Abstract
The theory of the marketing firm locates the rationale of the modern business enterprise that lies in its responding profitably to the imperatives of marketing orientation. Economic theories of the firm generally fail to recognize these imperatives, enhanced consumer choice and sophistication, which entail marketing orientation as the rationale of the firm. The paper propose a competence theory of the firm as a metacontingency and examines the bilateral contingencies by which firms link to their consumerates, which indicate their capacities for customer orientation. The marketing firm emerges as a means of encapsulating entrepreneurship, economizing on transaction costs, and enabling the management of marketing specialization.
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.
Adam Smith. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Methuen amp; Co (Book IV, chapter 8, 49)
1 INTRODUCTION
Theories of the firm are preoccupied with what firms are and why they exist. At its simplest, in the neoclassical conception, a firm is a production function; at perhaps its most complex, it is a nexus of contractual and noncontractual relationships, multilateral interactions, and systems of communication and authority. The idea of the firm in economic theory conveys a unit that produces rather than consumes, as compared with the household which consumes but does not produce: Between them, they provide a means of coordination consisting of “impersonally determined market prices and personally defined tastes” (Demsetz, 2014, p. 8.) It is entirely possible that a firm in this sense could be a one‐person operation rather than an organization1; in which case, the question transforms into that of explaining why firms‐as‐organizations exist and accomplish what they do. As Penrose (2009, p. 31) portrays it, the firm is more than “a collection of productive resources”: It is also “an administrative organization.”2 Recognizing that it is an administrative organization, the raison decirc;tre of which is the profitable satisfaction of consumer wants; this paper seeks the rationale of the contemporary firm in an environment that predominantly comprises marketing considerations. For the critical issue is how production and consumption interact.
Although it would be facile to imagine that economists have ignored the consumers being the mainspring of productive activity, theories of the firm seem often to permit this observation no more than the status of a foundational truism rather than that of a central explanatory component. Yet what Adam Smith said so elegantly almost two and a half centuries ago is now of enhanced significance, for the contemporary firm faces competitive and demand conditions that stem from unprecedented levels of consumer choice and consumer sophistication. As a result, its rationale, modus operandi, and effect must be understood in their light. This is the task of the theory of the marketing firm.
No current economic theory of the firm is based on the understanding that the consumer interest is paramount or that marketing‐oriented management is the justification of the business, and why, or that recognizes marketing transactions as the central defining characteristic of the firm. No economic theory recognizes that the modern firm is a metacontingency whose output is the marketing mix and that upon this rests its fortunes, and certainly no theory attempts to trace the implications of the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management. A theory of the marketing firm must, in addition to recognizing the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management, explain what it is that marketing firms do that makes them distinctive both from other concepts of the firm and from organizations not designated firms at all. Whereas the account of the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management is descriptive of the conditions that modern firms face, the account of what marketing firms do that follows recounts the managerial and strategic requirements that such firms would have to fulfill in order to survive and prosper under these conditions. It does not seek to put forward a blueprint for corporate action: That is the job of performance theories that trace the fortunes of actual companies as they operationalize the necessity to respond appropriately to the imperatives. Rather, it is an idealized account of the action appropriate to the demands of marketing‐oriented management, a portrayal of the knowledge and decisions that the firm would require in order to fulfill its strategic obligations. Nor is it, therefore, a logical microeconomic theory (e.g., Rubinstein, 2012), any more than a guide to managerial action, but a behavioral‐economic theory of essential managerial competence informed by behavioral knowledge of how firms and consumers operate.
As an economic‐psychological approach3 to the understanding of modern business enterprise responding to economic and social conditions that mandate customer or marketing orientation as a philosophy of corporate behavior,4 the theory of the marketing firm seeks to elucidate why there are firms, the nature of their boundaries, and how they should be organized by reference to these conditions and the imperatives they place on those responsible for their strategic management. Its disciplinary base includes the economics of transaction costs (Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1975, 1985), principal and agent interaction and the firm as an assemblage of contacts (Alchian amp; Demsetz, 1972; Jensen amp; Meckling, 1976), entrepreneurship (e.g., Holcombe, 2007; Kirzner, 1973; Sautet, 2000), productive specialization (e.g., Bylund, 2016), information encapsulation (e.g., Holcombe, 2013, 2014), and the separation theory of the firm (Spulber, 2009a). This microeconomic
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文献翻译
Gordon R. Foxall. The theory of the marketing firm[J]. Managerial and Decision Economics,2020,41(2)
原文：Abstract
The theory of the marketing firm locates the rationale of the modern business enterprise that lies in its responding profitably to the imperatives of marketing orientation. Economic theories of the firm generally fail to recognize these imperatives, enhanced consumer choice and sophistication, which entail marketing orientation as the rationale of the firm. The paper propose a competence theory of the firm as a metacontingency and examines the bilateral contingencies by which firms link to their consumerates, which indicate their capacities for customer orientation. The marketing firm emerges as a means of encapsulating entrepreneurship, economizing on transaction costs, and enabling the management of marketing specialization.
Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.
Adam Smith. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Methuen amp; Co (Book IV, chapter 8, 49)
1 INTRODUCTION
Theories of the firm are preoccupied with what firms are and why they exist. At its simplest, in the neoclassical conception, a firm is a production function; at perhaps its most complex, it is a nexus of contractual and noncontractual relationships, multilateral interactions, and systems of communication and authority. The idea of the firm in economic theory conveys a unit that produces rather than consumes, as compared with the household which consumes but does not produce: Between them, they provide a means of coordination consisting of “impersonally determined market prices and personally defined tastes” (Demsetz, 2014, p. 8.) It is entirely possible that a firm in this sense could be a one‐person operation rather than an organization1; in which case, the question transforms into that of explaining why firms‐as‐organizations exist and accomplish what they do. As Penrose (2009, p. 31) portrays it, the firm is more than “a collection of productive resources”: It is also “an administrative organization.”2 Recognizing that it is an administrative organization, the raison decirc;tre of which is the profitable satisfaction of consumer wants; this paper seeks the rationale of the contemporary firm in an environment that predominantly comprises marketing considerations. For the critical issue is how production and consumption interact.
Although it would be facile to imagine that economists have ignored the consumers being the mainspring of productive activity, theories of the firm seem often to permit this observation no more than the status of a foundational truism rather than that of a central explanatory component. Yet what Adam Smith said so elegantly almost two and a half centuries ago is now of enhanced significance, for the contemporary firm faces competitive and demand conditions that stem from unprecedented levels of consumer choice and consumer sophistication. As a result, its rationale, modus operandi, and effect must be understood in their light. This is the task of the theory of the marketing firm.
No current economic theory of the firm is based on the understanding that the consumer interest is paramount or that marketing‐oriented management is the justification of the business, and why, or that recognizes marketing transactions as the central defining characteristic of the firm. No economic theory recognizes that the modern firm is a metacontingency whose output is the marketing mix and that upon this rests its fortunes, and certainly no theory attempts to trace the implications of the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management. A theory of the marketing firm must, in addition to recognizing the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management, explain what it is that marketing firms do that makes them distinctive both from other concepts of the firm and from organizations not designated firms at all. Whereas the account of the imperatives of marketing‐oriented management is descriptive of the conditions that modern firms face, the account of what marketing firms do that follows recounts the managerial and strategic requirements that such firms would have to fulfill in order to survive and prosper under these conditions. It does not seek to put forward a blueprint for corporate action: That is the job of performance theories that trace the fortunes of actual companies as they operationalize the necessity to respond appropriately to the imperatives. Rather, it is an idealized account of the action appropriate to the demands of marketing‐oriented management, a portrayal of the knowledge and decisions that the firm would require in order to fulfill its strategic obligations. Nor is it, therefore, a logical microeconomic theory (e.g., Rubinstein, 2012), any more than a guide to managerial action, but a behavioral‐economic theory of essential managerial competence informed by behavioral knowledge of how firms and consumers operate.
As an economic‐psychological approach3 to the understanding of modern business enterprise responding to economic and social conditions that mandate customer or marketing orientation as a philosophy of corporate behavior,4 the theory of the marketing firm seeks to elucidate why there are firms, the nature of their boundaries, and how they should be organized by reference to these conditions and the imperatives they place on those responsible for their strategic management. Its disciplinary base includes the economics of transaction costs (Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1975, 1985), principal and agent interaction and the firm as an assemblage of contacts (Alchian amp; Demsetz, 1972; Jensen amp; Meckling, 1976), entrepreneurship (e.g., Holcombe, 2007; Kirzner, 1973; Sautet, 2000), product
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