Although marketing research traditionally considers itself an applied discipline, research in this area has been criticized over the last decades for its lack of managerial relevance. The debate on rigor versus relevance is age-old, but could not be more vigorous, in marketing science, in practice as well as within higher education institutions. Yet, there has been little empirical research on the triangular relationship between academic quality, managerial relevance and anticipated relevance – that is, students’ relevance anticipation. This paper contributes to the discussion threefold: First, it empirically confirms a positive relationship between academic quality and practical relevance for the marketing discipline. Second, the findings are supported for an educational setting. Academic quality and anticipated relevance (as perceived by marketing students) are positively correlated. Third, the paper assesses the suitability of academic journal articles for marketing education. By introducing the concept of anticipated practical relevance, academic journal articles can be categorized on an additional dimension. The question whether students are able to anticipate practical meaning now allows identifying “triple drivers”, that is, journal articles that are (1) highly regarded in science, that are (2) practically relevant, and that (3) allow students to correctly anticipate the managerial meaning. I propose that these articles are suitable for confirmatory teaching and learning and therefore have a place in the classroom.

This conceptual paper is motivated by personal industry experience from over 100 customer-purchasing decisions from the machine tooling industry. The insights suggest that the customer’s ability to pay (ATP) constitutes a key deal-breaker criterion for value-based decision making that up to date has been overlooked in research. Customers may be willing, but unable to pay for the offering with the highest perceived value, simply because they lack the financial resources. The traditional view on value-based marketing strategies proposes that firms must provide offerings that create value for their customers (premise 1: customer need perspective) and that the value created must be superior to competition (premise 2: competitor perspective) while generating profits (premise 3: firm’s perspective). Customers will estimate which offering provides superior value, and they will choose the offering that delivers the highest value. I introduce the customer’s ability to pay as an additional foundational premise suggesting that the firm’s offering must also be within the customer’s budget (premise 4: customer budget perspective). I propose that frontline employees must not only develop a high degree of customer need knowledge, but they must also build-up a high level of customer budget knowledge. I conclude by deriving operative and strategic management implications supported with empirical evidence from the Australian machine tooling industry.