Toward a Service-Dominant Logic for International Marketing

Abstract

The study of international marketing continues to evolve through increases in technical rigor and a growing emphasis on social and environmental issues (Czinkota and Ronkainen; Nakata and Huang 2005). However, a strong theoretical foundation remains needed to clarify core conceptual concepts and transition the discipline away from a “manufacturing mentality” (Ryans, Griffith, and White 2003). Vargo and Lusch (2004) suggest that marketing’s manufacturing or goods-dominant (G-D) paradigm limits the advancement of the discipline because it is largely based on Smith’s (1776) normative theories for increasing national wealth. Hunt (2002, p. 238 emphasis in original) explains that normative theory should be grounded in positive foundations because “understanding how the world works enables one to develop theories and models about how to make the world work better.” Thus, it seems that a positive theoretical foundation for marketing is needed, from which positive and normative theories of marketing, international or otherwise, can be built.