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Marketing’s identity crisis: insights from the history of marketing thought

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Abstract

For almost half a century the broadening and generic concepts of marketing have been the dominant paradigm in the marketing discipline. However, ambiguities in that paradigm have hindered development of a general theory of marketing. This research takes a fresh look at these concepts that some academics regard as causing an identity crisis in marketing. Historical analysis reveals many practical applications, which arise from the broadening/generic paradigm, result in unresolvable theoretical anomalies. Consequently, a new paradigm is proposed. Marketing systems, we argue, provides a logically coherent foundation for building a general theory of marketing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA

    Adel El-Ansary

  2. College of Business, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, 33432, USA

    Eric H. Shaw

  3. Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    William Lazer

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  1. Adel El-Ansary
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  2. Eric H. Shaw
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  3. William Lazer
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Correspondence to Adel El-Ansary.

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El-Ansary, A., Shaw, E.H. & Lazer, W. Marketing’s identity crisis: insights from the history of marketing thought. AMS Rev 8, 5–17 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-017-0102-y

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