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As specialisation takes root in human communities, the economics of scale and of diversity come into play. Scale leads to product markets, specialised firms, channels, and to industries. Diversity generates peasant markets, shopping malls, and business eco‐systems. These outcomes are all examples of marketing systems, and are typical of the patterns that emerge, grow, adapt and evolve in complex transaction flows. Marketing systems are multi‐level, path dependent, dynamic systems, embedded within a social matrix, and interacting with institutional and knowledge environments. The purpose of this paper is to outline a number of propositions that might serve as a basis for a theory of marketing systems.

The paper draws on historical research into the evolution of exchange and on examples of markets and exchange practices from marketing, anthropology, sociology, and economics. It utilises results from complex adaptive systems theory, from the networks and markets literatures, and from ecology, to formulate a series of propositions that identify properties believed to be common to all marketing systems.

Marketing systems are identified and categorized as emergent patterns in flows of transactions. In total, 12 foundational propositions are suggested. The propositions are complementary to those suggested by S‐D logic.

This paper offers a fresh approach to the study of marketing systems, developing relevant theory. Marketing systems link micro choices with macro outcomes, with implications ranging from disaster recovery to distributive justice and QOL outcomes.

Dixon recently commented that 50 years ago “marketing management and planning was part of marketing theory, today it seems to be all there is.” There is now a growing fragmentation of marketing thought, and a lack of marketing relevance to critical social and economic questions, that is of increasing concern to both internal and external critics. The purpose of this paper is to explore briefly the evolution of marketing thought over the last 100 years and to suggest a better response to the critics.

The paper comprises an historical review of the development of marketing as a discipline that could lead to a reconceptualization of the field.

Adam Smith emphasised both scale and diversity in markets. However, it was the economics of scale that caught the attention of economists and then of marketing specialists. This incomplete view of Smith limited the scope of marketing thought to single or related products. However, Smith's emphasis on diversity leads, logically and inevitably, to the development of the concept of a marketing system. A set of propositions are then suggested that lead to a generalised theory of marketing based on the marketing system concept.

This approach holds promise of resolving the concerns of both the internal and external critics of marketing, opening the door to a fresh, relevant interpretation of marketing thought that might address the concerns expressed by Dixon.

The purpose of this paper is to present memories of Don Dixon in Australia and of his outstanding contribution.

The paper is based on recollections and personal diaries.

Don Dixon made a significant contribution to the development of marketing as social discipline in Australia and to the evolution of the concept of a marketing system.

The paper contributes to a reassessment of the role of Don Dixon as an outstanding scholar in the discipline of marketing.

Competition and cooperation co‐exist in various sub‐fields of organizational strategies, while a research gap remains in the links between how managers perceive their cognitive relations with rival partners and how they choose a strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different focuses of competition and cooperation are put in core and supportive strategic importance based on business manager's individual perception toward a particular rivalling cognition.

A conceptual model is developed composed by several hypotheses. An empirical study is conducted by analysing data collected from 89 pharmacies, including public hospital pharmacies and community service, private chain retailing pharmacy, and independent pharmacies, out of hundreds of outlets in a capital city in China to test hypotheses. By using factor analysis and correlation analysis, several hypotheses are supported in linking competitive cognition with either core marketing strategies or supportive marketing strategies.

Observational results indicate that large and small pharmacies, motivated by relational perceptions among competitors, tend to rely selectively on some strategic tools of competition and cooperation in terms of their different business nature.

These results are valuable for business managers in the healthcare industry, enabling them to rethink their relations with strategic partners and their strategies.

The paper's findings enrich understanding of how a competing environment influences strategic orientation of competition and cooperation under a collaborative marketing framework.

This paper is focused on my search over nearly 60 years for an understanding of marketing – not just as a management technology, but as a social discipline which gives meaning and purpose to the technology.

This paper illustrates my life as an academic in context, which began with a strong focus on marketing in contemporary management and went on to conclude that marketing is much more than management. It was my travels across the world to widely differing markets and marketplaces that led me to this conclusion. I saw individuals, groups and organizations linking with each other in the voluntary exchange of economic and social value, self-organizing into increasingly complex networks that in the end become the institutions that frame marketing action.

I gradually came to see marketing in a much wider, intensely human setting, and to realize some of the complexities of the networks that marketing activities generate.

My story may be of assistance to younger scholars beginning a career in marketing.

Marketing is much more than management and if re-framed should/could stand alongside other social sciences in considering social and economic policy.

To build on my recollections of an unplanned life spent in search of marketing to highlight the need for younger scholars to think about marketing in a dynamic ever-changing systems setting.