Building on and galvanizing AMS Review’s progress

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the AMS Review! As setforth by the Academy of Marketing Science and noted onthe journal’s website (http://amsr.edmgr.com), the aim andscope of the Review is to:…publishthoughtfulcontributionsthatofferinsightsandperspectives extending knowledge and understanding ofmarketing-related phenomena. The Review is receptiveto different philosophical perspectives and levels ofanalysis that range from micro to macro. Especiallywelcome are manuscripts that integrate research andtheory from non-marketing disciplines such as manage-ment, sociology, economics, psychology, geography,anthropology, or other behavioral sciences. Examples ofsuitable manuscripts include those incorporating con-ceptual and organizing frameworks or models; thoseextending, comparing, or critically evaluating existingtheories or models; and those suggesting new orinnovative theories or models. Comprehensive andintegrative quantitative syntheses of research literatures(i.e., meta-analyses) are appropriate.As such, the AMS Review possesses goals similar to TheAcademy of Management Review and Psychological Reviewand, like these scholarly publications, does not publishempirically based research.The genesis of the Review was the recognition by theAcademy of Marketing Science leadership several yearsago that the marketing discipline was being underserved byexisting journals when it came to contributions that focusedon comprehensive and evaluative literature reviews, con-ceptual models, and theory creation and development.Consequently, the Academy created the AMS Review toproactively address this lacuna.The concern over the lack of conceptual and theoreticaladvancements has been corroborated by a recent Journal ofMarketing article by Yadav (2010). In the article, Yadavprovided a detailed examination of publishing trends inmarketing’s major journals. Based on his analysis, therewere only 818 “conceptual” articles—articles not reportingempirical research—out of a total of 5,520 articlespublished in Journal of Marketing, Journal of MarketingResearch, Journal of Consumer Research, MarketingScience, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Scienceover a 30 year period from 1978 to 2007. Unfortunately,even with this low ratio of conceptual to empirical articles,the data revealed a declining trend in the publication ofconceptual articles beginning in 1993.Interestingly, the lack of conceptual and theoreticaladvancements might lie in part with the training of doctoralstudents in marketing. Yadav offered informal, anecdotalevidence to suggest that doctoral training in marketingincreasingly emphasizes statistical techniques and empiricalresearch to the detriment of conceptual and theoreticalresearch. This evidence led to a review of doctoral programcourse offerings by the co-editors.Doctoral trainingThe American Marketing Association hosts a websitelisting doctoral programs that allow students to specializein marketing. As of the fall of 2010, there were 184 suchdoctoral programs on the list categorized by geographiclocation:

This paper presents a causal explanation of formative variables that unpacks and clarifies the generally accepted idea that formative indicators are ‘causes’ of the focal formative variable. In doing this, we explore the recent paper by Diamantopoulos and Temme (AMS Review, 3(3), 160-171, 2013) and show that the latter misunderstand the stance of Lee, Cadogan, and Chamberlain (AMS Review, 3(1), 3-17, 2013; see also Cadogan, Lee, and Chamberlain, AMS Review, 3(1), 38-49, 2013). By drawing on the multiple ways that one can interpret the idea of causality within the MIMIC model, we then demonstrate how the continued defense of the MIMIC model as a tool to validate formative indicators and to identify formative variables in structural models is misguided. We also present unambiguous recommendations on how formative variables can be modelled in lieu of the formative MIMIC model.

BackgroundAntimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in elective surgical settings remains an underexplored domain, particularly in orthopaedics, a specialty with consistently high antimicrobial usage due to the nature of infections. In contrast to acute or high-risk environments, AMS opportunities in elective orthopaedic hospitals are often overlooked due to perceived low complexity and the existence of protocol-driven prophylaxis. However, despite this it still experiences the stewardship challenges of a secondary care facility. This project aimed to address this gap by introducing structured, multidisciplinary AMS ward rounds at a tertiary elective orthopaedic centre to evaluate current antimicrobial use, identify improvement opportunities and assess feasibility for sustainable integration.ObjectivesTo map existing antimicrobial prescribing practices in an elective orthopaedic inpatient setting; to categorize prescribing patterns and identify targets for intervention; to assess the feasibility, scope and clinical value of weekly structured AMS ward rounds; and to promote multidisciplinary collaboration and guideline adherence.MethodsOver a 6 month period (March–August 2025), weekly AMS rounds were conducted across five level-one wards and one high-dependency unit. Patients receiving antimicrobials were prospectively screened using the hospital's electronic prescribing system (PICS) and categorized into four predefined groups: Bone Infection Service—under existing specialist MDT care; excluded from AMS review; AMS—cases with nosocomial/community infections or off-guideline prescribing; Prophylaxis—perioperative antimicrobial use per established protocols; and Other—long-term antimicrobial prophylaxis (e.g. post-splenectomy). Cases in the AMS group were further triaged by the screening pharmacist, with appropriate interventions made or escalated to the AMS round. The AMS team comprised an Infectious Diseases Consultant, Antimicrobial Pharmacist and a Bone Infection Service nurse.ResultsAcross 14 AMS rounds, out of the 955 inpatients, 40% (n=382) were receiving antimicrobials at time of screening. Of these: 30% (n=114) were under Bone Infection Service care and excluded from intervention analysis; 38% (n=144) were receiving surgical prophylaxis, largely guideline compliant; and 22% (n=84) met criteria for AMS review due to complex, non-prophylactic antimicrobial use. Within the AMS cohort, 53 patients were discussed during rounds, resulting in 43 interventions, including de-escalation, initiation of appropriate therapy, or referral to MDT. Key themes included inconsistent documentation (e.g. vague postoperative antibiotic plans), off-guideline prescribing and treatment of clinically insignificant microbiology findings.ConclusionsThis scoping initiative demonstrates that structured AMS rounds are both feasible and impactful in an elective orthopaedic setting. Despite being a low-acuity environment, 40% of inpatients were on antimicrobials, with 13% of patients on antimicrobials warranting targeted stewardship interventions. Pharmacist-led screening, coupled with multidisciplinary review, enabled efficient use of time and resources while fostering improved prescribing culture. The model identified practice variation, gaps in guideline coverage and areas for systemic improvement, laying the foundation for broader AMS integration. Future work will include outcome tracking, expansion of prophylaxis guidance and development of targeted education and guideline refinement strategies. A future focus on the Watch and Reserve categories, unravelling prophylaxis regimes, creating tailored education and training packages such as prescribing for sepsis will be aimed to be rolled out amongst staff.

Research Article Health AffairsVol. 30, No. 3: Profiles Of Innovation In Health Care Delivery INNOVATION PROFILERedesigning Acute Care Processes In WisconsinChristina Bielaszka-DuVernay Affiliations Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay ( [email protected] ) is a freelance editor and writer based in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the former editor of Harvard Management Update . PUBLISHED:March 2011No Accesshttps://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0087AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextView PDFPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions View articleTOPICSNursesNursingPatient carePatient satisfactionInpatient careAcute careHospital qualityCaregiversPatient testingQuality improvement Loading Comments... Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. DetailsExhibitsReferencesRelated Article MetricsCitations: Crossref 10 History Published online 1 March 2011 Information Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper was commissioned by Health Affairs and is based partly on a presentation by Kathryn Correia, Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Medical Center, and ThedaCare, that was delivered at a Health Affairs conference, Innovations across the Nation in Health Care Delivery, December 16, 2010, in Washington, D.C. For a copy of the agenda and a full list of conference sponsors, please visit http://www.healthaffairs.org/issue_briefings/2010_12_16_innovations_across_the_nation_in_health_care_delivery/2010_12_16_innovations_across_the_nation_in_health_care_delivery.php . PDF downloadCited ByIdentifying and understanding benefits associated with return-on-investment from large-scale healthcare Quality Improvement programmes: an integrative systematic literature review24 August 2022 | BMC Health Services Research, Vol. 22, No. 1Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, Vol. 17, No. 1Service innovation is urgent in healthcare24 May 2019 | AMS Review, Vol. 9, No. 1-2Necrotizing Enterocolitis and Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation: A Spatiotemporal Case Cluster AnalysisPediatric Quality & Safety, Vol. 4, No. 1Improving Reliability in HealthcareJournal of Patient Safety, Vol. 14, No. 4How much of Toyota's philosophy is embedded in health care at the organisational level? A review22 January 2018 | Journal of Nursing Management, Vol. 26, No. 4Implementing a Lean Management System in Primary CareQuality Management in Health Care, Vol. 24, No. 3The Aesthetic Knowledge Problem of Problem-Solving With Design Thinking25 December 2014 | Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 24, No. 3Optimizing the Patient-Centered Environment1 January 2015 | HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2The Promise of Lean in Health CareMayo Clinic Proceedings, Vol. 88, No. 1

'First things first': The AMS Review – Sheth Foundation 2020 annual doctoral competition for conceptual articles

We capture the theoretical and practical essence of the thoughts by Key, Clark, Ferrell, Stewart, and Pitt (AMS Review, 2020) on marketing’s value propositions by creating an integrative satisfaction-focused exit-voice-loyalty theory. The potpourri of thoughts by Key et al. (2020) in this issue of AMS Review–centered mainly on marketing’s value propositions within the broader business academy (and practice)–lend themselves to a focus on the value propositions, dynamics, and relationships between customers and firms. With the customer-firm exchange as the lens, marketing’s value propositions are effectively brought out via the development of the satisfaction-focused exit-voice-loyalty theory (SEVL theory).

Addressing strategic marketing's identity problem, several highly complementary works have clarified the field's theoretical foundations, nature, and scope by (1) specifying its domain, (2) defining its central concept, "marketing strategy," (3) proposing the field's foundational premises, and (4) positing its fundamental explananda. Furthermore, the works have shown how resource-advantage (R-A) theory (5) grounds major theories of marketing strategy, (6) illuminates, informs, extends, and grounds the field's foundational premises, (7) identifies three fundamental strategies ("superior value," "lower cost," and "synchronal"), and (8) explains how the three fundamental strategies promote societal welfare. However, a major unresolved issue concerns the second fundamental explanandum of strategic marketing. Specifically, Varadarajan (AMS Review, 5, 78-90, 2015) expands his second fundamental explanandum from "marketplace and financial performance" to explaining triple bottom line (TBL) performance. That is, strategic marketing theory and research should answer: "What explains differences in [social, environmental, and financial] performance of competing brands/product lines/businesses?" This article provides a background discussion on how "sustainability" and the TBL relate to marketing in general and strategic marketing, in particular. Next, it (1) examines the nature of the TBL, (2) shows how the TBL concept and certain issues regarding its measurement parallel those in the "corporate social responsibility" literature, (3) re-examines the value of the TBL framework, (4) makes clear how R-A theory accommodates the TBL, and (5) shows how R-A theory provides seven potential explanations of differences in firms' TBL performance.

El-Ansary et al. (AMS Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-017-0102-y , 2017) provide a 100-year historical review of the concepts and paradigms that have led to an identity crisis in marketing. This commentary is a retrospective review, contributing to the understanding of the evolution of concepts and changes in the marketing discipline which have precipitated this identity crisis. In addition, progress in the development of marketing theory is examined to determine if there are major theories or frameworks that can assist in resolving the identity crisis. Concerns about the current narrow focus on consumer behavior, modeling, and methodological sophistication have resulted from the failure of the marketing discipline to determine appropriate research agenda and topics important in marketing education. A marketing systems paradigm is considered for resolving this identity crisis in academia and industry.

The AMS review: year 2

This article contributes to theory development in marketing, in general, and to theory development in marketing ethics, in particular. The proposed “inductive realist model of theory generation” incorporates both (1) recent works in the philosophy of science on discovery processes in science and (2) Hunt’s (International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 25(2), 159–178, 2011, AMS Review, 2(1), 5–18, 2012) inductive realist model of theory status. To illustrate how the model can be used, the author shows how the model can contribute to understanding the development of a general theory of marketing ethics that is frequently referred to as the “Hunt-Vitell theory of ethics.”

The participation of citizens (especially women) in the budgeting process could be crucial in promoting gender equality enhancing the female role in society (Steccolini. Public Money and Management 39(5):379–383, 2019; Pastore and Tommaso. Gender-responsive budgeting processes in the Italian regional and local governments, in Paoloni, Lombardi (Eds), Gender studies, entrepreneurship and human capital, Springer, Cham, 2020). People’s engagement in the budgeting process could privilege equality in accessing different capabilities, focusing on the needs and expectations rather than merely analysing how the resources have been allocated (Gunluk-Senesen. Public Money & Management 41(7):554–560, 2021; Rubin and Bartle. Public Administration, 2021), as in standard gender budgeting (Klatzer et al. Developments in practice: Methodologies and approaches to gender budgeting, in O’Hagan and Klatzer (Eds), Gender Budgeting in Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 109–133, 2018). Furthermore, the inclusion of digital tools could enable women’s engagement in gender budgeting, as in the participatory budgeting experiences (Stortone and De Cindio. Hybrid participatory budgeting: Local democratic practices in the digital era, in Foth, Brynskov, and Ojala (Eds), Citizen’s right to the digital city, Springer, Berlin, 177–197, 2015; Sampaio and Peixoto. Electronic participatory budgeting: false dilemmas and true complexities, in Gastil and Knobloch (Eds), Hope for democracy, 413–426, 2014). Therefore, the present research investigates the integration of a participatory perspective in gender budgeting, highlighting the relevance of digital technologies in enhancing citizens’, specifically women’s, engagement (Stortone and De Cindio. Hybrid participatory budgeting: Local democratic practices in the digital era, in Foth, Brynskov, and Ojala (Eds), Citizen’s right to the digital city, Springer, Berlin, 177–197, 2015). This study is ascribable to a conceptual paper in that it led to the development of a new model, building on theories and concepts identified and tested through empirical research (Jaakkola. AMS Review 10(1):18–26, 2020). Therefore, reviewing the existing literature about participatory budgeting (Papadopoulos and Warin. European Journal of Political Research 46(4): 445–472, 2007; Sintomer et al. Dialog Global 25:1–93, 2013; Bartocci et al. International Journal of Public Sector Management 32(1):65–79, 2019), gender budgeting (Klatzer et al. Developments in practice: Methodologies and approaches to gender budgeting, in O’Hagan, Klatzer (Eds), Gender Budgeting in Europe, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 109–133, 2018; Gunluk-Senesen. Public Money & Management 41(7):554–560, 2021) and digital tools’ effect on citizens’ engagement (Stortone and De Cindio. Hybrid participatory budgeting: Local democratic practices in the digital era, in Foth, Brynskov, and Ojala (Eds), Citizen’s right to the digital city, Springer, Berlin, 177–197, 2015; Sampaio and Peixoto. Electronic participatory budgeting: false dilemmas and true complexities, in Gastil and Knobloch (Eds), Hope for democracy, 413–426, 2014), a new “participatory” gender budgeting framework is created. The peculiarity of this research lies in its comprehensive approach in studying gender budgeting and its “participatory” view, in line with the paradigm of public management called New Public Governance (Osborne. Public Management Review 8(3):377–387, 2006), which calls for greater involvement of citizens. This is pursued through digital tools that can enhance the government’s capability to intercept citizens’ needs and perceptions (Grossi et al. Meditari Accountancy Research 29(7):75–93, 2021). The most significant contribution consists of developing a comprehensive model that integrates gender budgeting, usually a posteriori, with citizens’ participation and engagement, typical of participatory budgeting. The nexus between gender budgeting and participatory budget has been already analysed in the past (Ng. Gender-responsive and participatory budgeting: Imperatives for equitable public expenditure. Springer, Cham, 2016). However, no work seems to integrate these processes with digitalisation, suggesting some practical measures, such as introducing a platform for collecting citizens’ proposals.

Sustainability demands system-level transformation, yet marketing theory remains largely grounded in firm-centric, transactional, and equilibrium-based assumptions that are ill-suited to address planetary-scale challenges. This article responds to the need for more conceptually ambitious marketing scholarship capable of grappling with sustainability as a dynamic, contested, and future-oriented phenomenon. We identify key conceptual and methodological barriers that have constrained sustainability theorizing in marketing and examine how foundational perspectives within the discipline can be re-imagined and extended to meet these demands. Through a review of conceptual contributions in AMS Review, we trace how sustainability-related thinking has evolved within the field and assess the potential of three marketing-indigenous theories—Service-Dominant Logic, Resource-Advantage Theory, and Market Shaping—to inform the development of sustainability theory. Building on this foundation, we propose a future research agenda structured around four interlinked themes: (1) advancing system-level theorizing, (2) reimagining stakeholder responsibility to include nature and future generations, (3) conceptualizing sustainability as a dynamic resource domain, and (4) enabling prospective theorizing to support the shaping of more sustainable market futures.

This commentary presents a dissenting point of view on some of Key et al.’s (AMS Review, 2020) observations concerning the relevance and rigor of scholarly research in marketing, impact of scholarly research in marketing on research in other disciplines, and influence of the marketing function in firms at the top management level.

The number of people with chronic or long-term physical and mental illnesses has increased and will continue to do so. Many must learn to live with one or more diseases throughout their lives. Healthcare service must therefore support, to a greater extent, individuals living with illness. An important part of this transition is to improve the use of patients’ knowledge and resources to organize treatment in accordance with their own needs and values. Patient-centered healthcare can provide better patient experiences, better professional quality, and the possibility of slowing down resource consumption. Therefore, patient-centered initiatives have taken center stage in discussions on how to improve quality in healthcare service as discussed by Berry (2019) in this issue of the AMS Review. A cornerstone of patient-centered care is shared decision making, where healthcare professionals and patients work together to reach a shared healthcare choice.

The new marketing systems paradigm proposed by El-Ansary, Shaw, and Lazer in their thoughtful AMS Review Article is taken to heart herein by reframing disparate pieces of scholarship and emerging research in the field through a systems lens. Three systems are proposed to undergird marketing theories, thought, and behavior: (1) a purposive-driven, goal-directed behavior systems point of view that the actors contemplating, entering, engaging, and resolving marketing exchanges undergo, (2) biological systems (neuroscience, endocrinological, and genetic) grounding marketing exchanges, and (3) cooperative and competitive systems in which goal-directed behavior and biological systems are realized in an integrative way. It is straining, however, to characterize the state of the field as constituting an identity crisis in my opinion, because the majority of marketing scholars, practitioners, and students do not appear to be concerned with or even aware of such a crisis in that the history of marketing thought does not interest them. Perhaps once the field moves from descriptive frameworks to testable theories, and experiences an integration of ideas potentially building towards more comprehensive theories in marketing, we will see hope for a general theory of marketing.