This thought--provoking book chronicles the evolution of marketing theories and the rationales behind them. The authors present a typology for the twelve schools of marketing thought, and describe a comprehensive metatheoretical framework based on six basic criteria.

Resurgence of Interest in Marketing Theory. The Era of Turbulent Transition. Framework for the Book. Metatheory Criteria for the Evaluation of Theories. NONINTERACTIVE-ECONOMIC SCHOOLS OF MARKETING. The Commodity School of Thought. The Functional School of Thought. The Regional School of Thought. INTERACTIVE-ECONOMIC SCHOOLS OF MARKETING. The Institutional School of Thought. The Functionalist School of Thought. The Managerial School of Thought. NONINTERACTIVE-NONECONOMIC SCHOOLS OF MARKETING. The Buyer Behavior School of Thought. The Activist School of Thought. The Macromarketing School of Thought. INTERACTIVE-NONECONOMIC SCHOOLS OF MARKETING. The Organizational Dynamics School of Thought. The Systems School of Thought. The Social Exchange School of Thought. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED. Is Marketing a Science or, at Best, a Standardized Art? What Is, or Should Be, the Relationship between Marketing andSociety? Is It Really Possible to Create a General Theory ofMarketing? REFERENCES.