Scientific Marketing Management and the Emergence of the Ethical Marketing Concept (original) (raw)
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SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
The paper traces the history of marketing from the days of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman who thought that trade and public good was “fundamentally subversive”, to the present day, when effective marketing is expected to incorporate a strong sense of ethics, values and responsibility. The paper reviews the theoretical framework by dislodging the idea of marketing as solely motivated by market incentives which is psychologically manipulative to a comprehensive science of behaviour in which an index of values can settle moral, political and philosophical questions arising out of business. The evolution of marketing practices from the earlier production concept to the recent holistic concept clearly shows the changing focus of marketing from selling and profiteering to ethical production and conscious consumption. A detailed analysis of the rising customer expectation, evolving goals of shareholders and employees, tighter legislation and media scrutiny have fundamentally transformed marketing practices in developing investor interest.
A History of Schools of Marketing Thought
Marketing has been practiced since ancient times and has been thought about almost as long. Yet, it is only during the 20th century that marketing ideas evolved into an academic discipline in its own right. Most concepts, issues and problems of marketing thought have coalesced into one of several schools or approaches to understanding marketing. In this article we trace the evolution of 10 schools of marketing thought. At the turn of the 20th century, early in the discipline's history, the study of functions, commodities, and institutions emerged as complementary modes of thinking about subject matter and became known collectively as the 'traditional approaches' to studying marketing; shortly thereafter the interregional trade approach emerged. About mid-century, there was a 'paradigm shift' in marketing thought eclipsing the traditional approaches as a number of newer schools developed: marketing management, marketing systems, consumer behavior, macromarketing, exchange, and marketing history. During the mid 1970s, three of the modern schools -marketing management, consumer behavior, and exchange -underwent a 'paradigm broadening'. The broadened paradigm has bifurcated marketing thought from the conventional domain of business behavior to the much broader domain of all human social behavior. Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century marketing thought is at a crossroads. Key Words • marketing history • marketing theory • marketing thought 239 Volume 5(3): 239-281
Theory and history in marketing
Managerial and Decision Economics, 1983
This article presents a theoretical foundation for marketing based on the ideas of the Austrian school of economists. After a discussion of the methodological foundations of Austrian economics, which reject the statistical and experimental methods of the physical sciences as the means to verify theory in the social sciences, the article presents the Austrians' principle of methodological individualism, which provides the basis for a theory of entrepreneurship and marketing.
The Impact of Ethics on Marketing
The issue of ethics has been a long standing one in marketing and efforts to treat it were dressed over but the fact that it has been attempted in the past is there for all readers to see. Aristotle was at the forefront of marketing ethics and as of recent Williams also write on the issue. The study seeks to examine the connection between ethics and marketing. It shall also address the issue of ethics in marketing to see if there is relationship between the two concepts. The objective of the paper is to evolve an outlook of interface between ethics and marketing such that it is possible to pin point direction to which the two are aheading. This shall provide a platform such that if one concept is taken the expectation on the other can become predictive. This is an epistemology paper using descriptive method. The study is employing qualitative and quantitative approach such that no hypothesis shall be formulated. However, the paper shall use past literature to form the fulcrum of assertion such that other work shall be explained in this study using explanatory approach. The study concludes by establishing a co habitual relationship between the concept of ethics and marketing such that it depends on the approach of the perception. The established relationship is that of a fluctuating oscillation with no constant direction as time, fashion, spiritual, civilization and culture play important roles on the study.
Rethinking 'marketing as applied economics'
Marketing Theory , 2022
This paper makes three intertwined arguments. Firstly, marketing is not simply an outgrowth of economics. Secondly, it is indebted to metaphysical, psychical and psychological research which provided the conditions of possibility for theorising marketplace interaction in our early history. Thirdly, marketing thinking has been and remains inflected by a position labelled 'practical idealism'. It is a contrast to the 'practical realism' which also subtends our discipline. Adopting a genealogical approach, we explicate the threads of practical idealism weaved across Prentice Mulford, Thomson J. Hudson and A.F. Sheldon's prominent works. Mulford provides the contours of the intellectual landscape. Hudson extends Mulford's assumption grounds. Sheldon combines the articulations of Mulford, Hudson and studies in psychical research, outlining the viability of hypnosis and telepathy in sales practice. To distance itself from hypnosis and associations of manipulation, 'suggestion' was the epistemological-political replacement promoted by marketing theorists. Discursive transmutation was achieved through epistemological deviation. Epistemological deviation is conceptualised as the dismissal of and disengagement from a theoretical or hypothetical account without the consideration of appropriate evidence. W.D. Scott's treatment of telepathy is an exemplar of epistemological deviation. It is a complete departure from the tenets of intellectual inquiry. What this means is that the promotion of psychology into marketing was accomplished in part by the abdication of critical reflection and not by its extension.
Origins of marketing thought in Britain
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document contributions to the early study and teaching of marketing at one of the first universities in Britain to do so and, in that way, to contribute to theliterature about the history of marketing thought. Given that the first university business program in Britain was started in 1902, at about the same time as the earliest business programs in America, the more specific purpose of this paper was to explore whether or not the same influences were shared by pioneer marketing educators on both sides of the Atlantic. Design/methodology/approach – An historical method is used including a biographical approach. Primary source materials included unpublished correspondence (letterbooks), lecture notes, seminar minute-books, course syllabi and exams, minutes of senate and faculty meetings, university calendars and other unpublished documents in the William James Ashley Papers at the University of Birmingham. Findings – The contributions of William James Ashley and the Commerce Program at the University of Birmingham to the early twentieth-century study and teaching of marketing are documented. Drawing from influences similar to those on pioneer American marketing scholars, Ashley used an historical, inductive, descriptive approach to study and teach marketing as part of what he called “business economics”. Beginning in 1902, Ashley taught his students about a relatively wide range of marketing strategy decisions focusing mostly on channels of distribution and the functions performed by channel intermediaries. His teaching and the research of his students share much with the early twentieth-century commodity, institutional and functional approaches that dominated American marketing thought. Research limitations/implications – William James Ashley was only one scholar and the Commerce Program at the University of Birmingham was only one, although widely acknowledged as the first, of a few early twentieth-century British university programs in business. This justifies future research into the possible contributions to marketing knowledge made by other programs such as those at the University of Manchester (1903), University of Liverpool (1910) and University of London (1919). Originality/value – This paper adds an important chapter to the history of marketing thought which has been dominated by American pioneer scholars, courses, literature and ideas. Keywords British marketing education, History of thought, Marketing history, University of Birmingham, William James Ashley
Reflections on the history of marketing thought and theory development
Marketing Theory, 2011
What happens when accumulated knowledge from the past as regards both practice and theory is absent in marketing education? Simply put, scholarly knowledge gets lost with dire consequences not only for the nature and scope of marketing as an academic discipline but also for the type of research undertaken. The quest to be current, especially in marketing management, has resulted in the fragmentation of marketing into ever more specialized areas resulting in the creation of silos with little room for scholarly work in marketing thought and marketing theory building.