PhD Seminar in Marketing Strategy
MKTG 970
Spring 2010
Professor George S. Day, dayg@wharton.upenn.edu
Professor Christophe Van den Bulte, vdbulte@wharton.upenn.edu
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Objective
This PhD seminar is designed to help students understand the role of marketing within the
organization, its business strategy, and its success. It exposes students to the main issues in
marketing strategy and marketing strategy research, and helps them critically evaluate both
fundamental ideas and more recent developments.
The course focuses on five themes:
1. The role of marketing within the organization
- Stakeholder theory and exchange theory
- Market orientation and organizational culture
- The place of marketing/ers within organizations
2. Market dynamics
- Product life cycle and industry life cycle dynamics
- Institutionalization, network effects and other endogenous feedback processes
3. Sustainable competitive advantage
- Resource-based theory of the firm
- Pioneering advantage
- Innovation and New Product Development
4. Managing relations with the external environment
- Channel design and coordination
- Networks of collaboration
- Customer relationship management and outcomes
5. Metrics
- Brand equity
- Impact of marketing on shareholder value
These themes were chosen to achieve complementarity and limit overlap with other doctoral
courses in marketing at Wharton. The same holds for the research perspectives conveyed through
the readings. This explains why some important topics and research streams in marketing
strategy, such as game-theoretical or structural-econometric analyses of competitive interaction,
fall outside the scope of this course.
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Pedagogy
The course uses a weekly seminar discussion format requiring each participant to be actively
involved in each session. You will be assigned readings to present or critique, but all participants
will be expected to have read every paper. So, be prepared to discuss each article in depth and to
present ideas about the contributions, limitations, and extensions of each paper. Extensions can
include straight-line extensions of the work or more innovative linkages with others papers or
literatures.
For each of the sessions 1 through 13, you must submit a one-page note (double space) focusing
on one research idea that emanates from the week’s readings. The purpose of these assignments
is to encourage you to think generatively while reading. These memos will be due at the
beginning of each class.
Students must also develop and submit a term paper addressing an important issue in marketing
strategy. It will comprise a research question that is grounded in the relevant literature, a
motivation for studying the question, and a proposal for investigating it. The proposed research
could take the form of an analytical model with a well-specified structure or an empirical study
involving an experiment, quasi-experiment, survey, analysis of secondary data, or meta-analysis.
The paper will be due on the last day of the exam period. During the last class, each student will
make a 10 minute presentation (followed by several minutes of Q&A) of their proposed study.
Students will be assessed based on class contributions (20%), the 13 weekly one-page research
idea notes (30%), and the term paper (50%).
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List of Readings
Week 1: The Role of Marketing within Business Strategy (January 19)
Anderson, Paul F. (1982), “Marketing, Strategic Planning and the Theory of the Firm,” Journal
of Marketing, 46 (2), 15-26.
Quelch, John A. and Katherine Jocz (2008), “Milestones in Marketing,” Business History
Review, 82 (Winter), 827-838.
Day, George S. and David B. Montgomery (1999), “Charting New Directions for Marketing,”
Journal of Marketing, 63 (4), 3-13.
Mintzberg, Henry (1987), “The Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy,” California
Management Review, 30 (1), 11-24.
Siggelkow, Nicolaj (2001), “Change in the Presence of Fit: The Rise, the Fall, and the
Renaissance of Liz Claiborne,” Academy of Management Journal, 44 (4), 838-857.
Week 2: The Role of Marketing within the Organization (January 26)
Kohli, Ajay K. and Bernard J. Jaworski (1990), “Market Orientation: The Construct, Research
Propositions, and Managerial Implications,” Journal of Marketing, 54 (2), 1-18.
Kirca, Ahmet H., Satish Jayachandran, and William O. Bearden (2005), “Market Orientation: A
Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of Its Antecedents and Impact on Performance,”
Journal of Marketing, 69 (2), 24-41.
Gobhardt, Gary F., Gregory Carpenter R., John F. Sherry Jr. (2006), “Creating a Market
Orientation: A Longitudinal, Multifirm, Grounded Analysis of Cultural Transformation,”
Journal of Marketing, 70 (October), 37-55.
Workman, John P., Jr. (1993), “Marketing's Limited Role in New Product Development in One
Computer Systems Firm,” Journal of Marketing Research, 30 (4), 405-421.
Webster, Frederick E., Jr., Alan J. Malter and Shankar Ganesan (2005), “The Decline and
Dispersion of Marketing Competence,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 46 (4), 35-43.
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Week 3: Market Definition, Market Segmentation, and Product Differentiation (February
2)
Levitt, Theodore (1960), “Marketing Myopia,” Harvard Business Review, 38 (4), 45-56.
Day, George S., Allan D. Shocker, and Rajendra K. Srivastava (1979), “Customer-Oriented
Approaches to Identifying Product Markets,” Journal of Marketing, 43 (4), 8-19.
Rosa, Jose Antonio, Joseph F. Porac, Jelena Russer-Spanjol and Michael S. Saxon (1999),
“Sociocognitive Dynamics in a Product Market,” Journal of Marketing 63 (Special Issue),
64-77.
Wind, Yoram (1980), “Issues and Advances in Segmentation Research,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 15 (3), 317-337.
Mitra, Anusree and John G. Lynch, Jr. (1995), “Toward a Reconciliation of Market Power and
Information Theories of Advertising Effects on Price Elasticity,” Journal of Consumer
Research, 21 (4), 644-659.
Week 4: Product and Industry Life Cycle Dynamics (February 9)
Levitt, Theodore (1965), “Exploit the Product Life Cycle,” Harvard Business Review, 43 (6), 8194.
DeBruicker, F. Stewart and Gregory L. Summe (1985), “Make Sure Your Customers Keep
Coming Back,” Harvard Business Review, 63 (1), 92-98.
Lambkin, Mary and George S. Day (1989), “Evolutionary Processes in Competitive Markets:
Beyond the Product Life Cycle,” Journal of Marketing, 53 (3), 4-20.
Agarwal, Rajshree and Barry L. Bayus (2002), “The Market Evolution and Sales Takeoff of
Product Innovations,” Management Science, 48 (8), 1024-1041.
Sood, Ashish and Gerard J. Tellis (2005), “Technological Evolution and Radical Innovation,”
Journal of Marketing, 69 (3), 152-168.
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Week 5: Institutionalization and Network Effects (February 16)
DiMaggio, Paul J. and Walter W. Powell (1983), “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional
Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” American Sociological
Review, 48 (2), 147-160.
Zuckerman, Ezra W. (1999), “The Categorical Imperative: Securities Analysts and the
Illegitimacy Discount,” American Journal of Sociology, 104 (5), 1398-1438.
Debruyne, Marion and David J. Reibstein (2005), “Competitor See, Competitor Do: Incumbent
Entry in New Market Niches,” Marketing Science, 24 (1), 55-66.
Arthur, W. Brian (1996), “Increasing Returns and the New World of Business,” Harvard
Business Review, 74 (4), 100-109.
Fleder, Daniel and Kartik Hosanagar (2009), “Blockbuster Culture’s Next Rise or Fall: The
Impact of Recommender Systems on Sales Diversity,” Management Science, forthcoming.
Week 6: Sustainable Competitive Advantage – Resource-based View (February 23)
Barney, Jay (1990), “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage,” Journal of
Management, 17 (1), 99-120.
March, James G. (1991), “Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning,”
Organization Science, 2 (1), 71-87.
Sinkula, James M. (1994), “Market Information Processing and Organizational Learning,”
Journal of Marketing, 58 (1), 35-45.
Day, George S. (1994), “The Capabilities of Market-driven Organizations,” Journal of
Marketing, 58 (4), 37-52.
Vorhies, Douglas W. and Neil A. Morgan (2005), “Benchmarking Marketing Capabilities for
Sustainable Competitive Advantage,” Journal of Marketing, 69 (1), 80-94.
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Week 7: Sustainable Competitive Advantage – Pioneering Advantage (March 2)
Urban, Glen L., Theresa Carter, Steven Gaskin, and Zofia Mucha (1986), “Market Share
Rewards to Pioneering Brands: An Empirical Analysis and Strategic Implications,”
Management Science, 32 (6), 645-359.
Carpenter, Gregaory S. and Kent Nakamoto (1989), “Consumer Preference Formation and
Pioneering Advantage,” Journal of Marketing Research, 26 (3), 285-298.
Kardes, Frank R., Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, Murali Chandrashekaran, and Ronald J. Dornoff
(1993), “Brand Retrieval, Consideration Set Composition, Consumer Choice, and the
Pioneering Advantage,” Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (1), 62-75.
Golder, Peter N. and Gerard J. Tellis (1993), “Pioneer Advantage: Marketing Logic or Marketing
Legend?” Journal of Marketing Research, 30 (2), 158-170.
Boulding, William and Markus Christen (2003), “Sustainable Pioneering Advantage? Profit
Implications of Market Entry Order,” Marketing Science, 22 (3), 371-392.
Week 8: Innovation and New Product Development (March 16)
Goldenberg, Jacob, David Mazursky, and Sorin Solomon (1999), “Toward Identifying the
Inventive Templates of New Products: A Channeled Ideation Approach,” Journal of
Marketing Research, 36 (May) 200-210.
Yadav, Majit S., Jaideep C. Prabhu and Rajesh K. Chandy (2007), “Managing the Future: CEO
Attention and Innovation Outcomes,” Journal of Marketing, 71 (October), 84-1-4.
Chandy, Rajesh, Brigitte Hopstaken, Om Narasimhan, and Jaideep Prabhu (2006), “From
Invention to Innovation: Conversion Ability in Product Development,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 43 (August), 494-508.
Special Issue on the Effects of Disruptive Technology (2006) Journal of Product Innovation
Management, 23 (January):
1. Markides, Constantinos, “Descriptive Innovation: In Need of a Better Theory”.
2. Tellis, Gerard, “Disruptive Technology or Visionary Leadership”.
3. Christensen, Clayton, “The Ongoing Process of Building a Theory of Disruption”.
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Week 9: Channel Design and Transaction Cost Theory (March 23)
Anderson, Erin (1985), “The Salesperson as Outside Agent or Employee: A Transaction Cost
Analysis,” Marketing Science, 4 (3), 234-254.
Geroski, Paul and Tassos Vlassopoulos (1991), “The Rise and Fall of a Market Leader: Frozen
Foods in the U.K.,” Strategic Management Journal, 12 (6), 467-478.
Muris, Timothy J., David T. Scheffman, and Pablo T. Spiller (1992), “Strategy and Transaction
Costs: The Organization of Distribution in the Carbonated Soft Drink Industry,” Journal of
Economics & Management Strategy, 1 (1), 83-128.
Rindfleisch, Aric and Jan B. Heide (1997), “Transaction Cost Analysis: Past, Present, and Future
Applications,” Journal of Marketing, 61 (4), 30-54.
Week 10: Channel Coordination and Social Network Theory (March 30)
Van den Bulte, Christophe and Stefan Wuyts (2007), “Social Capital,” Chapter 3 in Social
Networks and Marketing, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.
Van den Bulte, Christophe and Stefan Wuyts (2007), “Inter-organizational Networks,” Chapter 6
in Social Networks and Marketing, Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute.
Uzzi, Brian (1997), “Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of
Embeddedness,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 42 (1), 35-67.
Bradach, Jeffrey L. (1997), “Using the Plural Form in the Management of Restaurant Chains,”
Administrative Science Quarterly, 42 (2), 276-303.
Wuyts, Stefan, Stefan Stremersch, Christophe Van den Bulte and Philip Hans Franses (2004),
“Vertical Marketing Systems for Complex Products: A Triadic Perspective,” Journal of
Marketing Research, 41 (4), 479-487.
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Week 11: Brand Equity (April 6)
Dawar, Niraj (2004), “What Are Brands Good For?” MIT Sloan Management Review, 46 (1), 3137.
Keller, Kevin Lane (1993), “Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand
Equity,” Journal of Marketing, 57 (1), 1-22.
Ailawadi, Kusum L., Scott A. Neslin, and Donald R. Lehmann (2003), “Revenue Premium as an
Outcome Measure of Brand Equity,” Journal of Marketing, 67 (4), 1-17.
Srinivasan, V., Chan Su Park and Dae Ryun Chang (2005), “An Approach to the Measurement,
Analysis, and Prediction of Brand Equity and Its Sources,” Management Science, 51 (9),
1433-1448.
Mizik, Natalie and Robert Jacobson (2008), “The Financial Value Impact of Perceptual Brand
Attributes,” Journal of Marketing Research, 45 (1), 15-32.
Week 12: Customer Relationship Management and Outcomes
Rangan, V. Kasturi, Rowland T. Moriarty, and Gordon S. Swartz (1992), “Segmenting
Customers in Mature Industrial Markets,” Journal of Marketing, 56 (4), 72-82.
Reinartz, Werner J. And V. Kumar (2000), “On the Profitability of Long-Life Customers in a
Noncontractual Setting: An Empirical Investigation and Implications for Marketing,” Journal
of Marketing, 64 (4), 17-35.
Gupta, Sunil, Donald R. Lehmann, and Jennifer Ames Stuart (2004), “Valuing Customers,”
Journal of Marketing Research, 41 (1), 7-18.
Kumar, V., Rajkumar Venkatesan, Tim Bohling, and Denise Beckmann (2008), “The Power of
CLV: Managing Customer Lifetime Value at IBM,” Marketing Science, 27 (4), 585-599.
Keiningham, Timothy L., Bruce Cooil, Tor Wallin Andreassen, and Lerzan Aksoy (2007), “A
Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth,” Journal of
Marketing, 71 (3), 39-51.
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Week 13: The Impact of Marketing on Shareholder Value (April 20)
Srivastava, Rajenda K., Tasadduq A. Shervani, and Liam Fahey (1999), “Marketing, Business
Processes and Shareholder Value: An Organizationally Embedded View of Marketing
Activities and the Discipline of Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 168-79.
Srinivasan, Shuba and Dominique M. Hanssens, “Marketing and Firm Value: Metrics, Methods,
Findings, and Future Directions” (2009), Journal of Marketing Research, (June), 293-312.
Gruca, Thomas S. and Lopo L. Rego (2005), “Customer Satisfaction, Cash Flow, and
Shareholder Value,” Journal of Marketing, 69 (3), 115-130.
McAlister, Leigh, Raji Srinivasan, and MinChung Kim (2007), “Advertising, Research and
Development, and Systematic Risk of the Firm,” Journal of Marketing, 71 (1), 35-48.
Natalie Mizik and Robert Jacobson (2003), “Trading Off Between Value Creation and Value
Appropriation: The Financial Implications of Shifts in Strategic Emphasis” Journal of
Marketing (January), 63-76.
Week 14: Student Presentations (April 27)
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