Abstract:
This research utilized Q Method to learn whether attitudes regarding integrated marketing communication (IMC) among both educators and practitioners are consistent with placing IMC in an inductive or pre-theory stage of development within the theory building-research cycle. The analysis indicates an acceptance of IMC as a valid method of communication management among study participants. However the data is consistent with a negative, or at best ambiguous, conclusion when it comes to placing attitudes regarding IMC in an inductive or pre-theory stage of development within the theory building-research cycle. This then permits the conclusion that IMC at present is a communications management approach, not a nascent communication theory.