Journal of Macromarketing

The role of social responsibility within business has been debated for decades. It appears that there is a growing understanding that doing the right thing for society can not only be good for business but is also a responsibility of the modern corporation. Causes, corporations, and society have benefited from corporate involvement with social issues. However, it also appears that in some cases, there may be potential pitfalls associated with merging social and corporate objectives. The “overcommercialization” of some activities designed to benefit society may in fact harm those that these activities are trying to help. This article examines potential pitfalls associated with cause-related marketing and provides recommendations for reducing the potential negative consequences.

This study provides a historical survey of the research on ethnic minority consumers and related marketing issues and includes more than two hundred articles and books dated from 1932 to 1997. Quantitative analyses of longitudinal data reveal several historical transitions and the amount of research activities in various subject areas, thus providing an overview of the history and recent development in this area. Content analyses identify the key research topics, theoretical propositions, and empirical findings. It further explores directions for future research and provides suggestions for marketing educators, researchers, and practitioners.

Internationalization of services has gained a great momentum in recent years. This article examines the prospects for developing countries in the international marketing of services. It analyzes past trends of service exports of developing countries and projects these to the year 2010. The projection was based on dynamic shift share analysis. The results show that the market share of developing countries will increase steadily up to the year 2010 in travel, financial, and communications services but will tend to decrease in transport services. A major policy implication of these findings is that developing countries need to change their priorities—from exports of primary commodities and soft manufactures to those of services—if they are to compete effectively in the international market and thrive economically in the twenty-first century. Specific policy initiatives that are required to achieve this goal are discussed.

Emerging markets are often viewed as the source of greatest business expansion in coming years. Yet, their economies tend to be more volatile, and the associated economic crises are deeper and more prolonged than is the case in advanced economies. This study examines consumer disposition processes in Thailand at the time of that nation’s economic crisis. Disposition has not been studied either in an emerging market context or in the context of consumers faced with crises derived from macroeconomic forces. The study examines sellers’ motives and behavior at a retail institution that arose spontaneously out of the Thai economic crisis: the car boot sale (CBS). This institution and its variants are well known in the United States and United Kingdom but had not existed as acceptable upper-middle and upper-class retail formats in Thailand prior to the crisis. The study also examines the Thai CBS phenomenon in cultural terms.

This article examines the career of Norman S. B. Gras, who helped to found the field of business history in the United States. The nineteenth-century background that shaped the broader domain of economic history is initially considered, and then attention is given to Gras’s development as a scholar and the numerous difficulties associated with the establishment of business history as an area of academic endeavor.

Judaism, which relies on the Torah for its written law, has had a great impact on marketing and business. The Torah is replete with precepts dealing with business, and the Talmud, the source of Jewish oral law, elaborates and expands Torah law. The process is ongoing, and rabbinical authorities today build on the decisions of their predecessors to apply Jewish law to modern problems. Some of the issues examined in this article include honesty in the marketplace, fair pricing, employer-employee relations, and environmental issues. Jewish law is not only concerned with practical legal advice but in encouraging individuals to go beyond the requirements of the law and practice the “way of the pious.” Judaism does not have a negative attitude toward business and wealth—indeed, most of the Talmudic sages had occupations, and some were quite wealthy—but riches must be acquired honestly and used to help the poor, the needy, and the stranger.

Two decades ago, (macro)marketing researchers awoke to the hedonic and experiential aspects of consumption—sometimes known as fantasies, feelings, or fun or the “three Fs.” More recent literature has further extended our view toward a broadened recognition of “four Es”—experience, entertainment, exhibitionism, and evangelizing. This essay presents the second in a three-installment series reviewing each of the four Es—namely, part 3 on exhibitionism.