Search results

This paper aims at interpreting the epistemology of marketing. The paper investigates several research questions, proposing some initial reflections concerning their impact on marketing.

The paper addresses the research questions by conducting an analysis of the marketing literature. An analysis of philosophical postmodern literature is also carried out. The paper's attempt constantly to create links between the level of philosophical elaboration and that of marketing research leads to a proposal of new approach to marketing research: experiential research.

In the paper's review of the marketing literature the traditional pragmatic approach of marketing as a discipline is highlighted. Its strong managerial perspective has partly diverted researchers’ attention from the theory, and focused it mainly on the method. This has created an increasingly marked distinction between the marketing literature aimed at management, and that aimed at the academic community. The postmodern perspective on marketing calls for a rethinking of the “scientific nature” of marketing as an investigative field.

The main point is that marketing cannot be a scientific discipline only by adopting a scientific method. Marketing research is by definition different in nature: it cannot generate better but only different knowledge. This perspective shift has an impact on all research components. First, the field of research widens enormously, because researchers can deal with everything arousing their interest and to which their accumulated knowledge can be applied. Since the discipline does not become scientific, the researcher can use any method. All methods can originate scientific theories, and therefore incremental knowledge. Hence science is neither objective nor absolute.

This paper analyses the philosophical roots of postmodernism, in order to understand its impact on postmodern marketing better. It also focuses on the impact of postmodernism on marketing research, and proposes a new approach. This paper then explores the features of the experiential research in marketing, and its effect on the processes of generating knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive framework for service appropriation, specifying the different facets of the phenomenon.

A literature review summarizes views of the appropriation concept from various disciplines (human and social sciences, information systems, marketing), reinforced by an exploratory study in the health sector.

Six underlying dimensions of service appropriation emerge: service knowledge; service consciousness; self-adaptation to service; service control; service creation; and psychological ownership of the service.

This paper is mainly conceptual and requires empirical testing in other domains to confirm the applicability of the proposed framework.

This study offers insights into how service providers and managers should design services and integrate customers in the service coproduction process.

The complementary view of appropriation in the context of services defines it as a cognitive, measurable state. The outcome of this approach is an original, integrative framework applied to services, not just spaces or immersive experiences.