A Practitioner's Perspective of Marketing Theory Evolution

Abstract

The study seeks to explore the history of marketing as a practice and the development of marketing as an academic discipline. The research is set out to decide whether or not marketing theory empowers young marketing practitioners. This literature review and integrative synthesis study considers the impact that neoliberal modes of governance have had on the academic discipline of marketing. The literature synthesis revealed that marketing was built as a discipline at the turn of the 20th century when universities operated under an academic paradigm where faculty were given academic freedom and autonomy. These ideals helped form the professional identity of the academic prior to the shift toward neoliberalism. Marketing is moving toward defining its place in academics as a distinct discipline—and not as a branch of economics. Finally, with a new definition of marketing, the study concludes that marketing has not yet developed an overarching theory—nor has it been able to construct a definition that is not dynamically dependent on economic theory.