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The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise some of the main contributions of Donald F. Dixon to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise some of the main contributions of Donald F. Dixon to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.
Design/methodology/approach
Personal experience, as well as a review of the major papers and the book Dixon co‐authored are used to highlight the development of his thought and contributions.
Findings
Dixon championed a broad hierarchical systems approach to understanding marketing and was able to identify the origins of concepts and ideas in history in a way that showed his depth of scholarship, the deep intellectual history of marketing thought and the misrepresenting of earlier theories that are present in some modern writings.
Originality/value
Dixon's contributions are of major importance but not well known in marketing. It brings together some of his major contributions and indicates their value.
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Eric H. Shaw, William Lazer and Stephen F. Pirog
The purpose of this paper is to show that Wroe Alderson's contributions to marketing thought earn him recognition as the “Father of Modern Marketing.”
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show that Wroe Alderson's contributions to marketing thought earn him recognition as the “Father of Modern Marketing.”
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive review of writings by and about Alderson, a thorough examination of the history of marketing thought literature, and the personal remembrances of one of the authors, are drawn upon to organize Alderson's numerous contributions to the marketing literature into a small number of categories. Such an organization is expected to provide a big picture overview of Alderson's significant impact on marketing thought.
Findings
Alderson's contributions to the marketing discipline can be organized into three broad categories, which collectively produced a tectonic shift in academic thinking about marketing: from distribution (macro) to marketing management (micro); from economics to the behavioral sciences; and from description and classification to explanation and theory building. These epic transformations have become so embedded in the marketing literature that they are now taken for granted, but they are so significant they represent a paradigm shift in marketing thought. Because of this legacy, the authors argue Wroe Alderson has earned the honorific title: “Father of Modern Marketing.”
Practical implications
This work provides an historical context to understand the origins of modern marketing thought by recognizing the most dynamic marketing thinker of the last half‐century.
Originality/value
This paper organizes the many and varied contributions of Wroe Alderson into broad categories in a context that is useful for researchers studying the history of marketing thought. The organization of Alderson's contributions also provides an historical foundation for scholars working on a general theory of marketing.
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D.G. Brian Jones, Peggy Cunningham, Paula McLean and Stanley Shapiro
The purpose of this paper is to present a biographical sketch of David D. Monieson whose academic career in marketing included time spent at the Wharton School of Business at the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a biographical sketch of David D. Monieson whose academic career in marketing included time spent at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Toronto, and over 30 years at Queen's University. It is focussed on Monieson's contributions to the history and philosophy of marketing thought, especially with respect to what Monieson called “usable knowledge” in marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a traditional historical narrative based on extensive personal interviews with Monieson and with some of his students and colleagues as well as archival research including personal correspondence, course notes, research notes, and other unpublished documents.
Findings
Monieson made important contributions to the thinking about history and philosophy of marketing thought. Some of his ideas, such as the intellectualization and re‐enchantment of marketing, have found a following among marketing academics; others, such as complexity, have not.
Originality/value
There is no published biographical study of Monieson and no detailed analysis of his contributions to marketing thought. This biographical sketch provides insights into several significant marketing ideas and tells the life story of an important marketing scholar.
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The purpose of this paper is to give tribute to William R. Davidson and his pioneering work with Management Horizons, the retail consultancy he cofounded along with numerous…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give tribute to William R. Davidson and his pioneering work with Management Horizons, the retail consultancy he cofounded along with numerous contributions he and the firm made to marketing thought and retail knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay relies on the corporate history of Management Horizons as well as other publications.
Findings
A more complete picture emerges of Davidson's role in bridging the world of academia with the world of practitioners involved in retailing and wholesaling.
Research limitations/implications
The essay discusses Davidson's contributions to marketing as they relate to Management Horizons. But not all his contributions to marketing and retailing thought are presented.
Practical implications
Real life examples related to marketing thought and retail practices are discussed.
Originality/value
The essay offers a unique review of Davidson's role in the creation of one of the most important retail consultancies of the twentieth century.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the author’s serendipitous career and provide some lessons that might be of value to those pursuing the academic mission: teaching…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the author’s serendipitous career and provide some lessons that might be of value to those pursuing the academic mission: teaching, research and service.
Design/methodology/approach
The method involves primary sources; mainly the author’s CV to jog recall of events and dates, some of his articles and the teachings and writings of many others that influenced or inspired various aspects of the author’s career.
Findings
The author’s experiences affirm that to achieve any degree of success in the professoriate, in addition to having some talent it is also helpful to be lucky. There is a lot to navigate at a university. Opportunities exist at every turn, some noticed some missed. When recognized, be prepared. Being a professor is not what you do, it is who you are. Preparation for an academic career involves becoming a self-improvement project (essentially, a life-long student learning lessons). It requires developing expertise (preferably excellence) in some field of study, as well as resourcefulness, resilience and perseverance.
Originality/value
Each individual’s story is unique. The author’s path seems to have included more twists and turns than most. Consequently, he tried to highlight the experiences with lessons learned in most sections, some obvious some less so, which he expects (at least hopes) will prove valuable to future educators.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue for including historical perspectives in doctoral seminars in marketing theory.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue for including historical perspectives in doctoral seminars in marketing theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes how marketing history is currently incorporated into the author's doctoral seminar in marketing theory.
Findings
The author's doctoral seminar in marketing theory incorporates history in three ways: the assignment of specific historical articles, the use of historically oriented, supplementary readings, and the use of history to examine specific controversies.
Originality/value
Rather than marketing history and marketing theory being competitors, they complement each other well in doctoral seminars.
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Ann-Marie Kennedy and Gene R Laczniak
This paper seeks to gain an understanding of how different consumer conceptualisations in marketing may lead to negative outcomes. Every profession has its grand vision. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to gain an understanding of how different consumer conceptualisations in marketing may lead to negative outcomes. Every profession has its grand vision. The guiding vision for most marketing professionals is customer orientation. Of course, reality is more complex and nuanced than a single unified vision. Organisations tout their consumer-centric marketing decisions, in that they use consumer research to make operational decisions about products, prices, distribution and the like. However, marketers’ treatment of consumers is often far from the customer’s best interests. It is proposed that by understanding the different conceptualisations of the consumer over time, we can explore their implications for putting authentic consumer-centric marketing into practise.
Design/methodology/approach
A thematic analysis of marketing thought as reflected in the marketing literature.
Findings
This review of the history of marketing thought bears out a diversity of opinions concerning the role of consumers in aiding marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Not all views of the customer are nurturing of the marketing concept nor predicated on a solicitous relationship with consumers. A demonstrable lack of consumer orientation can lead to a distrust of marketers as well as the extant marketing system. Often additional regulation of marketers and markets is a compensating result and sometimes the structure of the marketing system itself may require adjustment.
Originality/value
This paper is intended to nudge marketing academics to more thoughtfully examine the pragmatic implications of how marketing managers conceive of the typical consumer. After conducting a thematic analysis of marketing thought, a normative ethical argument is then put forward concerning why an adherence to this fragile grand vision of marketing – genuine customer concern – is important for prudential marketing and the overall health of the marketing system.
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The purpose of this article is to introduce the theme of this special issue. In doing so, the paper argues that marketing historical research is in need of a paradigmatic shift…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to introduce the theme of this special issue. In doing so, the paper argues that marketing historical research is in need of a paradigmatic shift. Rather than privilege primary and secondary sources that preserve the perspectives and actions of corporate managers and of marketing academics, marketing historians need to open the historical narratives they construct much more than before to the experiences and voices of ordinary consumers, i.e. of those who actually shop and buy and choose. They also need to do more to incorporate into their narratives examples of the value-creation that consumers themselves enact, both inside and outside the sphere of the market.
Design/methodology/approach
By reviewing the state of the marketing historical literature, this paper introduces the “History from Below” school of historical thought into marketing historical research. It also tests to what extent a stronger consumer focus might be able to enrich historical research in marketing.
Findings
Although contemporary marketing historiography is characterized by a richness of themes and methodological approaches, there is still a marked difference between the way marketing academics and historians write the history of marketing and consumption. While, surprisingly, the former often tend to ignore the voices of ordinary consumers, the latter often lack the marketing-related “technical” knowledge to fully understand the significance of specific archival sources they discuss. This means that a genuine “People’s History of Marketing” has yet to be written.
Research limitations/implications
Findings from the paper will be of value to marketing historians who wish to expand the scope and agenda of their research and help historical research move away from narrow managerial perspectives and other “privileged” accounts of marketing.
Originality/value
This paper makes two original contributions. First, it introduces historiographical innovations associated with “History from Below” (social history) into marketing historical scholarship. Second, it attempts to help marketing historians identify alternative sets of primary and secondary sources, e.g. oral history archives, which would allow them to be much more optimistic about their own ability to reconstruct the perspectives of those whose voices are all too often ignored.
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Robert Crawford and Matthew Bailey
The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of oral history for marketing historians and provide case studies from projects in the Australian context to demonstrate its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of oral history for marketing historians and provide case studies from projects in the Australian context to demonstrate its utility. These case studies are framed within a theme of market research and its historical development in two industries: advertising and retail property.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examines oral histories from two marketing history projects. The first, a study of the advertising industry, examines the globalisation of the advertising agency in Australia over the period spanning the 1950s to the 1980s, through 120 interviews. The second, a history of the retail property industry in Australia, included 25 interviews with executives from Australia’s largest retail property firms whose careers spanned from the mid-1960s through to the present day.
Findings
The research demonstrates that oral histories provide a valuable entry port through which histories of marketing, shifts in approaches to market research and changing attitudes within industries can be examined. Interviews provided insights into firm culture and practices; demonstrated the variability of individual approaches within firms and across industries; created a record of the ways that market research has been conducted over time; and revealed the ways that some experienced operators continued to rely on traditional practices despite technological advances in research methods.
Originality/value
Despite their ubiquity, both the advertising and retail property industries in Australia have received limited scholarly attention. Recent scholarship is redressing this gap, but more needs to be understood about the inner workings of firms in an historical context. Oral histories provide an avenue for developing such understandings. The paper also contributes to broader debates about the role of oral history in business and marketing history.
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Rohit Varman and Hari Sreekumar
The paper aims to argue, while examining the history of marketing theory in India, that the discipline is ahistorical, serves large business interests and is shaped by hegemonic…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to argue, while examining the history of marketing theory in India, that the discipline is ahistorical, serves large business interests and is shaped by hegemonic Western knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary sources of data were the marketing doctoral dissertations, working papers, teaching material and research publications produced in the top management schools in India from the 1960s up to the present period.
Findings
The historical review reveals that the marketing theory in India is characterized by dependence on the West and elision of the country’s rich business history. It further shows that the discipline in India focuses on research problems and issues which are more appropriate to a Western context, and remains detached from local realities. Moreover, the discipline is characterized by a narrow managerial orientation.
Research limitations/implications
Findings from the paper will be of value to researchers who wish to understand the Indian marketing thought.
Practical implications
Findings from the paper will be of value to academics and policy makers who wish to create more independent and contextually informed and sensitive management programs.
Social implications
The paper reveals the extent to which the education and institutions in India are influenced by the West, and aims to motivate academics and policy makers to understand local knowledge and ways of knowing.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is to show that the marketing discipline in India has been ahistorical and is shaped by hegemonic Western knowledge.
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