivendra Kumar Pandey(Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India)
• Dheeraj Sharma(Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India)
• Rama Shankar Yadav(Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India)