All these criticisms are supported by the criteria on Popper’s (1971) demarcation, as it concerns the logical structure of theories (Hansson, 2008). He claims that a theory may only be deemed to be scientific if it can be falsified (Popper, 1971; Hansson, 2008). The philosopher, Karl Popper (1971), is famously known for his theory of falsification theory and according to him, many applied sciences, especially social science, are not scientific due to their lack of potential for falsification. In other words, a theory must consist of an inherent testability so as to be proven false and thus conceivably refuted. Not only that, it must be able to make predictions that can be accessed through numerous testings (Popper, 2002; Hansson, 2008). As marketing is largely focused on the social phenomena, involving the influence of human behaviour, it is impossible to recreate the same social situations to guarantee accurate experimentation. …show more content…
Despite directly focusing on social phenomena under an open system, falling under the category of social sciences, it can be viewed that marketing is indeed a science. This can be due to the applicable steps of scientific inquiry in this field, where data in marketing can be observed and recorded, and moreover it can be translated from subjective to objective data, depending on the paradigm. Through either the quantitative and qualitative data, analysis and interpretation could be performed in accordance to the existing theory. Inferences and generalisations could also be performed in certain cases, and ultimately, in very careful instances, specific experiments could also be conducted. It can also be due to the fact that it utilises scientific paradigms and the process of puzzle-solving on its current theories to scientifically progress from a normal science to a revolutionary