Perspective Shifts in Marketing: Toward a Paradigm Change?

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to discuss the evolution of marketing, arguing whether it is accomplishing a paradigm change. Starting from previous definitions of paradigm, we adopt the viable systems approach (vSa) as a general interpretation key useful for interpreting the evolution of marketing over the last few decades. Through the lens of the vSa structure-system approach, which suggests distinguishing between a structure-based view and a systems-based view, we discuss the contribution of the most relevant theoretical and practical proposals to marketing theory advances in the last few decades, recognizing their scientific positioning and the theoretical connections linking them within a whole framework. The evolutionary pathway traced by the different marketing theoretical and practical approaches defines a series of phase passages characterized by progressive shifts in perspective that have led researchers to focus first on goods, then on relationship, and, more recently, on service as a general rule of market exchange. Well known as a shift from a goods-dominant to a service-dominant logic, this passage, started thanks to the relationship marketing proposal, reflects, from a vSa perspective, a wider evolution from a reductionist toward a systems view that seems to lead to a service-based systems view of market exchange.

The Influence of Cognitive Dimensions on the Consumer-SME Relationship: A Sustainability-Oriented View

“…Within this context, sustainability offers firms the opportunity to reduce the cognitive distance between their strategies and the mental models and perceptions of consumers [118,119]. Accordingly, firms should build upon the principles of sustainability to move from a "transactional view" of the market, to a "cognitive matching" with it [120][121][122][123].…”

The interaction type approach to relationships management

“…The abstraction level of VSA implies both a simplicity of its concepts and a general validity of its framework (Golinelli et al 2012) and it is at the right abstraction level to be accepted by research communities working in different fields. In the spirit of VSA, the concept of interaction type is provided at an abstraction level that should not pose constraints on its use.…”

Introduction to the Special Section on the 2013 Naples Forum on Service: From Traditional Pillars to Future Research Avenues

“…Consistent with the goals of the Naples Forum and Service Science, these papers contribute to the growing body of literature that studies complex service systems from multiple disciplinary, sectorial, and cultural perspectives. We hope these four papers will stimulate more researchers to build bridges that interconnect service science (Maglio 2011;Maglio and Spohrer 2008;Maglio et al 2011;Spohrer et al 2007Spohrer et al , 2008, service-dominant logic , Lusch and Vargo 2014, Wieland et al 2012, network marketing (Gummesson 2005, Gummesson and Mele 2010, Gummesson and Polese 2009, and viable systems approach (Badinelli et al 2012, Barile et al 2012a, Golinelli et al 2012. We hope that this special section of Service Science will be intriguing for many researchers, especially because of its crossdisciplinary approaches and content, which have led authors to contribute to the topic with an original and insightful attitude.…”

“…The Naples Forum is an effort to stimulate the development of a new marketing paradigm (Golinelli et al 2012) that is based on service science Spohrer et al 2007Spohrer et al , 2008, network and systems thinking (Badinelli et al 2012;Barile et al 2012a, b;Polese et al 2009), and service-dominant logic Vargo 2006, 2014;Vargo and Lusch 2008); in stimulating this development, the new paradigm's progress can be communicated and made more efficient. The forum supports publication by inviting participants to publish their presented work in special sections and issues of journals; for this special section of Service Science, we have selected some of the most interesting papers.…”