REVIEW ON THE EVOLUTION OF SCHOOLS OF MARKETING THOUGHT FROM 1980 – 2020

K. I. MORDI; B. N. DIXON-OGBECHI; P. K. A. LADIPO

K. I. MORDI Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
B. N. DIXON-OGBECHI Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
P. K. A. LADIPO Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Keywords: Marketing history, marketing theory, schools of marketing thought, desk research, descriptive research

Abstract

This paper reviewed the evolution of schools of marketing thought from 1980 -2020. It adopted a desk research design to review a sample of 67 out of a population of 150 scholarly journal articles using the purposive sampling approach. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and pictorial diagrams. The findings reveal that research interest on the schools of marketing thought experienced very little research attention from inception, but it experienced progressive growth from 2001 to date. It was also discovered that there have been 67 publications written by 38 single authors and 29 multiple authors on schools of marketing thoughts from 1980 - 2020. It was further discovered that the ideologies and philosophies of schools of marketing thought have impacted marketing scholarship and business practices. Based on this, it is recommended that editors of top-ranking journals should develop contemporary themes on the development of marketing thought to encourage more publications in this area.