Marketing Theory http://mtq.sagepub.com/ Theoretical and philosophical implications of postmodern debates: some challenges to modern marketing A. Fuat Firat and Nikhilesh Dholakia Marketing Theory 2006 6: 123 DOI: 10.1177/1470593106063981 The online version of this article can be found at: http://mtq.sagepub.com/content/6/2/123 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Marketing Theory can be found at: Email Alerts: http://mtq.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://mtq.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://mtq.sagepub.com/content/6/2/123.refs.html Downloaded from mtq.sagepub.com at SUFFOLK UNIV on March 24, 2011 Volume 6(2): 123–162 Copyright © 2006 SAGE www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/1470593106063981 articles Theoretical and philosophical implications of postmodern debates: some challenges to modern marketing A. Fuat Fırat University of Texas – Pan American Nikhilesh Dholakia University of Rhode Island, USA Abstract. Buffeted by the twin forces of postmodern cultural shifts and momentous technological developments, the conceptual structure of marketing that had crystal- lized during the 1960s and 1970s is being strained. This article analyses the impact of postmodernism and of new information technologies on the conceptual foundations of marketing. Six main areas of challenge are identified. Cases that illustrate the technology-driven cultural shifts, affecting the very foundation of marketing, are pre- sented. Key Words • business process • consumers • globalization • marketing organization • markets • modernity • post-consumer • postmodern Introduction Two major forces are contributing to what may be epochal changes in contempo- rary human history: unprecedented developments in several technologies and watershed transformations in culture. The cultural transformations have often been characterized as a shift from the modern to the postmodern. Technology- driven electronic methods of communicating and transacting are aiding and accelerating these ongoing cultural transformations, as well as being affected by them. Concepts of postmodern culture have continued to incite new perspectives and debates across social sciences, the humanities, and even the physical sciences (see, for example, Cilliers, 1998; Dickens and Fontana, 1994; Eco, 1986; Featherstone, 1991; Fekete, 1987; Gottdiener, 1995; Hassan, 1987; Kaplan, 1987; Jungerman and 123 Downloaded from mtq.sagepub.com at SUFFOLK UNIV on March 24, 2011 marketing theory 6(2) articles Cobb, 2000; Lash, 1990; Ross, 1988; Soja, 1997). Business disciplines – particularly organizational studies, marketing, and consumer research – have been influenced by these debates. Postmodern vernacular has seeped into the discourse of business disciplines, creating some challenges to traditional perspectives and injecting new ones (see, for example, Alvesson and Deetz, 1996; Boje and Dennehy, 1994; Calás and Smircich, 1999; Fırat et al., 1993/1994; Ogilvy, 1990). This article reconsiders these challenges and charts some possible new paths for marketing. Modern marketing found its identity in the second half of the 20th century. Basic principles that came to define modern marketing and its role in society emerged during these decades. Drawing inspiration from the pioneering market- ing theories of Alderson (1957, 1965), by the 1970s the marketing concept was formalized, crystallized, and enshrined at the heart of modern marketing (Bagozzi, 1975; Kotler, 1972). The marketing concept articulates the place of marketing in the modern order of things in human history. It prescribes the relationship that institutions are to have with their consumers and other stake- holders. This special type of relationship – market and customer orientation – has been extended to an ever-growing range of institutions: firms, non-profit entities, government agencies, the arts, and religion, among others (Kotler and Levy, 1969). The marketing concept has become the creed not just within the market- ing discipline but also in the popular exhortation of modern culture as a whole: Know and Serve Thy Customer (Urban, 2005)! Marketing orientation now infuses the discourse of politics, the way people relate to their employers and colleagues; indeed, the very modes in which people think about themselves (Andrusia and Haskins, 2000). Modern marketing constitutes a cultural corner- stone of contemporary modern social existence. The tremendous success of modern marketing cannot be overstated. Marketing has emerged as the principal mode of modern business relationships, and eventually as the mode of all relationships that all institutions have with their con- stituencies (or ‘markets’, as now widely used). In part, this success is due to the fact that the marketing concept captured the essence of modern culture and of democ- racy, possibly modern culture’s most valued institution. The idea of the sovereign citizen, with institutions serving citizens’ wishes, corresponds very well with the marketing concept. Modern marketing is, thus, the articulation of how modern institutions could fulfill the modern ideal: serving citizens (consumers in the marketing lexicon) in realizing their desires toward the betterment of human lives. It could be argued that modern marketing is modern culture par excellence. Its success in becoming – for all institutions – the principal mode of relating with their constituents is a testimony to the centrality of marketing in contemporary culture. While some departures from the traditional logic of marketing have appeared recently, possibly most forcefully by Vargo and Lusch (2004), the central princi- ples of modern marketing have never been challenged. Marketing is still viewed as a way of provisioning what consumers need – though now of services rather than of goods – in a fundamentally economic exchange framework (see, for example, Vargo and Lusch’s abstract). Yet, as the discussions below indicate, it is exactly these central principles of modern marketing that are being challenged. 124 Downloaded from mtq.sagepub.com at SUFFOLK UNIV on March 24, 2011 Implications of postmodern debates A. Fuat Fırat and Nikhilesh Dholakia It is therefore also understandable why, when postmodern ideas challenge the central principles of modern marketing, it is important for marketing academics and practitioners to grasp what these challenges are, and whether and how to deal with them. This article provides a roadmap for such understanding. It is divided into four parts: • First, for those not already very familiar with them, a very brief introduction is offered to postmodernism and the postmodern debates. • Next, six theoretical and philosophical implications of the modern-postmodern debates are articulated in terms of how they ‘problematize’ the nature of marketing practice, marketing theory, marketing organizations, and marketing relationships. • The emerging and potential responses of marketing to these challenges are considered next. In this section we present some new theoretical directions for marketing, along with support from practical cases. In particular, we discuss the increasingly important role of information technologies in the ongoing, post- modern reshaping of marketing. • Finally, we pull together the arguments and evidence presented in the article into working conclusions and sketch out the key research needs for the future. Figure 1 presents the overall schema of this article. The ensuing discussion pro- ceeds from a general examination of postmodern cultural tendencies to specific exploration of six areas of ‘problematization’ of the philosophical underpinnings of marketing, and then to transformations of marketing via technology. The com- bined impact of the cultural and technological changes is an ongoing redefinition of marketing. While only visible at its edges at present, the impacts could be momentous in the coming years. Postmodernism in a nutshell New, emergent sensibilities There are many dimensions to postmodernism and several contentions as to its character. The following is merely a sketch of a vast literature on this topic. Pertinent to this article, three aspects stand out in trying to define the post- modern. The postmodern entails: 1 Non-commitment to any single project, order, or way of being – thus, openness to difference; 2 Dawning of a sensibility that certain conditions – which were already always present in the modern, and even the premodern (but were suppressed or denied) – are acceptable and that it is okay to playfully and critically engage with these conditions; and 3 Concentration of attention on the present; rather than the past or the future. Although relatively new, the subject of postmodernism has evoked some debate 125 Downloaded from mtq.sagepub.com at SUFFOLK UNIV on March 24, 2011 marketing theory 6(2) articles Problematization of • Reality • Human nature • Consumption Postmodern cultural • Consumer tendencies • Organizations • Different • Communications Redefinitions of sensibilities • Markets • New conditions • Consumer and • Emerging consumer agency theaters • Marketing • Organization–customer relationships • Professional expertise Transformations of marketing • Everyday life • Distinct business activity to embedded cultural practice • Managed to collaborative • Centralized to diffused • Ordered to complex Figure 1 Overall conceptual framework of the article and discussion in marketing.