‘The knowledgeable marketing practitioner’: practice and professional knowing in marketing work

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the knowledge constructs that professionals draw upon when engaging in marketing work. Our conceptual approach stems from a critical analysis of marketing work foregrounding the practitioners’ professional knowledge and practice of marketing work. We identify 13 pertinent knowledge constructs–some of which are illustrated by vignettes–showcasing the shared and multifaceted nature of professional knowledge in a small- and medium-sized enterprise. By exploring how practitioners deploy their knowledge of marketing in practice, we conclude what the marketing discipline can learn from professional knowing. We contribute to the marketing work literature by considering the ontological role of professional knowing in dereifying marketing work from textbook knowledge along with its implications for the critical understanding of the perceived gap between marketing theorising and practice.     

A retrospective on the state of international advertising research in advertising,communication, and marketing journals: 1963–2014

Scanning from the earliest to the recent literature on international advertising research, this study aimed to provide a more comprehensive and detailed picture of the research trends and patterns across the advertising, marketing, and communication disciplines over the past half century. Findings exhibit continuous growth in terms of the quantity of international advertising studies. While theoretical foundations need to be further solidified and elaborated, methodological and statistical rigors have been increasingly underpinned in international advertising research. Further, this study recognized authorial and institutional productivity, and influential articles in the field of international advertising research. The finding indicates that scholarly endeavors are necessary for diversity of countries studied in future research.     

Export marketing research in practice: A comparison of users and non‐users

Following a review of the literature, this paper analyses the differences between users and non‐users of export marketing research. The study was conducted on a sample of small and medium‐sized Finnish design companies, exhibiting a range of different export characteristics. Contrary to prior expectations, the results show only a few significant differences between users and non‐users of export marketing research. The implications of these findings are discussed and avenues for future research on the topic are outlined.     

Reading ‘the marketing revolution’ through the prism of the FBI

Abstract

This paper details the rebranding process undertaken by the UK co-operative movement and provides an understanding of the strategic issues involved in maintaining a coherent brand identity across a group of autonomous, independent societies. The methodology uses previously unpublished and archive material from across the movement. This is followed by a series of semi-structured interviews with Board Directors, senior management and individuals responsible for implementing the rebranding strategy. The rebranding exercise took almost ten years and the research identifies nine (non-discrete) overlapping stages. The paper argues that while many parallels can be drawn with the corporate rebranding literature, the need to achieve compromise and consensus combined with the independence of those participating creates issues not detailed in previous academic studies.     

Review of emotions research in marketing, 2002–2013

Study of emotions has been an important area of research for past several decades. Since emotions play an important role in purchase decisions, this area has particular importance for marketing scholars. In this study, we review the emotions research conducted within the marketing field between 2002 and 2013. Within the broad domain of emotions, this study focuses on social/personality issues, cognitive factors, the development of emotions and their interactions with other consumption factors. We found a total of 340 emotion-related articles, published in 19 marketing journals. There was a gradual increase in number of articles published every year with the trend peaking in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The review of extant literature offers interesting insights into emotion-related research, and helps in identifying clear directions for future studies.     

China’s Investments in Germany and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Intereconomics - This paper analyses how China’s investments in Germany have developed over time and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard, based on four different...     

The art of advertising railways: organisation and coordination in Britain's railway marketing, 1860–1910

This article examines early developments in Britain's railway companies' marketing. Railways have long been considered primarily manufacturers of transport and their selling efforts have attracted little attention from historians. Recent approaches to business history have revealed some important aspects of modern corporations' contributions to the cultural construction of social and economic behaviour. However, there is little research about public transport's role in encouraging people's movement. The article demonstrates the sophisticated promotional machinery developed by railway companies from the late nineteenth century, as well as shedding light on the hitherto neglected coordination of railway advertising at the Railway Clearing House.     

Does size matter? The state of the art in small business ethics

In this paper the exclusive focus on large firms in the field of business ethics is challenged. Some of the idiosyncrasies of small firms are explained, and links are made between these and potential ethical issues. A review of the existing literature on ethics in small firms demonstrates the lack of appropriate research, so that to date we can draw no firm conclusions in relation to ethics in the small firm. Recommendations are made as to the way forward for small firm business ethics research. Questions for investigation are suggested using micro, meso and macro perspectives. Much exploratory work needs to be done to lay the groundwork for this important area of social and commercial research in the future.     

Author and institution rankings in retail research: an analysis of the four retail journals from 1994–2008

The four retailing journals are reviewed over a 15 year period through 2008. Utilizing established methodology, the impact of scholars and institutions upon the retailing discipline is assessed using five measures. Over 1,800 articles were reviewed, coded for authorship and institutional affiliation and then analyzed based on several measures designed to control for quantity and quality of publication. Results by journal as well as overall are tabled by author and institutional appearance. Findings include a distinct division of European authors and institutions dominating the three European-based journals and North American authors dominating the American-based journal.     

Consumer research on sales promotions: A state‐of‐the‐art literature review∗

Many research traditions have dealt with consumer psychology and behaviour vis‐à‐vis sales promotions The consumer‐oriented approach seeks to identify the heavy users of promotions and to track their purchasing strategies involving the choice of a promoted brand The aim of the theory‐oriented research traditions is to test the explanatory power of various cognitive, attitudinal, behavioural and economic frameworks, be it to explain why and how consumers react to sales promotions or to understand when companies should promote This article exposes the specificity of each research tradition, its principal results and the most promising areas for future research     

The role and function of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department: A study of medium‐sized companies in the UK

The unification of “marketing” functions under the control of a chief marketing executive has long been regarded as central to implementing the marketing concept. While not accepting the logic that suggests that marketing orientation implies any particular set of organisational arrangements, this article examines new empirical data concerned with the role and status of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department, in a sample of manufacturing firms, to suggest that they function very differently in different companies.

Such distinctions have important implications for our understanding of how marketing operates in organisations, and the different ways in which it may be developed, both in manufacturing and in other sectors.     

Business Ethics and the ‘End of History’ in Corporate Law

If social scientists take natural science as a model, they may err in their predictions and may offer facile ethical views. MacIntyre assails them for this, but he is unduly pessimistic about business, and in rejecting the separation thesis he raises some difficulties about naturalism. Aristotle’s views of the good life and of the close relationship between internal and external goods provide a corrective to MacIntyre, and in fact suggest how virtues can support social capital and thus prevail within and among firms in competitive markets. Aristotle’s views are not necessarily inimical to those underlying modern democratic capitalism, but they raise questions about the limits to the good life. The separation thesis misses the importance of addressing the questions with both empirical and ethical resources.     

America’s online ‘jobs’: conceptualizations,measurements, and influencing factors

The paper examines the size and distribution of online income positions (OIPs) from internet platforms in the United States. While researchers have developed traditional internet sector employment estimates (e.g., engineers), this secondary OIP market remains largely unmeasured due to shortcomings in industrial codes, conceptualizations, and methods. The estimates that do exist vary greatly. The paper addresses these shortcomings through original survey data collected directly from internet sector companies, allowing it to develop the first comprehensive look at the market for online income opportunities. The paper provides national and state-level estimates, finding approximately 23.9 million OIPs exist currently in 2017. The paper finds that these OIPs are present across all 50 states and the District of Columbia and that their distribution is less tied to population levels than traditional employment. The paper also develops a model for OIP levels with a surprisingly strong fit, which demonstrates that OIPs are driven by relative cost to income factors, exposure to the ‘tech’ sector, and internet access, but not by unemployment. To the extent of the paper’s knowledge, this is the only research that has drawn on actual internet firm data to estimate the size of the OIP market.     

‘Murketing’ and the rhetoric of the new sincerity

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that marketing scholars should be paying a lot more attention to the rhetorical form which the economic historian Philip Mirowski – following the novelist David Foster Wallace – calls murketing. Combining philosophical, historical, economic and fictional resources, the paper first produces a synthetic account of what murketing is. Blurring calculated dishonesty with impassioned sincerity, murketing operationalises a double-truth dialectic which treats consumers as both subjects and objects within the process of their own persuasion. In order to indicate how murketing works, the paper then considers recent examples from murketing practice where allusions are made which are both cynical and gnostic, both conceited and intimate, and both earnest and ironic. The paper closes by indicating how its account of the theory and practice of murketing might inform the future study, consumption and regulation of advertising and marketing communications.     

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

Abstract

The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.     

The future of marketing: brightest star in the firmament,or a fading meteor? Some hypotheses and a research agenda

Excellent marketing has always emanated from a deep understanding of consumer needs and expectations, combined with their right to be informed, protected and their right to quality of life. Evidence for this fundamental bedrock of marketing is provided. The problem is that in 2009 "marketing" just doesn't mean "good marketing", or even "honest marketing" and is widely seen as "mismarketing" in practice, largely the result of marketing's demotion to promotion and puffery. Evidence is provided for this view. The paper then makes some suggestions about possible new initiatives/directions for the discipline. These are:

? the name marketing itself

? making the discipline truly professional

? making marketing fully accountable for its expenditure

The accountability issue, however, is, in the author's view, the principal way to rescue the discipline from demise, so the bulk of the paper concerns this issue and sets out an agenda for research.     

Relational marketing throughout the history of commercial exchange: Blind spots in marketing’s origin story

Abstract

Although marketing is commonly theorized to have originated at the dawn of exchange itself, few scholarly articles explore the history of marketing beyond this cursory recitation of the commonly accepted origin story of the field. The evolution of complex commercial exchange is presented as a natural outgrowth of the development of human society as opposed to the willful and intentional efforts of early merchants. Using disparate and archaic sources, this article synthesizes historical accounts and archival information to show that entrepreneurs have always practiced relational marketing from prehistoric eras and continued to do so throughout pre-industrial and post-industrial eras when the bulk of the literature claims that the scale of modern production rendered relational marketing ineffective and nearly obsolete. In doing so, we add to the virtually non-existent literature documenting entrepreneurial marketing in the early, pre-industrial history of commerce.