Triadic Explanation of Public and Nonprofit Marketing Concept

Abstract

Although the concept of public and nonprofit marketing concept was initially criticized in the marketing literature as confusing, it eventually became widely embraced by marketing scholars. Marketing scholars agreed that by the end of the 1970s there was no longer any serious controversy among marketing scholars about public service marketing concept. However, despite this apparent agreement among marketing academics, public administrators and academics in public administration areas have not unanimously embraced the utility of the concept. Two objectives formed the framework for this study: What are the assumptions, conceptualizations and disciplinary perspectives underlying the public services marketing concept? Can a superior conceptualization(s) be developed which is likely to be acceptable to a larger proportion of public services providers? Paper suggests three alternative conceptualizations of public services marketing.