Search

This article examines the interactive relationship between intangible, human capabilities (operant resources) and tangible, physical assets (operand resources) in an era of global interconnectedness. It does so within the context of service-dominant logic and the challenge of sustainability in a world of resource scarcity. Introducing object-oriented philosophy as an alternative framework, this paper challenges ideas about the superiority of certain kinds of resources while confronting a pervasive culture of demateriality in marketing and contemporary post-industrial theory – the idea that “stuff” does not count. The article offers a parsimonious model of a more holistic conceptualization of resources. It demonstrates the complex entanglement of operant and operand resources, finding that this entanglement is a precondition to marketing-related issues of natural resource selection, globalization, sustainability, and distributive justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Call for Papers for this special issue asked authors to step back and look at the fundamental processes at work in the globalization of the “very idea of marketing.” This is itself a version of a powerful Western doctrine, the totalizing cultural narrative of objectivity and transcendence, of orderings and distances: various avenues suggest themselves. The following commentary seeks to contribute to this project by considering the insertion of this discourse of vantage points and perspective into the narrow cultural consciousness of marketing through exploring one trail: the role of the research community in the production of the research subject. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) corporate strategy perceives market-based solutions to the problem of global poverty. The strategy is premised on the view that people in BoP markets live in fundamental lack, which can be overcome with business intervention. The merits of this idea seem obvious, but its ideological premise within contemporary capitalism is often lost on many. The purpose of the authors in this paper is to explore the ideological premise of the BoP strategy. The authors employ Foucault’s notion of “governmentality” to suggest that corporate adoption of the BoP strategy mimics a neocolonial incursion into heretofore inaccessible markets, by constituting the poor as free, self-governing individuals—modern citizens in the Western liberal sense—toward facilitating market control and exploitation for corporate ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within the issue, including one by David Dapice on the origins, evolution, contributions, and shortcomings of the field of development economics, and another by Robert Nason on the impact of the United Nations Global Compact in structuring the global marketplace.

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the marketing effectiveness, socioeconomic development and globalization in several Asian countries.

A call for papers on marketing ideology and globalization to be published in the March 2013 issue of the "Journal of Macromarketing" is presented.

This study examines the cultural experiences of subaltern migrants from Kerala, India to the Middle East. It draws upon the French pragmatic sociology with attention to convention theory to cast in sharp relief different interpretations of worth that influence subaltern migrants or vagabonds as Zygmunt Bauman has labelled them. This study shows that vagabonds use different regimes of worth and justification to resist domination and to shape their cultural encounters with host and home cultures. It explains how existing acculturation research lacks insights about worth and regimes of justification that hinder it from fully understanding the role of domination and cultural experiences of subalterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores how marketplace dynamics affect religious authority in the context of Neopagan religion. Drawing on an interpretivist study of Wiccan practitioners in Italy, we reveal that engagement with the market may cause considerable, ongoing tensions, based on the inherent contradictions that are perceived to exist between spirituality and commercial gain. As a result, market success is a mixed blessing that can increase religious authority and influence, but is just as likely to decrease authority and credibility. Using an extended case study method, we propose a theoretical framework that depicts the links between our informants’ situated experiences and the macro-level factors affecting religious authority as it interacts with market-mediated dynamics at the global level. Overall, our study extends previous work in macromarketing that has looked at religious authority in the marketplace) and how the processes of globalization are affecting religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including macromarketing theory, corporate behavior, and globalization.

Recently, scholars have been calling attention to the macro-social and institutional structures shaping development and welfare. In this study we offer a socio-temporally situated understanding of quality of life (QOL) in a developing country setting and investigate the effects of macro structures on consumer well-being. Specifically, we focus on neoliberal development (led by the business sector, rather than led or directed by the government) and examine how a neoliberal transformation of the marketplace affects consumers’ QOL perceptions. The context of our research is Turkey, a developing country that has been an avid follower of neoliberal policies since the 1990s. We focus on three key macro-social developments that have been shaping Turkish society in the past decades – globalization, religion, and economic growth – and seek to understand how these forces influence consumers’ satisfaction with life. Our study contributes to the literature on development and QOL by first, showing the moderating effect of income, and second, introducing faith and global brands as important variables in conceptualizing QOL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze the managerialistic ideology of marketing theory by focusing on “customerism”—the customer-oriented managerialism that characterizes marketing. As an ideology, customerism has made it possible for marketing to discursively compete with different management fields in directing the management of organizational members. We base our notion of managerialism in Foucauldian works on power and make a distinction between three forms of power/managerialism: sovereign, disciplinary, and pastoral. Our analysis displays how the forms of power underpinning the customeristic ideology inherent to marketing theory have changed over time, thereby contributing to the reproduction and extension of that ideology. In particular, we show how different articulations of marketing discourse have developed the managerialism of marketing in such a way that today (1) organizational members around the world are meant to be affected by it and (2) it is meant to affect these organizational members in a deeper way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advertising proves to be a particularly useful source of images, stories, and vocabulary, to study the globalization of the Indian economy and the construction of Indian identity. The authors analyze how advertising executives and other cultural producers, such as magazine editors, try to answer the question “Indian consumer kaun hai?” (Who is the Indian consumer?) while trying to develop narratives that can represent Indian ways of living. In a country as diverse as India, this is an extremely difficult task. Drawing from a content analysis of the Hindi and English versions of India Today as well as interviews with Indian advertising executives, the authors detail how cultural producers imagine Indian consumers. This work illuminates the striking differences, between the imagined cultural world of the English speaking elite, and their vernacular counterparts. By showing the importance of the English language, and Western cultural references in indexing the “modern Indian,” this work contributes to macromarketing efforts to study globalization and its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the announcement of the journal on its call for contributions for its special issue on globalization of the socio-organizational concept of marketing. Topics need to be covered include export and globalization of marketing education, critical review of marketing as an ideology, and global resistance to marketing ideology. Deadline for the submission of the manuscripts is on August 31, 2011, which may be submitted through the journal's submission web site.

This article discusses the implementation and diffusion of mandatory and voluntary food safety regulations from a marketing systems perspective, and specifically applies this framework to an analysis of the antecedents and implications of the Danish 2003 ban on trans-fatty acids (TFAs). The analysis is based on reviews of published material and on interviews with food marketers, nutrition experts, and policy makers. It is established that the ban was implemented due to scientific proof of health risks associated with the intake of TFAs but also as a result of aligned interests and efforts of the major stakeholders in the Danish food marketing system. Adding to the literature on diffusion of regulatory initiatives, the analysis shows that the Danish ban on trans-fats had—and still has—an important impact on trans-fat regulation in other European and overseas countries. In the final section, insights from the analysis are used as a starting point for a discussion of how public authorities, food marketers, and macromarketing researchers can apply the marketing systems perspective when designing, managing, and studying future cases of food safety regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the historical role of marriage and wedding rituals in Vietnam, and how they have changed during Vietnam’s transition to the market. The authors focus on how changes reflect the society’s increasing dependence on the market, how this dependence impacts consumer well-being, and the resulting implications for public policy. Changes in the meanings, function, and structure of wedding ritual consumption are examined. These changes echo shifts in the national economy, social values, social relations, and gender roles in Vietnamese society during the transition. The major findings show that Vietnamese weddings are reflections of (1) the roles of wedding rituals as both antecedents and outcomes of social changes, (2) the nation’s perception and imagination of its condition relative to “modernity,” and (3) the role of China as a threatening “other” seen as impeding Vietnam’s progress toward “modernization.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the past seven years, the United Nations Global Compact has become the largest voluntary corporate-citizenship initiative attempting to elevate and level the norms of corporate behavior in world markets. Its strategy of attracting volume of members versus commitment to performance of the Compacts 10 principles does not provide a base of innovators and early adopters necessary to gain respect from the vast majority of international companies. Thus, the Compact is unlikely to instill the norms embedded in its ten principles in the world market in any meaningful way to engender fairer and more efficient global markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of macromarketing could be a bright one if the macromarketing community seizes the current opportunity to distinctively define macromarketing as a transdiscipline focused on societal development of all countries. As trans-disciplinary scholars, macromarketers would be versed in the paradigmatic assumptions of two or more fields with the goal of making a more fundamental contribution to core disciplines and the boundaries that separate them. Doing transdisciplinary work calls scholars to see ‘the whole picture’ and to holistically understand the ways many disciplines interconnect when one considers macro issues facing not only individual societies but the planet as well. Some examples of such macro issues that cut across disciplines would include globalization, environmental stewardship, and consumer sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the appropriate centrality of the macromarketing perspective for the larger field of marketing scholarship. Eight topics are explored: (1) the treatment of the societal domain across the ‘Four Eras’ of marketing thought development, (2) the recent trend to research specialization and an ensuing fragmentation of the mainstream of marketing thought, (3) the loss of knowledge and today's PhD education in marketing, (4) a current concern with the American Marketing Association's 2004 definition of marketing, (5) the challenge posed by the fact that research on marketing and society is itself fragmented, (6) challenges for research from the Brinberg/McGrath framework, (7) the aggregate marketing system as a potential central organizing concept, and (8) a closing comment on the ‘pillar’ status of macromarketing and the key role played by the Journal of Macromarketing in its first twenty-five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the early years of macromarketing, the evolution of the field, and shares new visions for the discipline and the journal. Four developments already visible are believed to be important to future welfare. Macromarketers and macromarketing furthermore are encouraged to be more expansive and inclusive, engaging empirical research and studying topics that reach out to other academic disciplines and to practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on the trends that inspired the 8th International Conference on Marketing and Development and some overarching sentiments that emerged during the conference. Trends indicate that globalization and transformation continue and are inextricably connected to marketing and development; many stake holders in developing economies are enthused about opportunities provided by globalization and transformation. It is, however, becoming clear that quality of life only can be enhanced throughout the world during the long term if (1) more stakeholders are more fully included in the process, (2) concepts and measures of development are expanded, and (3) more cross-disciplinary, collaborative research endeavors and policies are designed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of globalization and technological achievement on the lives of vulnerable groups in society as well as the larger environment so that the marketing community may better understand the macrolevel implications of the digital divide. Using data collected by a variety of international organizations and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, this research explores the creation, diffusion, and use of technology within the context of economic inequities, gender discrimination, and carbon dioxide pollution across nations. The article opens with a brief introduction to the technology revolution and the digital divide along with a theoretical discussion of the research objectives. Data descriptions are presented in the next section, and the findings show comparisons across technology achievement categories. The article closes with suggestions for abridging the digital divide and research implications for macromarketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macromarketing has expanded inquiry regarding globalization and development since its inception. It has included quality of life (QOL) and environmental measures, and argued that economic development should improve these variables. This article argues that an expanded view of development should also consider QOL, environment, and substantive freedoms as inputs to the development process because of the nature of the globalization process characterized as the spread of Western capitalist neoliberalism. Current global capitalism is an inadequate approach to development because of its focus on economic market relations. The relation among globalization, development, and neoliberalism is examined, showing that the process has economic, political, cultural, and environmental implications that must be addressed from a macromarketing perspective. The development process is unstable and can be problematic if a single model, neoliberalism, is applied to all lesser developed countries. As Russia's experience suggests, development approaches that ignore nation-specific factors are likely to be problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues of spirituality and religion are seldom discussed in the globalization context. Spirituality and religion affect the globalization phenomenon and are, in turn, significantly influenced by globalization. This article explores the interplay between spirituality and religion, and the forces of economics, technology, and globalization. Contemporary globalization exhibits five main trends in spirituality and religion: increasing attempts to harness religion and spirituality as means toward reterritorialization, the integration of spirituality in all aspects of life, a greater thrust toward the individualization of spirituality among consumers, the enhanced role of cyberspace in the spiritual domain, and the syncretization of spirituality. These five trends affect quality of life as well as the relationship between governments and markets, two areas of interest to macromarketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the text of speech of H.E. Roland Eng, Cambodian ambassador to the United States, during the 2001 Marketing Conference at the Williamsburg-School of Business, which deals with globalization.