Abstract
Wroe Alderson was a scholar and a man of many talents. A Renaissance man in the truest sense of the term, he was a practitioner, scholar, theorist, philosopher, theologian, mentor, and good friend to many who knew him. Alderson rose from simple beginnings to be one of the leading marketing consultants in America, and the leading marketing theorist and father of modern marketing thought.
This biography relies heavily on interviews with Alderson’s children, Asia Bennett and Evan Alderson, and those who worked with/for Alderson, particularly Stanley J. Shapiro, Michael Halbert, Patrick J. Robinson, and Robert Rothberg, who all generously gave their time. It was a pleasure to meet so many people who share a passion for a great marketing thinker.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ackoff, Russell L. (2003). Personal Interview in his offices near Philadelphia on the 5th August.
Alderson, Evan (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his office at the Downtown campus of Simon Fraser University, Vancouver on the 5th of September.
Alderson, Evan (2003). Personal Interview conducted in his office at his home in Vancouver on the 19th of August.
Alderson, Wroe (1928). Advertising for Community Promotion. Technical Report Domestic Commerce Series No. 21, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe (1932). Louisville Grocery Survey, pt. III, A–C; pt. IV. Technical Report Distribution Cost Studies, No. 11-14, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe (1937). The Effect of Price Controls on Non-price Competition. Law and Contemporary Problems, 4(3):356–362.
Alderson, Wroe (1940). The Consumer Market-Income, Expenditure, and Savings. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 209(1):1–13.
Alderson, Wroe (1951). A Systematics for Problems of Action. Philosophy of Science, 18(1):16–25.
Alderson, Wroe (1953a). Social Adjustment in Business Management. Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, 6(1):20–29.
Alderson, Wroe (1953b). Statistical Training for Marketing Research. American Statistician, 7(February):9–11.
Alderson, Wroe (1955). Operations Research And Management Problems. Advanced Management, 20(4):14–17.
Alderson, Wroe (1956). Biography of Charles Collidge Parlin. Journal of Marketing, 21(1/4):1–2.
Alderson, Wroe (1957a). Basic Research and The Future of Marketing Theory. In Bass, Frank M., editor, The Frontiers of Marketing Science: Proceedings of the 1957 American Marketing Association Conference, pages 170–178. American Marketing Association, Chicago.
Alderson, Wroe (1957b). Marketing Behavior and Executive Action: A Functionalist Approach to Marketing. Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, Ill.
Alderson, Wroe (1959). Paper prepared for expert testimony.
Alderson, Wroe (1963a). Application for Ford Foundation Funding to Support PhD Students under Wroe Alderson, Ford Foundation Archives, Reel R1643, Grant number PA 64-14.
Alderson, Wroe (1963b). The Analytical Framework for Marketing. In Bliss, Perry, editor, Marketing and Behavioral Sciences, pages 25–40. Allyn and Bacon, Inc., Boston.
Alderson, Wroe (1964a). Needs, Wants and Creative Marketing. In Westing, Howard and Albaum, Gerald, editors, Modern Marketing Thought: An Environmental Approach to Marketing, pages 18–21. The MacMillan Company, New York. Reprinted from Cost and Profit Outlook, Vol. 8, No. 9, September, 1955.
Alderson, Wroe (1964b). The Strategy of Marketing Research. Growth and Profit Planner, 2(1):1,3.
Alderson, Wroe (1965b). Dynamic Marketing Behavior: A Functionalist Theory of Marketing. Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, Ill.
Alderson, Wroe (1984). The Analytical Framework for Marketing. In Brown, Stephen W. and Fisk, Raymond, editors, Marketing Theory: Distinguished Contributions, pages 45–53. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Alderson, Wroe (Circa 1965a). Correspondence from Alderson’s partners in Behavior Systems after his death to Elsie Alderson.
Alderson, Wroe (n.d.). Letter sent home while travelling around explaining his inability to send money this month. Held in his personal papers.
Alderson, Wroe and Aiken, B. B. (1932). Merchandising Requirements of the Drug Store Package. Technical Report Domestic Commerce Series, No. 73, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe and Bromell, John R. (1930). Problems of Wholesale Paint Distribution. Technical Report Distribution Cost Studies No. 8[a], United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe, Cary, Stephen G., Edgerton, William B., Moore, Hugh W., Pickett, Clarence E., and Zelliot, Eleanor (1956). Meeting the Russians. American Quakers Visit the Soviet Union. American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia.
Alderson, Wroe and Cox, Reavis (1948). Towards a Theory of Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 13(October):137–152.
Alderson, Wroe and Green, Paul (1964). Planning and Problem Solving in Marketing. Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, Ill.
Alderson, Wroe and Haag, Jr., Frederick (1931). Problems of Wholesale Electrical Goods Distribution. Technical Report Distribution Cost Studies No. 9, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe and Halbert, Michael H. (1968). Men, Motives and Markets. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Alderson, Wroe and Martin, M.W. (1965). Toward a Formal Theory of Transactions and Transvections. The Journal of Marketing Research, 2(May):117–127.
Alderson, Wroe and Meserole, W. H. (1932). Drug Store Arrangement. Technical Report Domestic Commerce Series No. 57, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe and Miller, N. A. (1930). Problems of Wholesale Dry Goods Distribution. Technical Report Distribution Cost Studies No. 7, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe and Miller, Nelson A. (1934). Costs, Sales, and Profits in the Retail Drug Store. Technical Report Domestic Commerce Series, No. 90, United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Department of Commerce), Washington. U. S. Government Print Office.
Alderson, Wroe and Sessions, Robert E. (circa 1955). Advertising pamphlet.
Alderson, Wroe and Shapiro, Stanley J., editors (1963). Marketing and the Computer. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Alderson, Wroe, Terpstra, Vern, and Shapiro, Stanley J., editors (1965). Patents and Progress: The Sources and Impact of Advancing Technology. Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, Ill.
Alexander, Ralph S., Surface, Frank M., and Alderson, Wroe (1949). Marketing. Ginn & Company, Boston.
Alexander, Ralph S., Surface, Frank M., and Alderson, Wroe (1953). Marketing. Ginn & Company, Boston, 3rd edition.
Alexander, Ralph S., Surface, Frank M., Elder, Robert F., and Alderson, Wroe (1940). Marketing. Ginn and Company, Boston.
Bartels, Robert (1962). The Development of Marketing Thought. Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Ill.
Bartels, Robert (1970). Marketing Theory and Metatheory. Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Ill.
Bartels, Robert (1988). The History of Marketing Thought. Publishing Horizons, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.
Baumol, W. J. (1959). Business Behavior, Value and Growth. The MacMillan Company, New York.
Bennett, Asia (2001). Personal Interview conducted in her home in Snohomish, Washington, on the 4th of September.
Bennett, Asia and Bennett, Lee (2003). Personal communication [email] received 24th of March.
Bloom, Paul N. (1987). Knowledge Development in Marketing: The MSI Experience. Marketing Science Institute and Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts.
Brown, Lesley (1993). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: On Historical Principles. Volume 1, A-M. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Converse Award Committee (2003). Previous Converse Award Winners.
Cox, Reavis and Alderson, Wroe (1950). Theory in Marketing. Richard D. Irwin, Chicago.
Cox, Reavis, Alderson, Wroe, and Shapiro, Stanley J., editors (1964). Theory in Marketing: Second Series. Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Ill.
Crisp, Richard D. (1957). Marketing Research. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.
Crosby, Alfred W. (1989). America’s Forgotten Pandemic, The Influenza of 1918. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dixon, Don (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his home near Philadelphia on the 14th of August.
Enis, Ben M., Cox, Keith K., and Mokwa, Michael P., editors (1990). Marketing Classics. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, eighth edition.
Fisk, George (2001). Personal Interview conducted at his home in the Jordan apartments, Philadelphia on the 14th of August.
Fitch, Lyle and Taylor, Horace, editors (1946). Planning for Jobs: Proposals Submitted in the Pabst Postwar Employment Awards. The Blakiston Company, Philadelphia.
Galbraith, John Kenneth (2002). Personal Communication dated 24 June, 2002.
Galbraith, John Kenneth (2003). Personal Interview conducted at his home in Cambridge Massachusetts on the morning of the 16th of August.
Glaser, B. G. (1988). Theoretical Sensitivity. Sociology Press, Mill Valley, California.
Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis. Sociology Press, Mill Valley, California.
Glaser, B. G. and Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Aldine, New York.
Green, Paul E. (2001a). Personal Interview conducted at the Washington D.C. Hilton on the 11th of August.
Green, Paul E. (2001b). The Vagaries of Becoming (and Remaining) a Marketing Research Methodologist. Journal of Marketing, 64(July):104–108.
Gummesson, Evert (2001). Are Current Research Approaches in Marketing Leading Us Astray? Marketing Theory, 1(1):1–27.
Halbert, Michael (2003). Personal Interview conducted in his home near Philadelphia on the 6th August.
Hogan, Gerard (2003). Personal Communication [email] dated 26th of February.
Holbrook, Morris B. (1998). Closely Read Books-Marketing Literature, Consumption as Text, and the Leaves from Our Lives: Slow, Slower, and Slowest. Journal of Marketing, 62(July):141–151.
Holbrook, Morris B. (2001). Wroe Alderson (1957) Marketing Behavior and Executive Action. ACR News, pages 37–38.
Hollander, Stanley C. (1998). Lost in the Library. Journal of Marketing, 62(January): 114–123.
Hollander, Stanley J. (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his office at Michigan State University, East Lansing, on the 20th of August.
Jones, D. G. Brian and Shaw, Eric H. (2002). A History of Marketing Thought. In Weitz, Barton A. and Wensley, Robin, editors, Handbook of Marketing, pages 39–65. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, Ca.
Kernan, Jerome B. (1970). Men, Motives, and Markets, By Wroe Alderson and Michael H. Halbert (Book review). Mississippi Valley Journal of Business and Economics, 5(2):96–97.
Lusch, R. F. (1980). Alderson, Sessions, and the 1950s Manager. In Lamb, C., editor, Theoretical Developments in Marketing, pages 4–6. American Marketing Association, Chicago.
Marketing Science Institute (2001). Marketing Science Institute Featured Academic: Paul Green: Mastering Tradeoffs. http://www.msi.org/msi/facad-pg.cfm.
Middleton, Kenneth A. (1964). Why Behavior Systems? Growth and Profit Planner, 2(1):2.
Mitchell, Glen H. (1959). Wroe Alderson, Market Behavior and Executive Action: A Functionalist Approach to Marketing Theory (Book Review). Journal of Farm Economics, 41(4):853–855.
Monroe, Kent (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his office at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne on the 23rd of August.
Mulvihill, Donald F. (1958/59). Book Reviews: Marketing Behavior and Executive Action. Southern Economic Journal, 25(1/4):113–114.
O’Sullivan, Tim, Hartley, John, Saunders, Danny, and Fiske, John (1983). Key Concepts in Communication. Methuen & Co. Ltd, London.
Packard, Vance (1958). The Hidden Persuaders. Pocket Books, Inc., New York.
Philadelphia Inquirer (1989). Elsie Alderson, 91; Active in Friends. Obituary column, August 6.
Robinson, Patrick J. (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his home near Philadelphia on the 14th of August.
Robinson, Patrick J. (2003). Personal Interview conducted at the Aronimink Golf Club, Newton Square Pennsylvania on the 5th of August.
Robinson, Patrick J., Blazovic, Vincent P., Green, Paul E., Buell, Victor P., Linnemann, Robert E., Corbin, Arnold, and Michner, Walter W. (1976). The Charles Coolidge Parlin Awards: Thirty Years of Achievements in Marketing. The Parlin Board of Governors and the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Marketing Association, Philadelphia.
Rothberg, Robert (2004). Interview conducted in the boardroom, Fairmont Vancouver Hotel, Vancouver, Canada on the 30th of May.
Sass, Steven A. (1982). The Pragmatic Imagination. A History of the Wharton School 1881–1981. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Shapiro, Stanley J. (2001). Personal Interview conducted in his room at the Delta Suites Hotel, Vancouver on the 6th September.
Sheth, Jagdish N., Gardner, David M., and Garrett, Dennis E. (1988). Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.
Smith, Wendell R. (1956). Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies. Journal of Marketing, 21(July):3–8.
Smith, Wendell R. (1966). Leaders in Marketing: Wroe Alderson. Journal of Marketing, 30(January):64–65.
Strauss, Anselm and Corbin, Juliet (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research. Sage, Newbury Park, California.
Tamilia, Robert (2002). Personal Communication, received 27 September, 2002.
The New York Times (1965). Wroe Alderson, 66, of Wharton School. Obituary column, June 2.
Wales, Hugh G. and Dawson, Jr., Lyndon E. (1979). The Anomalous Qualities Between Present-Day Conferences and Alderson’s Marketing Theory Seminars. In Ferrell, O. C., Brown, Stephen W., and Lamb, Jr., Charles W., editors, Conceptual and Theoretical Developments in Marketing, pages 222–227. American Marketing Association, Chicago.
Wish, John R. and Gamble, Stephen Holland (1971). Marketing and Social Issues: An Action Reader. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.
Wooliscroft, Ben (2000). Examining a Case for Quaker Influence on Modern Marketing Theory. In Shultz, C. J. II and Grbac, B., editors, Marketing Contributions to Democratization and Socioeconomic Development Proceedings of Macromarketing 2000, pages 326–336. University of Rijeka.
Wooliscroft, Ben (2003). Wroe Alderson’s Influence on Marketing Theory through His Textbooks. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(4):481–490.
Wren, Daniel A. (1994). The Evolution of Management Thought. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, fourth edition.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wooliscroft, B. (2006). Wroe Alderson a Life. In: Wooliscroft, B., Tamilia, R.D., Shapiro, S.J. (eds) A Twenty-First Century Guide to Aldersonian Marketing Thought. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-28181-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-28181-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-26175-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-28181-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)