Article S8.7 Theoretical Perspectives in Marketing Seminar Leader: Saji K. B. Nair Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India saji_nair[at]iiml.ac.in The seminar was focused on theoretical perspectives in marketing. Nair emphasised on the importance of theory building in marketing. Theory provides a foundation for research process. Hunt (2002) defines theory as “a systematically related set of statements including some law like generalizations that is empirically testable. The purpose of a theory is to explain and predict phenomena” (Hunt, 2002, p. 217). A theory is comprised of construct definitions, propositions linking the constructs, and arguments for the proposition. The process of building theory has three steps: (a) observe, describe, and measure the phenomena (constructs), (b) categorise phenomena based on attributes (frameworks and typologies), and (c) statements of association (models). Any marketing phenomenon can be related to marketing theory. In marketing, several schools of thought can be identified, which are commonly classified under four broad groups (Sheth, Gardner, & Garrett, 1988): (a) Non-interactive economic group (b) Interactive economic group (c) Non-interactive non-economic group (d) Interactive non-economic group Non-Interactive Economic Group The non-interactive economic group includes three schools of thought, namely commodity school, functional school, and regional school. These three schools of thoughts are based on economic concepts and focused on the marketer’s perspective rather than on the interaction between marketers and buyers. The commodity school of thought concentrates on the physical characteristics of products and related buying habits for different categories of products in a commodity environment. The scholars of this school propose the classification of all consumer goods into four categories: convenience products, preference products, shopping products, and speciality products and try to develop a comprehensive framework that links marketing mix decisions to these product categories. The functional school of thought concentrates on the activities that must be performed during the marketing process. McGarry (1950) classifies the marketing transactions into six functions: contractual, merchandising, pricing, propaganda, physical distribution, and termination. Lewis and Erickson (1969) attempted to link together the functional and systems perspectives and classified the marketing functions into two broad functions: to obtain demand and to service demand. The regional school of thought concentrates on the places where customers are most likely to do the shopping. Grether (1950) presented the theory that the volume of goods entering trade among regions is determined by: the relative inequality of regions, relative prosperity of regions, direction of reciprocal demands among regions, and relative effectiveness of competition. Interactive Economic Group The interactive economic group includes three schools of thought: institutional, functionalist, and managerial schools of thought. Like the three schools of thoughts described above, these are all based on economic principles and not influenced by the social and psychological factors related to marketing. But the interactive economic schools are different from the above three schools in their recognition of the interdependent relationship between the buyer and the seller. The institutional school of thought is concerned with analysing the organisations involved in the marketing process. In the functionalist school of thought, the perspective is largely focused on the work of one person. The managerial school of thought concentrates on the marketing plan: objectives, strategies, marketing myopia, marketing mix, and market segmentation. Non-Interactive Non-Economic Group The non-interactive non-economic group consists of buyer behaviour school of thought, activist school of thought, and macro-marketing school of thought. These schools of thoughts take into account the perspective of recipients of marketing process: consumers and society. They provide conceptual frameworks, hypotheses, and empirical evidence based on behavioural and social sciences going beyond economics. These schools of thought represent a two-dimensional shift from the old schools of thought: focusing on social and behavioural processes beyond those recognised within economics and focusing on customers rather than markets. The buyer behaviour school of thought is concerned with analysing the buying behaviour of customers. It concentrates on three separate areas of research: motivation, social determinants of consumer behaviour, and household decision-making .The activist school of thought concentrates on critiquing the effects marketing has on the environment. The macro-marketing school of thought argues that more consideration should be given to environmental and social forces. Interactive Non-Economic Group The interactive non-economic group accommodates three schools of thought, namely organisational dynamics school of thought, systems school of thought, and social exchange school of thought. Unlike the non-interactive non-economic schools which examine market processes from buyer’s prospective, these three schools examine the mutual interdependence and integrated relationship between sellers and buyers. The organisational dynamics school of thought concentrates on the inter-organisational behaviour as the key focal point for understanding the marketing process. The systems school of thought concentrates on the holistic belief that the total is more than the sum of the parts, and that we are losing something if we do not remain holistic in our theory and research in marketing. The social exchange school of thought argues that marketing is applicable to all social transactions, not just economic transactions. A researcher of marketing needs to understand where a theory applies and where it does not. References Grether, E. T. (1950). A theoretical approach to the study of marketing. In R. Cox & W. Alderson (Eds.), Theory in marketing (pp. 113-123). Homewood, IL: Irwin. Hunt, S. D. (2002). Foundations of marketing theory: Toward a general theory of marketing. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Lewis, R. J., & Erickson, L. G. (1969). Marketing functions and marketing systems: A synthesis. Journal of Marketing, 33, 10-14. McGarry, E. D. (1950). Some functions of marketing reconsidered. In R. Cox & W. Alderson (Eds.), Theory in marketing (pp. 263-279). Homewood, IL: Irwin. Sheth, J. N., Gardner D. M., & Garrett D. E. (1988). Marketing theory: Evolution and evaluation. New York: John Wiley. Reported by Mahendra Kumar Shukla, with inputs from Paromita Goswami; edited by D. P. Dash. [November 21, 2010] Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home | ||
 |