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A Twenty-First Century Guide to Aldersonian Marketing ThoughtCompetition for Differential Advantage

A Twenty-First Century Guide to Aldersonian Marketing Thought: Competition for Differential... Chapter 9 COMPETITION FOR DIFFERENTIAL ADVANTAGE Wroe Alderson The application of ecology to marketing organizations provides a new starting point for the study of competition. It begins with the assumption of heterogeneity in the market as the normal or prevailing condition, rather than building on an assumption of homogeneity as the ideal condition. The emergence of relatively homogeneous conditions at certain stages of the competitive process is treated as a tendency which can be functionally useful for some aspects of marketing operations rather than as an essential aspect of effective competition. Starting as it does with an analysis of organized behavior systems, the functionalist approach tries to understand how competition of the prevailing type can contribute to the effective operation of behavior systems. This is in sharp contrast to the approach that starts with a competitive ideal and finds itself obliged to reduce behavior systems such as firms to bloodless and abstract entities because the going concern of real life does not fit the pattern. There is no desire, however, to detract from the great achievement of economists in developing their deductive analytical apparatus to the point where it approximates the view of competition which is obtained more directly http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Twenty-First Century Guide to Aldersonian Marketing ThoughtCompetition for Differential Advantage

Editors: Wooliscroft, Ben; Tamilia, Robert D.; Shapiro, Stanley J.
Alderson, Wroe
Springer Journals — Jan 1, 2006
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26 pages

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Publisher
Springer US
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006
ISBN
978-0-387-26175-1
Pages
115 –141
DOI
10.1007/0-387-28181-9_9
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

Chapter 9 COMPETITION FOR DIFFERENTIAL ADVANTAGE Wroe Alderson The application of ecology to marketing organizations provides a new starting point for the study of competition. It begins with the assumption of heterogeneity in the market as the normal or prevailing condition, rather than building on an assumption of homogeneity as the ideal condition. The emergence of relatively homogeneous conditions at certain stages of the competitive process is treated as a tendency which can be functionally useful for some aspects of marketing operations rather than as an essential aspect of effective competition. Starting as it does with an analysis of organized behavior systems, the functionalist approach tries to understand how competition of the prevailing type can contribute to the effective operation of behavior systems. This is in sharp contrast to the approach that starts with a competitive ideal and finds itself obliged to reduce behavior systems such as firms to bloodless and abstract entities because the going concern of real life does not fit the pattern. There is no desire, however, to detract from the great achievement of economists in developing their deductive analytical apparatus to the point where it approximates the view of competition which is obtained more directly

Published: Jan 1, 2006

Keywords: Operating Closure; Price Competition; Marketing Program; Marketing Channel; Pure Competition

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