The theoretical foundations of strategic marketing and marketing strategy: foundational premises, R-A theory, three fundamental strategies, and societal welfare

Abstract

The strategic marketing field of study has long suffered from an identity problem: the field has lacked clarity and consensus as to its theoretical foundations, its nature, and its scope. There have been two recent approaches that contribute to resolving the identity problem. First, Varadarajan’s (Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38, 119–140, 2010) approach focuses on strategic marketing's (1) domain, (2) definition, (3) fundamental issues, and (4) foundational premises. Second, resource-advantage (R-A) theory's approach focuses on how R-A theory provides a theoretical grounding for eight forms of business and marketing strategy. This article evaluates how the two approaches relate to each other and shows how R-A theory (1) grounds extant business and marketing theories of strategy, (2) illuminates, informs, extends, and grounds the sixteen foundational premises of the strategic marketing field that Varadarajan (2010) proposes, (3) implies that there are three fundamental strategies, “superior value”, “lower cost”, and “synchronal”, and (4) shows how the three fundamental strategies promote societal welfare. Therefore, the two approaches, when considered jointly, complement each other and foster the development of the field of strategic marketing and the forms of marketing strategy.