Developing successful theories in marketing: insights from resource-advantage theory

Theory development, as Professor Hunt details, is incred-ibly important to academic inquiry. Empirical investigationsrely on theory to frame and guide not only the questionsthat are asked, but also the interpretations given to results.Well-crafted academic theory can have a tremendous impactin furthering academic understanding and real worldpractice. But, as with most outputs of high-value, success-ful theory building is difficult to do well.That theory development is - to put it euphemistically -“challenging” is not news to any doctoral student. Memo-ries of my own philosophy of science course still haunt meto this day. Nightmares of third libraries in the sky,mediators, moderators, levels, process models… the list ofaggressors seems endless. What came out of the course,though, was an ability to think more logically, morecritically, and – most importantly – more academically.But, just as knowing how to paint doesn’t make a person onpar with Monet, knowing the mechanics of theorydevelopment doesn’t mean a person’s theory is of anyvalue or use.Professor Hunt’s article fills an aching void for increasedknowledge of what makes a theory not just another theory,but a successful theory. Going beyond the mechanics of thecomponents of sound theory, Professor Hunt’sarticleprovides insight into the factors that propel a theory tonotoriety and, most importantly, adoption and use. Hispaper offers needed advice during a time of relatively lesstheory development among marketing academics. I com-mend him for the effort he has devoted to sharing hiswisdom through this article. What I offer next is a humblediscussion of the five factors Professor Hunt presents. Ihope to offer a sense of the lens that a recent PhD graduatemight use in reading his article. My comments are intendednot as a critique of his article, but as a friendly continuationof the important discussion he has kindly opened.Professor Hunt’s first suggestion is to address animportant issue in marketing. This is undoubtedly key incrafting theory that gains traction within the academiccommunity, yet knowing which issues to devote effort tois incredibly difficult. Prevalence of empirical articles inan area serve only as a rough guide since such articles(hopefully) build on existing theory. Previous theoreticalwork is an excellent basis for building theory, yetfoundation in existing theory does not itself make atheory novel. What instead seems crucial for developingsuccessful theory is a keen eye for recognizing not onlygaps in the literature, but issues of real relevance tomarketing. I offer that enacting Professor Hunt’sadvicedemands marketing academics not only be well readwithin the academic sphere, but also keenly aware ofcurrent issues facing marketing practitioners.The second factor offered is the need for a successfultheory to offer strong explanatory and predictive power. Imost certainly agree with Professor Hunt that good theorymust demonstrate both features, but ask how a researchercan know a priori that his or her theory is likely to provideexplanatory and predictive power. Looking back, the valueof Resource-Advantage Theory is well documented andclear. I ask what diagnostics were available lookingforwards. Were there deliberate features of theory that wereincorporated during its formation to increase its use? Whatlitmus test(s) was used to know the theory was a “winner”before the numerous empirical tests were conducted?Insight into the development process Professor Hunt –

Marketing has long been criticized for lacking a unifyingtheory and for relying too strongly on theories developed inother fields (Buzzell 1963; Baker 1995; Murray et al.1997). Gummesson (2001, p. 29), for example, describesmarketing management as “a patchwork of fragmentedmodels, assumptions, case stories and checklists on top of apartially obsolete foundation: micro-economics, marketingmix, four Ps, and the marketing of packaged consumergoods.” Concomitant with these criticisms, calls for puttingstronger efforts on theory development in marketing arenearly as old as the academic discipline itself (Alderson andCox 1948) and have been persistently repeated by a varietyof marketing scholars (Day and Montgomery 1999;Malhotra 1999; Carter 2011). However, the response tosuch calls has been muted. In fact, instead of a strongeremphasis on theory, the opposite appears to be the case:Baumgartner and Pieters (2003) showed that marketingpublications overwhelmingly focus on applications andYadav (2009) observed that, among articles published inleading marketing journals during a thirty year period(1978–2007), conceptual articles actually declined. Still,despite the dearth of conceptual articles—or just because oftheir relative scarcity—they receive disproportionatelymore citations (Yadav 2009).So why are there not more marketing scholarsfocusing on theory development? One reason appearsto be the historically strong practitioner influence on thediscipline. And with an increasing influence of practi-tioners, the emphasis “shifted from theoretical toempirical research, from basic to applied thoughtdevelopment, and from educational to occupationalconcerns” (Bartels 1983, p. 33). Consequently, untiltoday, “the majority of marketingacademics more closelyidentify themselves with marketing practice and appliedpractitioner-oriented research, rather than theory develop-ment” (Burton 2005,p.6).Another explanation for the lack of theoretical groundingin marketing may lie in the unresolved discourse amongmarketing scholars on what constitutes a suitable level oftheory aggregation. Venkatesh (1985), for example, arguesthat theories lie on a continuum ranging from those thatfollow a natural science model (highest form) to those thatmerely relate empirical findings to other empirical findings(lowest form). If we were to accept the argument that thelatter would be sufficient to constitute a theory, marketingwould actually be a very theory rich field! Burton (2005)draws an interesting distinction between “theories ofmarketing” and “theories in marketing.” The former aregeneral or universal theories of marketing, such asBagozzi’s(1975) theory of marketing as exchange or Vargoand Lusch’s(2004, 2006) service dominant logic theory,whereas the latter are theories that are frequently rooted inother subject areas, such as psychology, but have proven tobe very useful in researching marketing topics, such asAjzen’s(1985) theory of planned behavior. Some prominentmarketing scholars, such as Hunt (1983) and Gronroos(1994), argue that scholarly efforts in marketing should bedirected to develop the former, that is, theories ofmarketing. Others view grand theories of marketing as tooremoved from marketing practice (Bird 1996), argue thatmarketing cannot be described nor understood by any onegeneral theory (Anderson 1986; Arndt 1985; Burton 2005;Moller 2007) or even regard them as a waste of time andeffort (Prendergast and Berthon 2000).

“Developing Successful Theories in Marketing” (hereafter, DSTM, this issue) used resource-advantage (R-A) theory as a case-example for investigating why some theories in marketing are more successful than others. After acknowledging the pitfalls in generalizing from a single case, the article developed five guides for authors seeking to develop successful theories: (1) focus theory development on important issues in macromarketing and/or micromarketing, (2) craft theories with high explanatory and predictive power, (3) respect other disciplines’ literatures, (4) publish the theory in nonmarketing journals, and (5) explore the normative implications of the theory. I thank Professors S. Adam Brasel (hereafter, SAB), Colin Campbell (hereafter, CC), and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch (hereafter, BBS) for their thoughtful commentaries. It is gratifying that all three find merit in the article’s use of R-A theory to develop suggested guides. Indeed, given the critical stance of most commentaries, any author would be pleased to find that commentators identify his or her work as filling an “aching void” (CC), or that it provides a “valuable insight” (SAB), or that it is “most intriguing” (CC), or that it “could not have come at a better time” (BBS). Nonetheless, the three commentators raise several important issues, which can be grouped into four categories: (1) How did R-A theory evolve? (2) Are there other success drivers? (3) Who and what determines the importance of a research topic? (4) What is the next step for interested readers? R-A theory’s evolution

Wroe Alderson influenced considerably the development of marketing theory and practice. This article explicates how Alderson’s differential advantage theory of competition grounds his theory of market processes. It then shows how resource-advantage (R-A) theory incorporates and extends Alderson’s key concepts and generalizations. Consequently, we argue, R-A theory is toward a general theory of marketing.

The study discusses the necessity to analyze the influence of theoretical and empirical types of journal articles on the citation impact of Spanish psychology journals. Three of the most representative Spanish psychology journals were selected for the purposes of this study: Papeles del Psicologo, Analisis y Modificacion de Conducta and Psicothema. Twenty-three psychology journals in Spanish were used as source journals. Altogether, there were sixty-seven issues reviewed for the references and ninety-three issues for the articles. The bibliometricanalysis was conducted by six highly trained psychologists. The results demonstrated differences regarding the percentages of empirical and theoretical articles published in the three examined journals and the number of citations received by them based on the article type. When normalizing the results according to the number of theoretical and empirical articles that were published, it becomes evident that the theoretical articles receive on average twice as many references as the empirical ones. We discuss the importance of this effect on the comparison of journals based on their citation impact and show the evidence that it is only valid to compare journals which publish a similar percentage of theoretical and empirical articles.

Wroe Alderson a Life.- to Part II: Wroe Alderson's Theory of Market Behavior - Selected Writings.- Towards a Theory of Marketing.- The Analytical Framework for Marketing.- Survival and Adjustment in Organized Behavior Systems.- Survival and Growth of Systems.- The Power Principle.- Marketing efficiency and the principle of Postponement.- Competition for Differential Advantage.- Matching and Sorting: The Logic of Exchange.- to Functionalism.- Functionalism: Descriptive and Normative.- The Heterogeneous Market and the Organized Behavior System.- Information Flows in Heterogeneous Markets.- Transactions and Transvections.- Cooperation and conflict in marketing Channels.- to Part III: Wroe Alderson - Writings on Management Practice and Ethical Behavior.- Alderson, Sessions and the 1950s Manager.- A Basic Guide to Market Planning.- Researcher Finds a Void in Freud... Advertisers Urged to Follow Path of Rational Problem Solving Rather than of Instinctive Drives.- Ethics, Ideologies and Sanctions.- The American Economy and Christian Ethics.- Planning and Problem Solving in Marketing: A Book Review.- to Part IV: Alderson's Market Behavior Theory with its Links to Other Theories.- Alderson and Chamberlin.- Alderson's General Theory of Marketing: A Formalization.- Marketing Behaviour and Entrepreneurship: A Synthesis of Alderson and Austrian Economics.- An Alternative Paradigm for Marketing Theory.- Alderson's Transvection and Porter's Value System.- to Part V: Original Contributions to This Publication.- The Wroe Alderson I Knew.- Wroe Alderson as Academic Entrepreneur: The Wharton Years.- Toward a General Theory of Marketing: Resource-Advantage Theory as an Extension of Alderson's Theory of Market Processes.- Placing Alderson and His Contributions to Marketing in Historical Perspective.- Wroe Alderson's Vision Renewed and Rehabilitated: Social Structures and Marketing Theories.- To Teach or Not to Teach Alderson? There is No Question.- List of Publications by Wroe Alderson.- A Select List of Authors Who Have Commented on Aldersonian Marketing Thought.

The Challenge of Prediction in Information Systems Research

Current economic trends have provided incentives for firms to explore the global competitive landscape, and export-ventures are one of the strategies for developing successful international marketing networks, especially when a firm's resources are limited. Although research suggests that export-ventures are valuable tools for improving performance in the global marketplace, the establishment of such ventures does not automatically guarantee positive results. Export-venture long-term success depends on the development of close partnerships. Despite this importance, few studies have tried to explain export partnership success. This study represents an attempt to understand the key factors that influence export-venture success. The central thesis of this study is that both exporters and export intermediaries play important roles in developing positional advantages for export-ventures. Using resource-advantage theory of competition as an underlying framework, a model is developed that draws on the r...

Purpose This study aims to deepen the understanding regarding developing conceptual articles in marketing by addressing three important research questions (RQs): What is a high-quality conceptual article, and what are its dimensions and corresponding attributes? How should the quality of conceptual articles be assessed? What is the quality of conceptual articles published in marketing? Design/methodology/approach To address RQ1, we examined the literature, sought input from experts and reviewed marketplace data. We used a triangulation approach to conceptualize conceptual article quality, its dimensions and their corresponding attributes. To address RQ2, we carefully developed a comprehensive rubric for measuring conceptual article quality. A well-developed rubric can have a higher diagnostic value than a multi-item scale, which makes this study more valuable. In response to RQ3, we content-analyzed 207 conceptual articles, sourced from five leading marketing journals for the period 2000–2017, and revealed that while the quality has been largely moderate, there is a promising upward trajectory, reflecting learning over time. Findings The key finding of this article is a cc-rc-c framework of conceptual article quality. It is characterized by three dimensions, namely cc-quality (conceptual creativity), rc-quality (conceptual rigor) and c-quality (comprehensibility). A comprehensive rubric is also provided for evaluating the quality of conceptual articles. Research limitations/implications This study did not examine analytical articles. Future researchers can identify and operationalize the attributes of analytical rigor toward understanding article quality. Likewise, to understand article quality in the case of empirical articles, scholars need to identify and operationalize empirical rigor (Kumar, 2016). It would also be interesting to know to what extent conceptual article quality explains article quality in the case of analytical and empirical articles. Future researchers can undertake studies using multiple methods to examine this issue thoroughly. Practical implications The proposed framework and rubric will aid authors, journal editors/reviewers, educators and professional associations in collectively enhancing the quality of conceptual articles in marketing. Originality/value This paper offers a framework and rubric for “conceptual article quality.”

Editorial
 Journal of Digitainability, Realism & Mastery (DREAM) is a novel multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal devoted to Management Science and Social Sciences fields. The journal is wholly owned by Fayrel Management Services (IP0570933-M). The journal publishes and circulates high-quality academic articles and industry reports that promote the better understanding of the Business Administration, Management of Technology and Innovation, Tourism Management, e-Society, Education Management, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Economic & Financial Perspectives, Behavioral Sciences, Humanities & Arts, Transportation, Sociology etc. DREAM Journal welcomes the various types of author contribution i.e., Theoretical Articles, Conceptual Articles, Empirical Articles, Systematic Literature Reviews, Perspectives, Research Notes, Book Reviews, and White Paper (Industry).
 The Thematic areas of journal are listed below:
 Digital Transformation: implemetation of technology, usability and adoption of digital tools in every sector.
 Eco-Tourism: Involving responsible travel to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people.
 Sustainability: The process of living within the limits of available physical, natural and social resources in ways that allow the living systems in which humans are embedded to thrive in perpetuity.
 Management Science & Informatics: The study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions of natural and engineered computational systems.
 Social Capital: The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.
 Smart Cities: A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods, voice activation methods and sensors to collect specific data.
 Big Data Analytics: Big data analytics is the use of advanced analytic techniques against very large, diverse big data sets that include structured, semi-structured and unstructured data, from different sources, and in different sizes from terabytes to zettabytes.
 DREAM journal is projected to index in Google Scholar, MyCITE, CrossRef and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journal). All published articles will be assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for citation, indexing and higher visibility.
 
 
 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ilham Sentosa
 Editor-in-Chiefeditor@dreamjournal.my

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of integrating the theory of constraints (TOC), resources-based theory (RBT), resource advantage theory (RAT), with a structured project-based methodology e.g., Project Management Body of Knowledge. This paper describes each theory and explores what benefits a unified model would bring to project management. This paper represents the conceptual development of an integrated framework that will be tested in a range of project management scenarios in various industrial sectors.Design/methodology/approach– Extant literature is used to develop a conceptual framework of an integrated model that will be tested in the field for robustness. The model has been applied to published projects to identify its strengths and weaknesses.Findings– The work shows important implications for improved success of projects from the use of TOC, RAT and resource dependence theory (RDT). Specifically, it emphasizes the need for application of strategic theories to project management.Research limitations/implications– While TOC, RAT and RDT are well established in the context of organization theory, there is limited application in project management. Moreover, the model has yet to be applied in the field. The hypotheses identified in this research are currently being tested using field-based surveys.Practical implications– The research falls short in addressing some resources, e.g. innovation, tacit knowledge and decision making methods in traditional project management context. Therefore, identifying these critical resources in future work and exploiting them as the means of improving project performance would enhance the success of project-based management.Social implications– Project management is an emergent discipline and a project is temporary in nature. Therefore, new ideas and development of theories for project management practices are required. This innovative research, for example, may change the way projects are executed in future.Originality/value– This paper examines the components of a successful project according to the iron triangle, i.e. scope, quality, time and cost. However, through the application of TOC, RAT and RDT into an integrated project-based management framework gives new insights to resources management.

The hospitals and their healthcare providers need to optimize simultaneously three outcomes: healthcare costs, healthcare options offered to customers, and information utilization efficiency. The adoption of electronic healthcare record (EHR) technologies is a potential managerial mechanism for balancing these outcomes. EHR offers patient management and decision support capabilities that can ameliorate health delivery outcomes for patients, doctors, and hospitals through better-informed business and care decisions. The analysis of data collected in an EHR system may lower costs and improve health care delivery (or both). In sum, it could be argued that EHR is a source of competitive advantage. Despite this prima facie appeal, many hospitals remain reluctant to adopt and implement EHR due to lack of insights into return on investment, unavailability of tested systems and data entry obstacles. To address this gap between the potential of EHR system and lack of its adoption, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of EHR as a resource of competitive advantage for hospital. Essay 1, titled "Implementation and Adoption of EHR: A Conceptual Model based on Resource Advantage Theory", describes the antecedents and consequences of EHR adoption and implementation. Essay 2, titled "Exploring the Relationship Between Electronic Healthcare Record Adoption and Quality of Care", delves deeper into the operational performance of a hospital. This essay focuses on the impact of EHR on different aspects of patient care and thereby on the financial performance of the hospital. Essay 3, titled "The Effect of Resources on a Hospital's Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Electronic Health Records Implementation and Adoption", is an empirical inquiry into the key factors that may influence hospitals' financial performance. These include organizational factors (such as, number of nurses and beds) and environmental factors (such as, location and received donations). Further, this essay explores the interaction effects between EHR and these factors. In summary, this research provides a conceptualization and an empirical investigation of EHR adoption and implementation and its impact on hospitals' operational and financial performance, an area receiving widespread attention from health care organizations, patient rights activists, public policy makers and the media. Future research can take two paths. First, further research should address questions related to the integration of EHR with other production and inventory management systems, and the prospective benefits attained from system integration. Second research is needed to investigate how parallel information transfer across multiple stakeholders may concurrently preserve Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, reduce health care delivery costs and optimize service quality.

Purpose: Given the growth in research on business marketing in China, there is an imperative need to provide a comprehensive understanding of business marketing issues in China. Thus the authors attempt to conduct a comprehensive review to obtain that understanding and to address the following questions: How much progress has been made in understanding business marketing issues in China, and how much progress has been made regarding theory development in this domain? Methodology/Approach: The review covers a total of 153 research articles from 23 key marketing and management academic journals from 1990 through 2009. The authors also propose a theoretical framework consisting of three theories to review the fragmented literature: a theory of Chinese business marketing; a theory of Chinese comparative business marketing; and a Chinese theory of business marketing. Findings: The review enhances our understanding of the theoretical development in the domain of business marketing in China. The review on studies using China as a research sample suggests that most research attempts to exemplify extant business marketing theories in the Chinese context. The review on studies using China as a comparison object shows that marketing is a relatively new phenomenon in China, and thus many business marketing activities in China are different due to the cultural, institutional, and economic situations. The review on studies using China as a unique object documents distinctive business marketing phenomena in China such as guanxi (personal connections) and xinyong (personal trust) and provides theoretical understanding of these phenomena. Originality/Value: The authors develop a new theoretical framework to review the literature: a theory of Chinese business marketing, a theory of Chinese comparative business marketing, and a Chinese theory of business marketing. The framework contributes to the literature by understanding different usages of a context in business marketing research and by suggesting possible theoretical development in this domain. The review identifies potential topics and theoretical development for future research in each of the three areas. The review also provides important managerial implications for practitioners by offering a comprehensive understanding of how business marketing practices are operated in China.

This research examines internal marketing (IM) over the last decade (2012-2021) using systematic quantitative assessment techniques (SQAT). The review identified 82 IM articles from 39 countries. A significant number of the articles were published in 2015, with a large concentration in Asia. Taiwan had the highest number of published IM articles among the contributing countries. The majority of the articles reviewed were empirical research, while the minority were conceptual articles. Four methods of data collection (i.e. survey, Secondary data, interview, and observation) were identified, with a survey as the most utilized method. The review identified three different IM themes (i.e. IM magnitude, consequences of IM, and IM mechanism) with IM magnitude as the most investigated theme. This review recommends that more IM articles are encouraging in South America and other nations of other countries that currently have no representation. More conceptual research is encouraged in balancing the wide gap between empirical and conceptual articles. Researchers are encouraged to use more qualitative methods of data collection to gain more understanding of the concept. The researchers are also advised to adopt the mixed method of data collection on the consequences of IM and IM mechanisms themes

It is an honor and a privilege to serve as Editor ofAMSReview. As I start my term, I would like to discuss my views about the journal, the challenges and opportunities it faces, and its future prospects. I would also like to describe initiatives that build on the efforts of the founding Editors, Vicky Crittenden and Bob Peterson, and the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS). These initiatives, over time, can play an important role in significantly elevating AMS Review’s stature in the marketing discipline and set the stage for the journal to reach its full potential. AMS Review aspires to become a premier academic journal that is focused exclusively on conceptual articles in the marketing discipline. It will take time; however, with the support of marketing scholars who wish to elevate our discipline’s impact, this aspiration can be realized. The marketing discipline, historically, has had a very healthy appetite for theory development work. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, the discipline’s deep-seated tradition of publishing highquality conceptual articles has been broken (MacInnis 2011; Yadav 2010). As a result, there has been a steady decline of conceptual articles published in our major journals. Recent commentaries suggest that these trends are perhaps emblematic of deeper, more systemic problems in the marketing discipline (see, e.g., Reibstein et al. 2009). Systemic problems necessitate systemic solutions; clearly there are no silver bullets. Although concerted, imaginative efforts are needed on multiple fronts, I believe that a renewed focus on developing impactful theory is essential. AMS Review is uniquely positioned to play an important role in this regard. The journal can rejuvenate interest in crafting conceptual articles and facilitate the growth of a new generation of theory development scholars in our discipline. By accomplishing these goals, the journal has the potential to carve out a very special place for itself in the discipline. Of course, before that happens, much remains to be done. My comments below focus on three fundamental issues: (1) the supply of high-quality conceptual articles; (2) the scope of conceptual articles; and (3) initiatives planned for moving forward with AMS Review and enhancing theory development work in marketing.