John F. Gaski
Executive Summary
In the special "Marketing and Society" issue of JPP&M (2005, number 1), several leading marketing scholars (the "Sages") commented on particular aspects of Wilkie and Moore's renowned article on the "Four Eras" of marketing thought and research (2003, #2). Among them, Leigh McAlister lamented the declining amount of managerial content in marketing and consumer research, Morris Holbrook objected to what he sees as excessive managerial orientation in business schools, and some others, including Jagdish Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia, offered oblique support for Holbrook's position. Sheth and Sisodia also broadened their criticism to encompass marketing practice.
In "Comment on . . . Commentary," John Gaski addresses these authors' concerns. Responding to McAlister, Gaski acknowledges the legitimacy of the exclusionary issue but downplays its criticality on the grounds that the diversity of available journal outlets in marketing allows sufficient opportunity for different scholarly emphases. He also argues that a pure consumer (vs. managerial) focus can be very congruent with a public policy orientation as well.
More direct issue is taken with Holbrook's anti-managerial position. The counterargument, in brief, is that vocational business training is a rightful function for a business school--and can peaceably and productively co-exist with scientific research, just as vocational training and research co-exist within medical schools.
Sheth and Sisodia are answered by noting that most of their purported criticisms of marketing, in fact, relate to non-marketing activity. Swindling a customer may be selling, and it may be commerce, but it is not marketing per se, by definition, in other words.
Finally, Professor Gaski offers a sanguine denouement by highlighting the unparalleled contribution to human welfare provided by free-market, capitalist economics, which in turn is reliant on the business education and marketing scholarship developed in leading business schools. Therefore, the research and teaching role of marketing scholars is something to be celebrated from a macro or societal perspective.
Biography
John F. Gaski is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Notre Dame. His degrees include a BBA and MBA from Notre Dame, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of over 85 published articles, papers, and monographs which have appeared in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Review of Marketing, Research in Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Advances in Distribution Channel Research, Advances in Financial Economics, Business Horizons, Psychology & Marketing, International Journal of Management, The Journal of European Economic History, Business and Society Review, Social Behavior and Personality, Sociological Spectrum, Psychological Reports, Perceptual and Motor Skills, the Journal of Educational Psychology, and the International Journal on World Peace, as well as proceedings of leading professional associations. Primary research interests are power in distribution channels and the societal impact of marketing activity. Courses taught include Marketing Management, Marketing Strategy and Planning, Marketing Research, and Distribution Management, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Professor Gaski serves or has served on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Marketing Channels, is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma, Mu Kappa Tau, and Alpha Mu Alpha honorary societies, and was selected one of the "108 Best Researchers in Marketing" by a peer review study (published in Marketing Educator, 1997). He has had his commentary published in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Indianapolis Star, Investor's Business Daily, The Center Magazine, Human Events, and Contemporary Review, and is recognized in various Who's Who lists.
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 2, Fall 2007
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