Rationalizing and Integrating Strategic Marketing Knowledge: Applying the Resource-Advantage Theory: An Abstract

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting and discussing the ways the Resource-Advantage (R-A) Theory can help integrate Marketing knowledge after a long period in which marketing has become disentangled and fragmented. The paper trails the evolutionary periods (five eras) proposed by previous authors in the examination of how Marketing has developed as a discipline (Hunt 2018; Wilkie and Moore 2003). ‘Era IV’, in particular, exposes a process of fragmentation of marketing strategy into special fields like marketing orientation, relationship marketing, brand equity, and market segmentation, after 1980. Thus, ‘Era V’ signals the future advancement of strategic marketing after 2020. The role of Resource-Advantage (R-A) Theory in strategic marketing, in particular, and Marketing, in general, has evolved and become prominent in current strategic marketing. Thus, the focus of this paper is to examine how this role can take place in ‘Era V’ of strategic marketing. The R-A Theory is integrative and offers auspicious paths to remedy the fragmentation of marketing knowledge in ‘Era IV’. It is an overarching theory that helps explain the changes in the markets and understand the ubiquitous role of investment, innovation, and organizational learning in economic growth. The R-A Theory is well-founded to study economic crises and economic growth beyond the macro constructs of purchasing power, the poor-rich gap, capital accumulation, secured property rights, progression technology, and business creation. The internal forces of competition, such as firm competitive advantages and comparative advantages the R-A Theory is based on, can help grasp why the mis-allocation of resources due to greed and opportunism that produced the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Accordingly, micro-level factors may have prevailed over macro-levels factors in the generation of the financial crisis. The inclusion of environmental factors, fundamentally societal resources, societal institutions, competitors-suppliers, consumers, and policy makers (government), in the process of R-A competition (Hunt 2000, 2015) facilitates the integration of knowledge to better understand economic growth and the wealth of nations under various social and political conditions. The potential integration of relevant environmental factors in the process of generating competitive and comparative advantages by the firm in specific markets can facilitate research to answer the why question in business and marketing problems. The integration of firm internal forces (e.g., competitive and comparative advantages) with societal resources and institutions (e.g., proactive and reactive innovations, protected property rights, social trust, and codes of conduct) can explain both firm-level financial performance and country-level economic development, consumer well-being, and sustainable wealth.