1. Marketing as a Research Domain(s)
Marketing is a complex, multilayered, and dynamic
social phenomenon. Traditionally, the core or “basic
substance matter” of marketing (Hunt, 1991) has been
viewed as the exchange relationship and its context
(Bagozzi 1974, 1979; Hunt 1976, 1983). What brings
complexity to this core is the embedded character of
marketing exchange manifested, for example, in the
Sheth, Gardner, and Garrett (1988) “Marketing Theory”
monograph, in the fundamental explananda proposition
of marketing by Shelby Hunt (1983), and in the layered
conceptualization of Möller and Wilson (1995)
examining the character of business markets and
marketing, as well as in the so-called post-positivistic
views of marketing. Drawing on these sources,
marketing as a research domain seems to consist of
several interrelated layers: