The Roles of Marketing Managers and Marketing in the Development of Organizations

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER 04: DISCUSSION1

Strategy Implementation Research in Marketing1

The Role of the Marketing Manager in Strategy Implementation4

Role Theory4

Managerial Cognition6

The Strategic Role of the Marketing Manager7

Role Theory8

Managerial Cognition and Strategy Implementation12

Cognitive Simplification Processes in Implementation14

Commitment16

CHAPTER 05: CONCLUSION20

Review of the Study21

Recommendations23

Conclusion25

REFERENCES27

CHAPTER 04: DISCUSSION

Strategy Implementation Research in Marketing

Strategy implementation has received minimal attention in the marketing literature. While implementation has generally been noted as an element of comprehensive models of strategic marketing planning processes, the treatment of implementation in these models has often lacked a great deal of depth. Aguinis (2005) focus on control and monitoring as synonymous with implementation. Zablah (2004) also equates implementation with control but adds the development of action plans as an important element of implementation. Wyner (2008) presents one of the few perspectives to give extensive attention to the implementation element of marketing strategy. He stresses the dangers of dichotomizing formulation and implementation within the organization, emphasizing the need for a more empowered view of strategy in the organization. In general, the extant models of marketing management processes provide relatively few insights into the sources of implementation success or failure(Aguinis 2005 pp.160).

While past work is limited, some research in marketing has focused directly on implementation or has studied strategy formulation with insights suggested regarding the nature of implementation. Allen (2007) makes the distinction between structural elements of the organization such as the company's marketing functions, control systems and policy directives and behavioral factors related to the marketing managers charged with implementing a strategy. Woodall (2007) consider the application of resources to a strategy as tantamount to implementation. Anderson (2003) presents a vision of the near future in which firms retain only their core competencies and have partner firms perform other functions in which they are particularly skilled. In this view, marketers, as key boundary spanners, are important cogs in the implementation of strategies. Williams (2007) concurs with this belief in marketing's increasingly important boundary spanning role and describes it as necessary for successful implementation.

Several conceptual treatises on the implementation of marketing strategies have been put forth. One of the first theoretically-grounded treatments of marketing's role in strategy implementation was Backhaus (2004) constituency-based theory of ...