Boundary-Spanning Marketing Organization: A Theory and Insights from 31 Organization Theories

Abstract

Now more than ever, marketing has a key boundary-spanning role — a role that has also redefined the composition of the marketing organization. In this SpringerBrief, the marketing organization’s integrative and mutually reinforcing components of marketing activities, customer value-creating processes, networks, and stakeholders are delineated within their boundary-spanning roles as a particular emphasis — labeled “marketing organization theory” or abbreviated as MOR to capture the first letter of “marketing” and the first two letters of “organization.” This SpringerBrief builds on and is an extended and more elaborate version of Hult (2011b), also published in a Springer publication (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science). Thematic marketing insights from a collection of 31 organization theories are used to advance knowledge on the boundary-spanning marketing organization within four areas: strategic marketing resources, marketing leadership and decision making, network alliances and collaborations, and the domestic and global marketplaces.