Conference Proceedings: The Purpose Challenge: Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Academia to Achieve Social Impact Goals

Key themes emerged focusing on the different issues addressed under the PURPOSE umbrella, how advertising agencies differ from corporate in purpose-driven marketing initiatives, and how academia can be a resource for professionals on this topic. The UT Purpose Project was discussed as a potential outlet for purpose research. From the conversations about academic purpose-oriented studies, industry professionals saw value in the potential insights derived from academic work. Cultural differences between industry and academic were discussed such as the industry’s need for speedy decisions and academician slower pace in producing quality research. Professionals felt they needed the potential insights from academic work to help justify decisions in a more objective way to their teams, executives and clients. However, it was acknowledged by both profession and industry professionals that the way academic articles are written hinders communication between academics and industry. As a solution, professional panelists noted their desire for current, relevant, white-paper type research being available for public consumption. The academic researchers desired conversations with industry professionals about purpose questions that would be relevant to industry as a way to make research more useful.