The purpose of this paper is to present a review essay of the scholarly work of Donald Dixon, focusing on six of his major contributions to marketing thought and theory.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a review essay of the scholarly work of Donald Dixon, focusing on six of his major contributions to marketing thought and theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The research relied heavily on previously published articles, personal interviews and databank searches.
Findings
A more complete timeline of the history of marketing thought is presented. The historical work done by Dixon shows us that marketing is not a recent field of human behavior but dates back millennia. His contributions have enriched the marketing discipline and have positioned marketing in its rightful place as a social science studying one aspect of human behavior, which is buying and selling.
Practical implications
Knowing more about the history of marketing is useful both to academics and to practitioners. One learn more about the practitioners and intellectual thinkers of the past who have laid the foundation of marketing as a social science.
Originality/value
The essay ofers but a succinct summary of Dixonian marketing thought with his many contributions to marketing scholarship and macromarketing thought over the past 50 years.
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Bert Rosenbloom and Boryana Dimitrova
The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative view of marketing that Donald F. Dixon spent much of his distinguished career developing – a paradigm that we refer to as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative view of marketing that Donald F. Dixon spent much of his distinguished career developing – a paradigm that we refer to as the Dixonian systems perspective of marketing. It is a paradigm that presents marketing as a phenomenon that reaches far beyond the micro/managerial marketing mix paradigm.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis and interpretation of Donald F. Dixon's and colleagues' scholarly work to distill the essence of Dixon's view of marketing, which we refer to as the Dixonian systems perspective of marketing.
Findings
The Dixon's systems perspective of marketing offers a framework for the analysis of macromarketing issues that is not provided by the conventional marketing mix micro/managerial paradigm.
Originality/value
The paper provides a concise overview of the macro/systems ideas and concepts of marketing contained in Donald F. Dixon's and his colleagues' extensive writings that to date has not been available from any other source.
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The purpose of this paper is to read a selection of Dixon's library collection in conjunction with his published work in an effort to make his book collection and research speak…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to read a selection of Dixon's library collection in conjunction with his published work in an effort to make his book collection and research speak to contemporary scholars who should be exposed to Dixon's writings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a viewpoint approach.
Findings
A case is made that Dixon's work is characterised by a concern with the historical sedimentation and structuration of marketing theory and practice.
Originality/value
Calls attention to Dixon's work for scholars who might otherwise have bypassed it by linking it with contemporary interpretive and critical marketing approaches.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the doctoral seminar in the history of marketing thought and theory taught by Donald F. Dixon.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the doctoral seminar in the history of marketing thought and theory taught by Donald F. Dixon.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is an historical narrative based on the author's personal recollections of the historical context of the seminar, how it was organized and conducted, along with a sample class discussion of the first lesson in marketing systems.
Findings
Dixon was indisputably a maverick who worked far outside the marketing mainstream. Consequently, he had a truly unique historical systems framework for understanding and teaching the history of marketing thought.
Originality/value
Because of its uniqueness, the Dixon seminar offers novel insights into teaching the history of marketing thought and the development of marketing theory.
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The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise some of the main contributions of Donald F. Dixon to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise some of the main contributions of Donald F. Dixon to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.
Design/methodology/approach
Personal experience, as well as a review of the major papers and the book Dixon co‐authored are used to highlight the development of his thought and contributions.
Findings
Dixon championed a broad hierarchical systems approach to understanding marketing and was able to identify the origins of concepts and ideas in history in a way that showed his depth of scholarship, the deep intellectual history of marketing thought and the misrepresenting of earlier theories that are present in some modern writings.
Originality/value
Dixon's contributions are of major importance but not well known in marketing. It brings together some of his major contributions and indicates their value.
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Stephen F. Pirog and Michael F. Smith
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate Donald F. Dixon's contribution to scholarship in clarifying two parallel streams of thought on marketing's role in value creation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate Donald F. Dixon's contribution to scholarship in clarifying two parallel streams of thought on marketing's role in value creation: value in use and value in exchange.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a literary analysis of some of Dixon's work that is often overlooked, and a discussion of its relevance to the services, channels and marketing strategy literature.
Findings
Dixon's distinction between the two streams of thought (“value in use” and “value in exchange”) clarifies an important aspect of marketing's intellectual heritage that has eluded the literature on services marketing, channels and marketing strategy. The consequences of this oversight are considerable.
Originality/value
The paper focuses on an aspect of Dixon's work that is underappreciated and not widely understood.
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Keywords
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000004780. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000004780. When citing the article, please cite: D.F. Dixon, I.F. Wilkinson, (1984), “An Alternative Paradigm for Marketing Theory”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18 Iss 3 pp. 40 - 50.
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.
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The purpose of this paper is to extend and apply the systems model of the household proposed by Dixon, his colleagues, and his students to situations in which vulnerable consumers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend and apply the systems model of the household proposed by Dixon, his colleagues, and his students to situations in which vulnerable consumers are not able to follow the purely rational models of economics. The case of homeless families is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a literature review, an introduction of Baker et al.'s concepts of consumer normalcy and consumer vulnerability, and an application of expanded model to consumer studies of homeless persons published by Ronald Hill and his colleagues.
Findings
The same household systems models might be used to unfold the complex problems that can undermine the functioning in a household, causing it to be unproductive and potentially fail. Applications of the concepts of “consumer normalcy” and “consumer vulnerability” provide a useful platform to develop public policy recommendations, the example of homeless persons will be considered as an illustration.
Research limitations/implications
The extension and application is limited in that it is applied to analyze data collected approximately 20 years ago. The research should be extended to actual homeless households in the present day, and to additional “types” of households who are likely to encounter vulnerabilities as consumers (e.g. persons with disabilities).
Practical implications
The four levels of household processes (employment, purchasing, home‐production, and consumption) provide a useful framework for examining households in which vulnerabilities occur. This approach is useful in identifying the gaps in the household processes that can slow down productivity and instead introduce confusion and demoralization, plus continue the spiral of economic deprivation.
Social implications
For over 50 years, the work of Goffman has played an important role in identifying individuals and households that did not fit societal norms, resulting in their possibly experiencing conditions of stigmatization. Examining specific household types in terms of the functionality or dysfunctionality of their use of inputs may allow researchers to recommend various types of support, training, or assistance related to the household as a system, rather than focusing on the individual without considering the household dynamics.
Originality/value
This paper takes a general systems approach in applying the concepts of consumer normalcy and consumer vulnerability, both based in behavioral theories in the social sciences, to the economic approach to the household emphasizing rational decision making and orderly production functions.