The Nexus of Knowledge, Action, and Values, and the Philosophical, Social, and Normative Foundations of Marketing

Abstract

Pressing global problems place demands on scientific communities in terms of responsibility and accountability that require a discipline to make use of its capacity to act and the policies that can be developed on the basis of scientific knowledge. With a particular focus on values, the paper examines four areas or dimensions that determine the scope for action in the scientific context and thus influence the way in which scientific communities can assume responsibility. The analysis is based on a model rooted in the values-in-science literature, which specifies steering, doing, using, and managing science as the main scientific processes in which values can relate to science. Using the example of the intra-disciplinary division between macromarketing and micromarketing, the paper compares scientific processes in a world given by the nexus of knowledge, action, and values with a world in which values are primarily seen as a threat to science. Against this background, the preconditions for a proper positioning of the marketing discipline and marketing policy are explained.