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11 – 20 of over 154000Ross Gordon and Lauren Gurrieri
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate why the time is ripe for a reflexive turn in social marketing, in response to criticisms of social marketing as neo-liberal…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate why the time is ripe for a reflexive turn in social marketing, in response to criticisms of social marketing as neo-liberal, positivist and lacking critical introspection.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper traces the development of three paradigms in the field, highlighting the entrenchment of a traditionalist paradigm that heretofore has stifled critical debate and reflexive practice. However, the emergence of social ecologist and critical social marketing paradigms has stimulated the imperative for a reflexive turn. Insights into reflexivity, its relevance and applicability for researchers, participants and other stakeholders in social marketing are considered.
Findings
The paper offers a conceptualisation of social marketing assemblages using the lens of actor-network theory and identifies how this can stimulate engagement and reflexive practice for researchers, participants and other stakeholders (such as non-governmental organisations and Government departments involved in delivering programmes).
Originality/value
The article presents relevant theoretical and practical benefits from a reflexive turn in social marketing, highlighting how this will furthermore contribute to discipline building.
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Ksenia Silchenko and Søren Askegaard
Driven by the visible proliferation of marketing scholarship dedicated to the topics of food marketing and consumer well-being, this study aims to examine the prevailing meanings…
Abstract
Purpose
Driven by the visible proliferation of marketing scholarship dedicated to the topics of food marketing and consumer well-being, this study aims to examine the prevailing meanings and assumptions around food and health in marketing research.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the guiding principles of Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge and the methodological orientation of critical discourse analysis, the authors analyze a systematically produced corpus of 190 academic articles from 56 publication outlets.
Findings
The study identifies three discourses of health and food dominant in marketing and consumer research. Each of the three discourses blends the ideology of healthism with market(ing) ideologies and provides a unique perspective on the meanings of health and health risks, the principles of appropriate consumer conduct and the role of marketing in regard to consumer and societal well-being.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to research into ideologies in and of marketing by introducing useful concepts that help explain the role of healthism in marketing discourse.
Practical implications
The finding of three dominant discourses could help reduce at least some of the existing complexity in regard to conflicting knowledge existing in the domain of health and food, and thus could inspire a more reflective body of work by researchers, policymakers and marketers towards improved food-related well-being.
Originality/value
This analysis of assumptions and consequences of the meanings mobilized by the dominant marketing discourses contributes to a better understanding of the current state of knowledge about health in the market reality.
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The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to Victor Lebow, an unknown contributor to critical marketing studies. The paper also contributes to the literature on marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to Victor Lebow, an unknown contributor to critical marketing studies. The paper also contributes to the literature on marketing amnesia. A brief biography of Lebow is presented in which it is established that he was a marketing professional. The paper then discusses his unacknowledged contribution to critical thought by exploring his only book.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a close reading of Lebow’s only book, contextualizing it by placing it in historical context. The paper uses a traditional historical narrative approach to present the results.
Findings
It is pointed out that the business system, including marketing, is riven with power relations that are largely unappreciated or ignored. Woven into Lebow’s account is an attempt to rethink aspects of theory, practice and especially institutions that had and have assumed a taken-for-granted status. It is established that Lebow’s thought, as a marketing professional, went well beyond typical marketing. He presents an interesting and innovative program for converting private enterprise into a socially responsible structure without resulting to any form of socialism.
Originality/value
No such review or evaluation of Victor Lebow has been published. One 1955 article has been frequently cited. His wider thought has been ignored.
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This paper aims to provide a history of a number of intellectual debates in marketing theory and consumer research. It outlines the key arguments involved, highlights the politics…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a history of a number of intellectual debates in marketing theory and consumer research. It outlines the key arguments involved, highlights the politics and acrimoniousness that often accompanied the competition for academic prestige or practitioner remuneration. It weaves the contents of the special issue into its narrative.
Design/methodology/approach
This article engages in a broad historical survey of the history of marketing thought, as it pertains to intellectual debate and disputation.
Findings
While scholars often articulate objectivity as an intellectual ideal, many of the debates that are explored reveal a degree of intellectual intolerance and this is refracted through the institutional system that structures marketing discourse.
Originality/value
This account provides an introduction to the intellectual debates of the last century, highlighting the ebb and flow of marketing thought. It calls attention to debates that are largely under explored and highlights the politics of knowledge production in marketing and consumer research.
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Ayhan Akpınar, Canberk Çetin and Muhammet Ali Tiltay
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the contributions of the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing (JHRM) to the academic body of knowledge. Pursuant to this objective…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the contributions of the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing (JHRM) to the academic body of knowledge. Pursuant to this objective, the study classifies the publications and citation structure of the JHRM, the nature of the publications’ authorship, the most cited articles and authors and the themes that have been covered from the first day until now (2009–2021).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses bibliometric methodologies to analyze several aspects of the JHRM.
Findings
The average number of citations per paper is 4.54. The number of articles studying marketing history/practice (163) and the history of thought (158) is almost equal, consistent with the journal’s primary orientation. Compared with other journals, it could be said that JHRM achieved close ranks, especially with those of other historical journals of similar age. The most prolific authors whose articles have been published in the JHRM are used in universities located in the USA. The JHRM is closely connected to top-tier journals in the field.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to one journal (JHRM) only. However, the authors assert that the articles analyzed are representative samples of the entire school of marketing history. Another important consideration is that the value of many critical studies in the social sciences cannot be determined using only bibliometric measurements.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the marketing literature from several perspectives. First, evaluating the JHRM in terms of its unique standing shows the scope of the field of marketing history. Second, it serves as a guide for existing and future authors regarding the JHRM and the history of marketing. Third, the JHRM’s contributions provide insights into emerging trends and new opportunities for the entire marketing community.
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Bernard Korai and Nizar Souiden
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that investigates the historical roots of quantitative paradigm hegemony over the qualitative paradigm in marketing using…
Abstract
Purpose
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that investigates the historical roots of quantitative paradigm hegemony over the qualitative paradigm in marketing using a critical lens. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thoughtful reflections among marketing scholars so that the dialog among paradigms expands, the stale paradigmatic debates disappear, and the marketing discipline evolves and contributes to the actual functioning of markets and the welfare of society.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is conducted in the light of foucauldian genealogy through the analysis of historical materials that Foucault called discourses, a set of languages, systems of thinking and governality techniques that determine how individuals or organizations come to be disciplined. In this paper, the concept of discourse mainly refers to visible rituals and practices by which marketing researchers have been psychologically and behaviorally shaped to reproduce and perpetuate a hypothetical-deductive mainstream within their discipline.
Findings
This paper intends to stimulate a dialog among marketing scholars about expanding paradigms so that stale debates disappear, and marketing disciplines proves their scientific status by better contributing to the functioning of markets and the welfare of society. As an evolving social science, marketing requires new theory, new concepts and new research methods.
Originality/value
The intellectual contribution of this paper lies in its intention to alert marketing researchers about the danger we are exposing our discipline to by promoting imperialist traditions and standardization of thinking.
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This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being “woke” (invested in addressing social injustices). It considers which subject positions are represented as part of this and what they reveal about contemporary issues concerning advertising, gender, race and activism.
Design/methodology/approach
This study involves an interpretive and critical discursive analysis of so-called feminist advertising (“femvertising”) and marketing examples that make use of Black social justice activist ideas.
Findings
Findings illuminate how marketing simultaneously enables the visibility and erasure of “intersectional”, feminist and Black social justice activist issues, with the use of key racialised and gendered subject positions: White Saviour, Black Excellence, Strong Black Woman (and Mother) and “Woke” Change Agent.
Research limitations/implications
This research signals how brands (mis)use issues concerning commercialised notions of feminism, equality and Black social justice activism as part of marketing that flattens and reframes liberationist politics while upholding the neoliberal idea that achievement and social change requires individual ambition and consumption rather than structural shifts and resistance.
Practical implications
This work can aid the development of advertising standards regulatory approaches which account for nuances of stereotypical representations and marketing’s connection to intersecting issues regarding racism and sexism.
Originality/value
This research outlines a conceptualisation of the branding of “woke” bravery, which expands our understanding of the interdependency of issues related to race, gender, feminism, activism and marketing. It highlights marketing responses to recent socio-political times, which are influenced by public discourse concerning movements, including Black Lives Matter and Me Too.
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Nikhilesh Dholakia, Aras Ozgun and Deniz Atik
This paper aims to uncover links, overlaps and influence flows across two seemingly unrelated historical processes – the broadening of the marketing concept and the rapid rise of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to uncover links, overlaps and influence flows across two seemingly unrelated historical processes – the broadening of the marketing concept and the rapid rise of neoliberal ideology, and associated economic and social policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Historical examination of the pivotal points in marketing thought, especially since 1960s and 1970s, is juxtaposed with the historical rise of neoliberalism to uncover linkages between marketing and neoliberalism, with a particular reference to Foucault’s analysis of the neoliberal transgression of classical liberalism.
Findings
While noble intentions were behind the broadening of the concept of marketing, the implicit assumptions reinforced neoliberal ideology and policies that led to rapid rise in inequality and to disastrous financial and economic crises.
Research limitations/implications
This study, relying on extensive interdisciplinary theorizing, could benefit from empirical and practical extensions.
Practical implications
Globally pervasive marketing practices – based on the broadening of the marketing concept – have become imbricated in contemporary spiraling crises. To escape such spirals, radical rethinking of marketing theories and practices is required.
Social implications
To reorient away from serving only the interests of centralized capital and to serve the needs of people the world over, marketing thought and practice need to reorient to innovative ideas that transcend the broadened and generic marketing concepts.
Originality/value
The paper develops the linkages between marketing theory and practices since the late 1960s and the neoliberal ideology politics and policies, with roots in the 1920s, that rose to prominence in the 1970s. A key contribution is an exploration of, in a marketing context, Foucault’s analysis of the neoliberal eclipsing of classical liberalism.
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Matti Juhani Haverila and Kai Christian Haverila
Big data marketing analytics (BDMA) has been discovered to be a key contributing factor to developing necessary marketing capabilities. This research aims to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Big data marketing analytics (BDMA) has been discovered to be a key contributing factor to developing necessary marketing capabilities. This research aims to investigate the impact of the technology and information quality of BDMA on the critical marketing capabilities by differentiating between firms with low and high perceived market performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The responses were collected from marketing professionals familiar with BDMA in North America (N = 236). The analysis was done with partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The results indicated positive and significant relationships between the information and technology quality as exogenous constructs and the endogenous constructs of the marketing capabilities of marketing planning, implementation and customer relationship management (CRM) with mainly moderate effect sizes. Differences in the path coefficients in the structural model were detected between firms with low and high perceived market performance.
Originality/value
This research indicates the critical role of technology and information quality in developing marketing capabilities. The study discovered heterogeneity in the sample population when using the low and high perceived market performance as the source of potential heterogeneity, the presence of which would likely cause a threat to the validity of the results in case heterogeneity is not considered. Thus, this research builds on previous research by considering this issue.
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The purpose of this paper is to deepen and add nuance to previous explorations of the voter‐consumer analogy in order to generate new insights into wider applications of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to deepen and add nuance to previous explorations of the voter‐consumer analogy in order to generate new insights into wider applications of the marketing concept.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual analysis is supplemented and enriched with insights from a non‐representative case of voter responses to political advertising.
Findings
Findings suggest that limitations to the voter‐consumer analogy revolve around the differing contexts of marketing in each case and reflect differing audience responses at the micro‐level.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical component of this study is not representative or generalizable. However, it is used not to verify generalizations but to add qualitative insights to the conceptual discussion. Findings suggest that research which applies the marketing concept to non‐commercial settings, especially political marketing but also possibly extending to social marketing, non‐profit and public sector marketing, should be cautious in assuming that consumers of non‐commercial marketing respond in the same way to marketing initiatives as consumers of commercial marketing.
Practical implications
The research has implications for the application of the marketing concept in political and other non‐commercial contexts.
Originality/value
The application of the marketing concept in non‐commercial settings as well as commercial settings has become so common it is often taken for granted. Yet the behaviour, attitudes and responses of consumers in these different settings may diverge in important ways at the micro‐level. Explorations of the applicability of the marketing concept in different settings are relatively rare and this paper adds a previously unpublished empirical aspect to an original conceptual analysis which aligns secondary research from disparate sources in political science and cultural studies as well as marketing.