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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000004794. When citing the article, please cite: Gordon E. Greenley, (1984), “An Understanding of Marketing Strategy”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18 Iss 6/7 pp. 90 - 103.

This article focuses on the approaches that companies' marketing services take in the planning of their marketing operations, based on a recent survey of UK companies that market services as opposed to physical products. Results indicated that the planning of the marketing operation in many service companies is not as well developed as it could be.

Focuses on a survey (and its results) carried out to investigate the marketing orientation of the companies who supply the UK's service of incoming tourism. Provides indications from the survey results that there are indications of low levels of marketing orientation with the respondent companies in the service industry of incoming tourism relative to the UK. Presents four sections to add weight to the survey findings. First, outlines the results of a previous study as background to the present survey results. Second, discusses, briefly, the nature of the service of incoming tourism. Third, reports on the survey results and finally discusses and draws conclusions from the results and study. Summarizes and discusses the results in conclusion and considers that an initial base understanding has been developed by the surveys and urges further additional research.

Incoming tourism is one of Great Britain′s biggest revenue earners, but a previous study by the authors suggested that there was a low level of marketing orientation in some of the companies which provide the service. The nature of incoming tourism is examined and a further study, by the authors, into the marketing orientation of some of the companies involved is reported. On the whole, this is found to be extremely low. The survey results are related to the nature of the industry itself. The question as to whether the marketing of service needs to be approached differently from the marketing of products is considered.

There has been concern in the literature about the adequacy of the traditional model of marketing planning, which focuses on what decisions should be made and not on how to make them. The aim of this article is a new conceptualisation that proposes key management processes about how marketing planning decisions are made in a dynamic context. The motives for this conceptualisation are to contribute to understanding by advancing the traditional model of marketing planning, to stimulate academic and practitioner debate about how marketing planning decisions are made, and to initiate new directions in marketing planning research. Two new competing models of marketing planning are developed, which address key management processes about how marketing planning decisions are made in a dynamic context, and research directions are proposed.

The purpose of this editorial is to explicitly recognise the first issue of EJM completely made up of submissions received under the new editorial team of Lee and Greenley, operating since January 2008. The authors also seek to make some broader points about academic review, and journal ranking.

The authors provide some conceptual thinking regarding journal review, and academic ranking of journals.

The authors propose that it is potentially dangerous to restrict the perception of top quality work to only that published in a limited selection of journals, and that research needs to be judged on its own merits.

These thoughts are preliminary and intended to spark thinking and debate, not to represent editorial policy. Owing to space constraints, the coverage of many issues is necessarily brief.

Marketing researchers should find these thoughts at the very least stimulating, and may wish to investigate these issues further.

The editorial should provide some interesting food for thought for marketing researchers.

Investigates the understanding of marketing strategy and the differentiation and clarification of concepts used in conjunction with it. Carries out a search of the literature revealing a wide variation in the understanding of marketing strategy. Develops a process for defining marketing strategy using three key levels: the overall strategic planning of the company; a framework developed from this from which marketing strategy should be developed; and the actual marketing strategy. Concludes that a firm needs to establish the strategic planning framework in defining its marketing strategy and its component parts. Suggests that failure to do so leads to ineffective definition, implementation and effectiveness of strategies.

The Narver and Slater market orientation scale is tested in the context of service firms in the transition economies of central Europe and found to be both valid and reliable. The survey examined levels of market orientation in 205 business to business services companies and 141 consumer services companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. As predicted by the predominantly western marketing literature, those service firms with higher levels of market orientation; were more often found in turbulent, rapidly changing markets; were more likely to pursue longer term market building goals rather than short term efficiency objectives; more likely to pursue differentiated positioning through offering superior levels of service compared to competitors; and also performed better on both financial and market based criteria. A number of different business approaches, however, are evident in the transition economies suggesting that other business orientations may co‐exist with a market orientation creating a richer and more complex set of organizational drivers.

There is a dearth of empirical analysis of how and to what extent British retailers fit marketing activities to sectoral conditions. Reviews relevant literature and tests propositions concerning the relative importance of marketing activities in two retail sectors. Finds many cross‐sectoral similarities and many consistent differences, which appear to be related to situational conditions in the respective sectors.

Different forms of strategic flexibility allow for reactive adaptation to different changing environments and the proactive driving of change. It is therefore becoming increasingly important for decision makers to not only possess marketing capabilities, but also the capabilities for strategic flexibility in its various forms. However, our knowledge of the relationships between decision makers' different ways of thinking and their capabilities for strategic flexibility is limited. This limitation is constraining research and understanding. In this article we develop a theoretical cognitive content framework that postulates relationships between different ways of thinking about strategy and different information‐processing demands. We then outline how the contrasting beliefs of decision makers may influence their capabilities to generate different hybrid forms of strategic flexibility at the cognitive level. Theoretically, the framework is embedded in resource‐based theory, personal construct theory and schema theory. The implications for research and theory are discussed.