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The purpose of this paper was to document the development of a major regional department store from the firm’s start to the completion of a single block structure including the warehouses required to support its operations.

The study is based on a survey of historic materials including the recently available archival materials in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

The study reveals the interaction of vision, planning and risk taking in a family enterprise over two generations. It illustrates the search for information as to what was required and the importance of architectural elements in the construction and operation of their store.

The archival materials are extensive; however, over the years, much of the operating data were destroyed or lost. Although family members remain in Oregon, they are reluctant to discuss the store’s history, even though the matters that affected them took place many years after the study’s period.

Much of the information collected in the study had never been used in previous work.

Compares a response to an article by Savitt (Vol. 18 Nos. 6.7, 1984) from Hollander and including Savitt's rejoinder, making for very interesting reading and lively debating material. Discusses the Wheel of Retailing concept and gives each author's point of view arguing for and against these with interesting and contrasting ideas.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the challenges and rewards of engaging in the inextricably intertwined activities of studying and teaching marketing history. The secondary purpose is to encourage marketing scholars to expand work in this area.

The approach invokes the memoir and that format traces the author personal development in the field of marketing history over 30 years. It discusses what the author learned, how he learned, and how these lessons can be applied.

The paper offers several findings: marketing history can be part of every marketing course; students should be engaged in the development and application of historical findings; marketing scholars must develop an understanding of historical methods as a means of supporting research and teaching; and marketing history should eventually be seen in marketing as economic history is seen in economics.

The paper puts forth an approach for undertaking historical research in marketing and suggests how to use those findings in teaching marketing history. The emphasis focuses on engaging students with the caveat that history is not predictive. The goal is to put marketing events in their proper context, to understand how they develop and how they play out. Marketing history has its own intrinsic value but also provides a new dimension for decision making.

The paper uses a first person narrative of working in developing a field, a historic device not frequently found in marketing. It also represents a historiography of marketing history.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the Conferences on Historical Analysis & Research in Marketing (CHARM) from their inception in 1983 through 2007 focusing on the influence of Stanley C. Hollander, who co‐founded the CHARM conference and whose drive and determination fueled its growth for the first 20 years.

This study uses traditional historical narrative based on personal interviews, archival research, and content analysis of CHARM Proceedings.

The history of CHARM is described and Hollander's role in developing the conference is highlighted.

There is no written history of CHARM. This story is a major part of Hollander's legacy.

Offers a commentary on Mueller and Baron′s Case Note, which had sought to understand changes in distribution systems taking place in Central and Eastern Europe, and particularly in Hungary. Savitt criticizes the authors for disregarding the considerable research into change in distribution systems, and restricting their perspective by failing to consider the conditions under which marketing institutions are changing; over‐emphasizing the importance of Western distribution models to the evolving Hungarian system; failing to take account of recent Hungarian research on innovative retailing, particularly in respect of Skala Trade and Centrum; lack of attention to important privatization developments now taking place; and failing to take stock of the effects of economic conditions on consumer behaviour, and mistaking cosmetic alterations to structure for real advances in development.

One of the most serious problems faced by the multinational retailer is the estimation of the structure of retail markets in the many countries that he might want to enter. While marketing scholars have developed methods for assessing market potentials and for evaluating economic and political conditions, they have not been as successful in solving the market entry problem as it relates to the development of retailing. There are a large number of models of retail change which can be applied to the process, however, they generally fall short of management desires. In the first place, these models are often based on hypotheses of retail change in the North American market. In the second place, many of the models have not been formally tested within that environment and few have been evaluated in the wider context. Finally, these models are not comparative and the use of them in comparative analysis would suffer from the absence of acceptable categories and data. One approach that might help the difficulties of market entry is to apply historical research methods to the problem of understanding change. These methods by their very nature embody the elements of comparative analysis and offer the added advantage of dealing with specific firms and events rather than concentrating on more aggregate categories. By focusing on specific retailers in a single country and across many countries the researcher can develop general propositions which are deductively arrived at in a systematic fashion rather than rely on chance observation of aggregate structure and behaviour. Historical research demands a new outlook and sensitivity in the observation of events and in the analysis of data. The skills required to undertake such research have direct benefits because they force the researcher clearly to define the elements of his study in a way not possible when statistical methods are employed. Will such research be the answer to all of the issues of multinational retailing? The answer is clearly no; however, it can help managers and marketing scholars better understand the process of change in the past. There is no certainty that the past will predict the future, but understanding the process of change might make the future more manageable; and, what better place is there to start than a historical perspective?

The purpose of this article is to advance biographical work in marketing, to summarize the status of biography in marketing, and to illustrate the process with an example of a developing study.

The article is based on a literature review of biography and a brief review of biography in marketing; the article illustrates biographical research and writing.

The discussion introduces approaches for undertaking marketing biography, especially the challenges of developing information, assessing its quality, as well as methods for telling the story.

Biography is a “flawed process”. It is difficult to fully elaborate the scope of biography in a journal length article let alone apply the principles. Some topics are shortened, others are hinted at, and others are omitted but the discussion points the way to undertaking biography.

This article introduces contemporary elements for the development of marketing biography illustrated with elements from the life of E.T. Grether.

This paper aims to examine the context and nature of marketing used by nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic.

A number of senior self‐designated marketing managers in a wide range of non‐profit organizations in Prague were interviewed to generate a descriptive narrative of what these key persons understood marketing to be and how they devised and implemented marketing within organizational strategy.

The findings paralleled that of other research (1995‐2005) on the understanding and role of marketing within the profit sector of the Czech Republic. While marketing was identified as an interesting and powerful concept, non‐profit policy makers generally had a limited understanding of a marketing theory or of the context in which exchange transactions occurred.

This project was designed as an initial survey. The limited number of representatives interviewed and their purposeful selection from a small number of high‐profile non‐profit organizations limit the reliability of the findings and reduce the extent to which they can be generalized.

This paper provides a useful entry point for those interested in the use of marketing in the Czech Republic, a very significant transformative economy in the centre of Europe. Since one of the authors is a native Czech speaker, the paper reviews relevant marketing and non‐profit literature in Czech as well as English.

While there has been some interest in the understanding and practice of marketing in the profit sector, it is believed that this is the first paper to address the non‐profit sector – a sector that plays a very significant role within transformative economies.

Extends the “wheel of retailing” hypothesis by developing hypotheses dealing with product behaviour. Evaluates these hypotheses with historical data which have begun to change according to the “wheel of retailing”. Reveals that these hypotheses suggest that retail change is closely linked to environmental factors, including innovation diffusion and product life cycles. Concludes that retail change is therefore also an historical problem and that it is wise to investigate the specific history of retail firms in order for its implementation to be effective.

The purpose of this article is to revisit a forgotten classic in the marketing literature to provide a historical review of ET Grether’s 1966 book, Marketing and Public Policy.

The approach combines a literature review with historical reflection by placing Grether’s work in historical context.

Marketing and Public Policy offered a framework for examining and evaluating marketing practices and public policy responses based on Grether’s mastery of a number of disciplines and his extensive research into public policy issues. His ideas are relevant to today’s world, especially in light of technological developments and shifts in our moral compass since the 1960s.

ET Grether was a two-time recipient of the American Marketing Association’s Paul D. Converse Award, Editor of the Journal of Marketing, President of the American Marketing Association and author of more than 100 articles and books. This is the first attempt to review what is arguably one of his most important publications, Marketing and Public Policy.