Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation

Marketing Schools of Thought and Their Present Day Relevance

“…There is limited evidence of the articles that introduce the rich history of the various marketing perspectives. The fall 1983 issue of the 'Journal of Marketing' and several books published on marketing theory in that period started this debate (Sheth et al, 1988). There are a few review articles and two books on the subject of schools of marketing thought: Bartels' (1988) The History of Marketing Thought and Sheth et al's (1988) Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation.…”

“…However, the book by Sheth et al (1988) is the most comprehensive work on schools of marketing thought. This book majorly focusses on the theoretical evaluation of these schools.…”

“…This book majorly focusses on the theoretical evaluation of these schools. This is the reason the present article picks the works of Sheth et al (1988) to summarize the marketing schools. It is imperative to know the history of the development of marketing thought for understanding the roots and foundation of marketing.…”

“…The second reason for writing this article is the identity crisis being faced by the marketing discipline because of the five controversies around its history. These controversies are related to the dominant perspective in marketing, the relationship between marketing and society, homogeneity of the internal subdivisions of marketing, the debate about marketing as science or arts and the creation of the general theory of marketing (Sheth et al, 1988). Sheth et al (1988) argued that, at one point in time, one particular thought prevailed in the marketing theories; such as, during the 1960s and 1970s, consumer behaviour was the dominant perspective and, in the 1980s, it was the strategic marketing that prevailed in marketing theories.…”

“…Sheth et al (1988) argued that, at one point in time, one particular thought prevailed in the marketing theories; such as, during the 1960s and 1970s, consumer behaviour was the dominant perspective and, in the 1980s, it was the strategic marketing that prevailed in marketing theories. The second controversy as mentioned by Sheth et al (1988) is about the relationship between marketing and society. Poor utilization of the scarce environmental resources had sparked the debate about the marketing discipline's responsibility towards society and, therefore, marketing theories started including environmentrelated issues also.…”