Shelby Hunt

Texas Tech University | TTU · Marketing

Numerous commentators note that marketing is entering its fifth era of evolutionary development as a troubled discipline. Marketing’s troubled evolutionary trajectory has led to what this article labels “the manifesto conversation.” Using the sociology of academic disciplines as a theoretical foundation, this article contributes to the manifesto co...

This essay argues that the three concepts of (1) firms’ operant resources, (2) firms’ masterful operant resources, and (3) masterful marketing academic competences extend S-D logic to the marketing discipline, itself. Specifically, this essay argues that individual marketing academics can, like firms, exhibit a masterful ability for addressing the...

Building marketing capabilities is at the forefront of marketing strategy in B2B marketing. As customisation is key for creating unique value for B2B customers, the ability to customise market offerings is, or ought to be, an integral part of B2B marketing strategy. Based on the premise that different forms of organisational capital constitute impo...

High-technology firms often partake in coopetitive alliances toward improving their innovation performance. As relational governance contributes significantly to explaining the coopetitive alliance success, this research examines the facilitation of relational governance in coopetitive alliances. Drawing from social contract theory, we propose that...

This article (1) explores the nature and origins of “high impact” (i.e., highly cited) articles in marketing, (2) argues that a major factor is that highly cited articles frequently are the result of their authors’ executing time-consuming, research programs, rather than simply working on individual articles that appear to be immediately publishabl...

Three streams of strategic thought, (1) the “adaptive marketing capabilities” works, (2) the “dynamic capabilities” view, and (3) resource-advantage (R-A) theory, are converging on the view that, in today's dynamic, hypercompetitive, global economy, strategy must focus on firms' constantly renewing themselves in the marketplace. In turn, these thre...

For more than five decades, SWOT analysis has remained popular with business and marketing strategy educators and practitioners. However, it also attracts severe criticisms from business and marketing strategy academics and practitioners. In fact, some recommendations call for abandoning the use of SWOT for analysis. In this research, we review the...

Business-to-business (B2B) professional service firms often develop highly customized offerings for their customers. Customizing B2B professional services is a knowledge intensive process that requires the coordinated efforts of individuals with specialized knowledge and skills. Drawing on customization and social capital theory, we develop and tes...

A recent commentary by Blois and Hopkinson in this journal provides a thoughtful critique of the use of French and Raven’s (1959) bases of power approach in channels of distribution research. Their commentary claims that power-base studies (1) suffer from ‘weak results’ and lack ‘psychometrically sound’ measures, (2) provide an inadequate ‘categori...

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, 11...

The inductive realist model of theory generation (Hunt, AMS Review, 3(2), 61–73, 2013) proposes a process model of theory generation that links discovery and justification. This article further explicates the inductive realist model of theory generation by addressing the major issues that marketing academics have raised. Specifically, this article...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to chronicle the publication events in the 1980s and 1990s that framed the development of the series of controversies in marketing that are known as the “philosophy debates”. Design/methodology/approach – The article uses a participant’s retrospective approach. Findings – The article finds that seven publi...

This article contributes to theory development in marketing, in general, and to theory development in marketing ethics, in particular. The proposed “inductive realist model of theory generation” incorporates both (1) recent works in the philosophy of science on discovery processes in science and (2) Hunt’s (International Studies in the Philosophy o...

A mail survey reports on ethical problems faced by 330 advertising agency executives. The most frequently cited difficult ethical problem is “treating clients fairly.” Creating honest advertisements and representing clients whose products or services are unhealthy OT not needed were also frequently mentioned. Many agency executives reported that su...

This article focuses on business marketing to extend the arguments in Hunt (2010) that R-A theory provides the foundations for a general theory of marketing. The article extends the arguments by showing (1) how Alderson's theory of market processes, on which R-A theory draws, clearly accommodates both B2B and B2C marketing, (2) that ISBM's normativ...

Foss (2012) provides an informed and informative comment on my article 'Trust, Personal Moral Codes, and the Resource-Advantage Theory of Competition: Explaining Productivity, Economic Growth, and Wealth Creation' (Hunt, 2012). In general, his comment is highly supportive of both the theory and the arguments developed in my article. He does, howeve...

Major events in the institutionalization of macromarketing include (1) the series of macromarketing conferences that began at the University of Colorado in 1976, (2) the founding of the Journal of Macromarketing in 1981, and (3) the establishment of the Macromarketing Society in 2004. This article focuses on the continuing institutionalization of m...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that conceptual frameworks developed from a general theory of competition, i.e. resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory, can facilitate managerial action. Design/methodology/approach After a brief overview of resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory, five conceptual frameworks are developed and offered for the pur...

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of market orientation as a relationship property. This property, labeled “alliance market orientation”, is at the inter‐firm level and is related to the new product development (NPD) activities of alliances. The main objectives of this article are: to define the alliance market orientation; to argue that...

Scholars agree that societal-level moral codes that promote social trust also promote wealth creation. However, what specific kinds of societal-level moral codes promote social trust? Also, by what specific kind of competitive process does social trust promote wealth creation? Because societal-level moral codes are composed of or formed from people...

Research on relational exchange has focused primarily on long-term, or “enduring,” relational exchange. The evolutionary model of relationship development that is the foundation for much of the research on enduring relational exchange lacks applicability for short-term, or “interimitic,” relational exchange. Interimistic relational exchange is defi...

This article addresses the issues regarding the usefulness of the resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory of competition for supply chain management research that are raised in commentaries by Barney (2012) and Priem and Swink (2012). In response, we expand the discussion initiated in Hunt and Davis (2008) that compares R‐A theory with the resource‐based v...

Some marketing theories are empirically successful, while others are not. When a marketing theory is empirically successful, is its success a result of miraculous good fortune or something else? For example, market orientation (MO) theory has been empirically successful: it explains and predicts numerous marketing phenomena. What explains the empir...

We present dielectric relaxation spectroscopy measurements of amyloidogenic Abeta (1-42) and non-amyloidogenic Abeta (42-1) proteins over a frequency range of 10 mHz to 10 MHz. Measurements were performed as a function of time from 0 to 24 h and temperature range of 193K-283K. Two relaxation peaks, alpha and beta, were observed at temperatures abov...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a personal retrospective on six of the key events/experiences that influenced the development of the structure, foundational premises, and models of the resource‐advantage theory of competition. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a personal retrospective approach. Findings – The paper fi...

Can historical research contribute to marketing theory? This essay argues 'yes.' The essay begins by reviewing the conventional view of marketing theory. Then, it discusses the nature of historical research, proposes how marketing history and theory intersect, and provides two examples of how historical method has been used to advance marketing the...

The Legends in Marketing series presents compilations of the seminal works of marketing scholars who have made significant contributions to the discipline of marketing. This review discusses the structure and contents of the volumes that comprise Legends in Marketing: Shelby D. Hunt (Sage, forthcoming).

All disciplines require both (1) the development of theories that explain and predict important phenomena and (2) empirical research that tests the theories. Purely conceptual/theoretical articles are central to theory development and are generally more influential than empirical articles. However, not all conceptual articles are equally successful...

The concept of approximate truth plays a prominent role in most versions of scientific realism. However, adequately conceptualizing ‘approximate truth’ has proved challenging. This article argues that the goal of articulating the concept of approximate truth can be advanced by first investigating the processes by which science accords theories the...

This article chronicles the events leading to the founding of the Journal of Macromarketing, including (1) the first Macro-Marketing Seminar, which was organized by Charles C. ‘‘Chuck’’ Slater and held the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1976, (2) the subsequent Macro-Marketing Seminars of 1977 to 1979, (3) the formation of the Macro-Marketing...

Edward Chamberlin’s theory of monopolistic competition influenced greatly the development of marketing theory and thought in the 1930s to the 1960s. Indeed, marketers held the theory in such high regard that the American Marketing Association awarded Chamberlin the Paul D. Converse Award in 1953, which at the time was the AMA’s highest honor. Howev...

Firms are turning toward e-business technologies to increase efficiency and effectiveness and, thereby, acquire competitive advantage. We focus on interfirm distribution networks (IDNs) connected by extranets. Our thesis is that IDNs behave like alliances. As such, the network leader in the IDN may have an organizational capability related to devel...

Sustainable marketing may be viewed as marketing that is within, and supportive of, sustainable economic development. Peattie (The Marketing Review 2(2):129–146, 2001) maintains that sustainable economic development poses major challenges for marketing. These challenges concern futurity, equity, and needs/wants. This article focuses on the equity a...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue for including historical perspectives in doctoral seminars in marketing theory. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes how marketing history is currently incorporated into the author's doctoral seminar in marketing theory. Findings – The author's doctoral seminar in marketing theory incor...

Business alliances, by filling critical resource gaps, enable firms to have positional advantages that lead to superior financial performance. Some alliances, however, are more successful than others. The three prominent theoretical approaches to explaining alliance success rely on resources, competences, and relational factors. The authors theoriz...

In "boom" times, firms can be successful without clearly developed strategies, without the benefit of a clearly conceived concept of competitive advantage, and without a foundational understanding of the process of competition and the role of institutions in that process. However, in times of adversity, managers should understand how the different...

A key issue for strategic supply chain management research is whether purchasing can be a source of long-term competitive advantage. Recent resource-based works in strategic management suggest that purchasing cannot be a source of long-term competitive advantage. In contrast, recent works in supply chain management suggest that purchasing can be su...

Many practitioners believe that marketing practice should be viewed as a profession. Similarly, many marketing academics argue that marketing should be taught and researched as a professional discipline. This article develops a "responsibilities framework" that can be used to explore how marketing should be defined if it is to be viewed as a profes...

Purpose Societies highly value economic growth because economic growth results in increase in societal standards of living. This paper addresses the issue of why economies grow and what public policy makers should favor in order to increase economic growth. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews and contrasts the two major, rival ways to a...

Marketing’s evolution toward a new dominant logic requires the focus of marketing to be on the intangible, dynamic, operant resources that are at the heart of competitive advantage and performance. First, building on resource-advantage theory’s notion of basic resources and higher-order resources, this article proposes a hierarchy of basic, composi...

The general theory of marketing ethics, first published in the Journal of Macromarketing by Hunt and Vitell (1986), has been the focus of much discussion and empirical testing. As a result, the theory was revised in 1993. This article overviews the 1993 revision of the model and addresses three questions that are often asked by those who use the mo...

Knowledge of marketing strategy is essential for marketing majors. To supplement and/or replace the traditional lecture-discussion approach, several pedagogical vehicles have been recommended to teach marketing strategy, including the analytic hierarchy process; career-planning cases; computer-assisted, simulated marketing cases; experiential proje...

Is the practice of marketing bad for the economy and, therefore, bad for society? This article explores whether market success and marketing success are compatible. First, we examine the concept of “market success” in the context of the dynamic competition perspective of resource–advantage theory, and we argue that successful markets are characteri...

Purpose The authors propose to reply to the comment by Mario Rese on the article “The explanatory foundations of relationship marketing theory.” Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a critical analysis. Findings The comment of Rese has misspecified the major problems facing those firms adopting relationship marketing‐based strategies....

Purpose Drawing on resource‐advantage theory and a diverse literature base, this article seeks to further the development of the explanatory foundations of relationship marketing theory by proposing, and then providing, tentative answers to three “why?” questions in relationship marketing: why is relationship marketing so prominent now? Why do firm...

Wroe Alderson is one of three marketers to attempt a general theory of marketing. Substantial controversy exists concerning this general theory, partially because few understand Alderson and his work. The authors attempt to clarify Alderson’s work by “formalizing” his theory.

Wroe Alderson influenced considerably the development of marketing theory and practice. This article explicates how Alderson’s differential advantage theory of competition grounds his theory of market processes. It then shows how resource-advantage (R-A) theory incorporates and extends Alderson’s key concepts and generalizations. Consequently, we a...

Is truth a research goal and regulative ideal that is appropriate for management research? Is realism an appropriate philosophical foundation for management research? This article answers in the affirmative on both of these questions by (a) using historical method to develop the four fundamental tenets of scientific realism, (b) using the historica...

The study of the consumer interest in higher education is currently represented by departments, program areas, and curricula with a wide variety of titles (e.g., “consumer economics” and “consumer affairs”) and emphases (e.g., consumer purchase decisions and public policy formulation. This diversity of titles and emphases is indicative of the curre...

Market segmentation is one of the most widely accepted concepts in marketing. Its fundamental thesis is that, to achieve competitive advantage and, thereby, superior financial performance, firms should (1) identify segments of demand, (2) target specific segments, and (3) develop specific marketing “mixes” for each targeted market segment. However,...

Business schools have a responsibility to develop students who are ethically responsible. Today, the large number of corporate scandals questions the fundamental integrity of businesspeople. The purpose of this article is to further the development of teaching business ethics by explicating an experiential learning approach to marketing ethics that...

Determining the strategic thrust of the firm, it may be argued, is the principal task of top management. This task is aided by recent theories of business and marketing strategy, including the normative imperatives based on industry factors, resource factors, competences, market orientation, and relationship marketing. Choosing wisely from among th...

In the preceding article, Vargo and Lusch (V&L; 2004) observe that an evolution is underway toward a new domi- nant logic for marketing. The new dominant logic has important implications for marketing theory, practice, and ped- agogy, as well as for general management and public policy. Thus, their observations are likely to resonate with a broad c...

Although overlooked to some degree by non-marketing disciplines, the discipline of marketing has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge on business strategy over the last two decades. This paper evaluates these contributions, examines how they complement dominant non-marketing theories of business strategy, and shows how marketing offer...

Researchers suggest that developing long-term relationships with key stakeholders is an important strategy in today's intensely competitive business environment. Many organizations have embraced this concept, which is referred to as relationship marketing. Much of the research on relationship marketing success has examined relationships that (1) ar...

In the mid-1990s, a new theory of competition, labeled “resource-advantage theory,” was proposed in the marketing literature. R-A theory’s explanatory and predictive successes have resulted in its being well received by both marketing and nonmarketing scholars. This article examines the characteristics of resource-advantage theory that have enabled...

This study explores a phenomenon that has been shown to adversely affect managers' decisions-competitive irrationality. Managers are irrationally competitive in their decisions when they focus on damaging the profits of competitors, rather than improving their own profit performance. Studies by Armstrong and Collopy (1996) and Griffith and Rust (19...

Despite the vast proliferation of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies in adaptation-selection research, debate continues to surround a key question: how do firms strategically coevolve with their environments? This paper attempts to address part of this question by drawing on advances in strategic choice theory and resource-advantage the...

Historically, “closing the gap” or “bridging the divide” between marketing academe and marketing practice has been one of the most hotly debated issues in marketing. This article, based on the professional discipline view of marketing, maintains that the “gap” debate would be more informed by the identification of the multiple stakeholders of marke...

This research examines the effect of an alliance competence on resource-based alliance success. The fundamental thesis guiding this research is that an alliance competence contributes to alliance success, both directly and through the acquisition and creation of resources. Using survey data gathered from 145 alliances, empirical tests of the hypoth...

Neoclassical economic wisdom holds that competition is, exclusively, an efficiency-seeking enterprise. For neoclassical theory, therefore, competition in the third millennium will be, can only be, efficiency seeking. In contrast, conventional business wisdom is that competition in the third millennium will primarily be an effectiveness-seeking ente...

Business alliances, an important form of relationship marketing, are becoming ubiquitous. However, many alliances are unsuccessful. The authors provide an integrative model of alliance success based on sub-models that rely on the resource-based, competence-based, relational factors, and competitive advantage views of alliances. The authors then sho...

Salesperson cooperation has become a crucial issue for the overall performance of most sales organizations. The authors examine the antecedents of task-specific, cooperative behaviors of salespersons toward other salespeople working in the same organization. The main theses of the study are that (1) the four major antecedent categories of factors—r...

Resource-advantage theory is an interdisciplinary, evolutionary, process theory of competition that is proving to be extraordinarily provocative. A General Theory of Competition: Resources, Competences, Productivity, Economic Growth pulls together many of the articles that develop the theory. This article provides a brief overview of resource-advan...

The antitrust debate in the United States has been grounded and guided by principles derived from equilibrium-based economics. However, these principles mischaracterize key elements of real economies. The authors (1) explore the nature of the antitrust debate by reviewing a key component of the debate-the efficiency versus wealth transfer argument;...

The Authors thank the Journal of Business Research for awarding its Quality and Impact in Marketing Scholarship Award to our 1985 article, “Ethics and Marketing Management.” In this article, provide a retrospective that examines how subsequent research has extended our findings and provide a prospective that suggests directions for future research.

The Authors thank the Journal of Business Research for awarding its Quality and Impact in Marketing Scholarship Award to our 1985 article, “Ethics and Marketing Management.” In this article, provide a retrospective that examines how subsequent research has extended our findings and provide a prospective that suggests directions for future research.

The author thanks Professors Foss, Hodgson, and Savitt for their kind comments on A General Theory of Competition and replies to the questions they have concerning it.

Relationship marketing research to date has focused for the most part on two sets of issues. First, what are the benefits of relationship marketing adoption? Second, how are marketing relationships built and maintained? Although these are important questions for researchers to address, we believe an understanding of the strategic impact of relation...

Relationship marketing research to date has focused for the most part on two sets of issues. First, what are the benefits of relationship marketing adoption? Second, how are marketing relationships built and maintained? Although these are important questions for researchers to address, we believe an understanding of the strategic impact of relation...

Strategy theorists share (1) the view that the strategic imperative of a firm should be sustained, superior financial performance and (2) the belief that this goal can be achieved through a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Neoclassical perfect competition and traditional industrial organization economics, however, imply that t...

Theoretical models of marketing ethics propose that people first must perceive the presence of an ethical issue before the process of ethical decision making can begin. Through the concept of ethical sensitivity, the authors explore why some marketing researchers and not others recognize and ascribe importance to the ethical content in their decisi...

Theoretical models of marketing ethics propose that people first must perceive the presence of an ethical issue before the process of ethical decision making can begin. Through the concept of ethical sensitivity, the authors explore why some marketing researchers and not others recognize and ascribe importance to the ethical content in their decisi...

Deligonul and Cavusgil (1997) conduct a paradigm-level analysis of resource-advantage (R-A) theory. They argue that (1) Hunt and Morgan (1995) offer resource-advantage theory as a replacement for perfect competition theory (2) a successful challenger to any theory must come from a new paradigm, (3) hut both perfect competition and RA theory come fr...

Deligönül and çavuşgil (1997) conduct a paradigm-level analysis of resource-advantage (R-A) theory. They argue that (1) Hunt and Morgan (1995) offer resource-advantage theory as a replacement for perfect competition theory, (2) a successful challenger to any theory must come from a new paradigm, (3) but both perfect competition and R-A theory come...

A common element of all views of relationship marketing is the “co‐operate‐to‐compete” thesis. That is, to be an effective competitor often requires one to be an effective co‐operator. One implication of this thesis is that not all instances of firms co‐operating with each other constitute anti‐competitive collusion. This article argues that, altho...

Why aren't all market-based economies wealthy? Many scholars believe that nonwealthy, market-based economies lack certain productivity-enhancing societal institutions, particularly those that promote trust. This article proposes that a new theory—the resource-advantage theory of competition—has the requisites of a socio-economic theory of competiti...

The gap between evolutionary and neoclassical economics remains large. This article proposed that the gap can be narrowed by evolutionary economies developing process theories that can provide evolutionary theoretical foundations for formal models in the neoclassical equilibrium tradition. This article argues that a process of competitions labeled...