Strategists' reactions and resistance towards forces of inclusion: soothing the anxiety of marketing (non-) influence
- 23 July 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Strategic Marketing
- Vol. 18 (4), 317-336
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09652540903537006
Abstract
The firm is becoming more and more inclusive in its conception. And yet, marketing studies point to the same overwhelming conclusion that marketing, marketing departments and marketers are being increasingly ‘pushed out’ – excluded. We argue that where and when inclusion–exclusion intersect in the practice of strategic marketing is important, not least because their powerful boundary-setting and spanning roles have a determinant effect on the places and spaces, within which marketing strategists are (counter-) mobilized. This paper provides new insights relating to the contradictory forces existing around inclusion–exclusion in corporate strategizing. A further aim is to present the position of marketing (non-) influence within this context. The paper provides a unique theoretical contribution by illustrating some of the contradictions, struggles and activities that make the theoretical shift towards strategic inclusivity unstable, partial and by no means inevitable. A further contribution is a linking of this broader strategic debate, with anxieties over the influence of marketing in corporate strategizing. This leads to a discussion of the various ways that marketing research can sooth the anxiety of influence on multiple fronts via: understanding agency and strategic action; shaping marketing curriculum development; and, reconsidering the spatial dimensions of marketing influence.Keywords
This publication has 107 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strategic relationships between boundary-spanning functions: Aligning customer relationship management with supplier relationship managementIndustrial Marketing Management, 2009
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Models and Theories in Stakeholder DialogueJournal of Business Ethics, 2008
- Do Firms Practice What They Preach? The Relationship Between Mission Statements and Stakeholder ManagementJournal of Business Ethics, 2007
- Theorizing Contemporary Control: Some Post-structuralist Responses to Some Critical Realist QuestionsOrganization, 2005
- Dialectic, contradiction, or double bind? Analyzing and theorizing employee reactions to organizational tensionJournal of Applied Communication Research, 2004
- Barriers to implementing relationship marketing: analysing the internal market-placeJournal of Strategic Marketing, 1998
- Strategic ambiguity and the ethic of significant choice in the tobacco industry's crisis communicationCommunication Studies, 1997
- “Our five year mission— to boldly go where no man has been before… .”Journal of Marketing Management, 1992
- The role and function of the chief marketing executive and the marketing department: A study of medium‐sized companies in the UKJournal of Marketing Management, 1986
- The implementation of strategic marketing planning techniques in British industryInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, 1984