For research to be considered "valid," the research must be originally based upon a known theory. The result of research should be the expansion of known theory or the development of new theory. An examination was made of marketing (distributive) education research to determine if that research is based upon a theoretical framework and results in either the expansion of theory or the development of new theory. Research reports from 1985-1990 that appeared in the Marketing Educators' Journal and the National Research Conference Reports (54 articles) were reviewed to determine if that research was based upon a theoretical framework. However, most of the research that was reviewed was found to be descriptive or comparative in nature; only 16 articles (30 percent) were based on theory and resulted in expansion of or development of theory. The study concluded that marketing education research must be theory based and suggested the following four theories as a basis for marketing education research: perennialism, progressivism, essentialism, and reconstructionism. The study also described two historical theories of learning (faculty psychology and apperception), and eight modern theories (association, stimulus-response, instrumental conditioning, operant conditioning, Gestalt theory, topological theory, sign learning, and phenomenological theory) as possible bases for research in marketing education. The study concluded that marketing education lacks organization and that the scientific method should be used to instill the type of organization that the field needs. (Contains 14 references.) (KC)