Marketing Structure and the Theory of Economic Interdependence: Early Analytical Developments

Abstract

The elements of an economic system are interdependent, and the structure formed by system interrelationships is crucial to the survival of an economy. Attempts to identify and measure structure are traced from the mid-eighteenth century to the publication of Distribution in a High-Level Economy The first major study including the marketing sector of an economy, Does Distribution Cost Too Much?, does not provide structural inferences because parts of the economic system were omitted, and system inputs were not specified. The often repeated estimate that marketing costs represent 59% of the consumer's dollar is overstated because system output is underestimated. Structural inferences can be developed with data presented in Distribution in a High-Level Economy, using the analytical framework provided by the Leontief input-output table.

Macromarketing as Agorology: Macromarketing Theory and the Study of the Agora

“…It would also include such fundamental beliefs as those in anthropocentrism, competition, and atomism. Beyond these, the antecedents could include ethical antecedents to market beliefs (Dixon 1982), altruism versus self-interest (Carman 1992), as well as the philosophical predispositions of capitalism itself (Kilbourne 2004). …”

Macromarketing: Past, Present, and Possible Future

“…The study of marketing systems was an important part of macromarketing in the 1980s and ranged from the abstract (Dowling 1983;Reidenbach and Oliva 1983;Dixon 1984;Layton 1985) to an exploration of the concept of domesticated markets by Redmond (1989) to the empirical work on trade flows of Layton (1981aLayton ( , 1981bLayton ( , 1984Layton ( , 1989 and of Ingene (1983Ingene ( , 1984 on spatial marketing systems to the work on national industry policy explored in a special section of the Journal of Macromarketing in 1987. Paralleling this was a series of articles on comparative marketing systems and the role of marketing in economic development.…”

“…The "normal science" stream of research can be seen in Meade and Nason (1991), who proposed a unified theory of macromarketing as "the study of the complex coordination and control processes underpinning growth, evolution and design of exchange systems" (p. 72), suggesting that this would provide a rich conceptual framework in which to unify earlier work and focus empirical research. In the same issue of the Journal of Macromarketing, Dixon (1991); Sybrandy, Pirog, and Turinga (1991); and Layton (1991) added historical and empirical breadth to the modeling of marketing systems. At much the same time, Wilkinson (1990), working with the new insights emerging from the mathematical study of complexity, developed abstract models of channel growth and change.…”

“…This overlap was noted by some economists but (intentionally or not) was glossed over by economic and marketing theorists who adopted a microanalytic focus (Dixon 1999). In this regard, historians may enlighten us about the interplay and blurred distinctions among marketing, economic, social, political, cultural, religious, recreational, and other facets of life in marketplaces in different societies and time periods (Dixon 1998). Evidence of this interplay is at least as old as accounts of the mixes of such activities at the Greek Olympic Games and Athenian Agora (Dixon 1995).…”

“…From a political economy view, marketing-economic efficiency issues should not be divorced from polity, distributive justice, and equity issues (Vann and Kumcu 1995). Marketing's societal contributions depend on the interplay of marketers' self-interests, ethics, and public policy (Dixon 1982;Wilkie and Moore 1999). Thus, they may be in doubt if efficiency notions conflict with views of justice, ethics, and morality.…”