Introduction

The Journal of Marketing (JM) develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world
marketing questions relevant to scholars, educators, managers, consumers, policy makers and
other societal stakeholders. It is the premier outlet for substantive research in marketing. Since
its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of
the marketing discipline. The fundamental issues at the center of marketing. If these issues
could be better understood and substantial progress toward their resolution shown, then the
discipline could reach a higher level of relevance and influence.

Methodology

The issues are grouped according to the fundamental questions that define the scope and concern of
the fields.

1. How do customers and consumers behave?

Much marketing thinking is guided by the belief that customers are rational value maximize.

II. How do markets function and evolve?

The concepts of market segmentation, positioning, and product life cycle are central to marketing. Yet
serious doubts have been raised about the validity and utility of this foundation concept.

III. How do firms relate to their markets?

In today's complex and dynamic global environment, firms increasingly relate to one another in the
multiple roles of customer, competitor, and collaborator. This raises questions concerning how firms
should and do relate to their customers (and by extension, to their customers' customers), suppliers and
partners, and competitors.

IV. What are the contributions of marketing to organizational performance and societal welfare?

The role and value of marketing has been repeatedly challenged. Within the organization there have
been pointed queries about the productivity of marketing expenditures, the appropriate organizational
role and influence of the marketing function, and the contributions to financial performance.
Fundamental Issues and Directions for Marketing

Edited by George S. Day (University of Pennsylvania) and David B. Montgomery (Stanford University)

Source: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 100-103

Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1251836

Anjali kiroriwal

(2017B2TS1230P)
Findings

The papers selected for publication will address one or more aspects of these issues by

(1) Assessing what is currently known, including any empirical gen- realizations.

(2) Identifying gaps in our knowledge in light of current or anticipated development.

(3) Offering provocative conceptual and theoretical insights. The choice criteria will favor wide-ranging
and integrated inquiries that will advance the discipline and stimulate further research. We are not
interested in reviews that are simply exhaustive compilations of the extant literature. For this reason,
we ask prospective authors to limit citations to two pages. We anticipate that selected commentaries on
the chosen papers or groups of papers will also be included in the special issue.

The motivation for a paper could come from gaps, contradictions, or deficiencies in existing theories;
persistent problems in practice; the inability to extract empirical generalizations; or the promise of an
emerging theory or conceptual framework. We encourage both top down approaches that offer a broad
sweep of the terrain and bottom up approaches that begin with a specific question enroute to
rethinking a body of theory.