There are two historical issues in marketing that have not been sorted out: the power of marketing in the strategies of big companies, and the relevance of the discipline. These issues became more important in the globalization era because of the enhancement of asymmetries within the market and the academy. The article shows that the low power of marketing within the big company was a central topic for research in the domain of marketing strategy and that the concept of market orientation weakened the interest on this domain as from the early 1990s. The author argues that in order to overcome this problem it is necessary not just going against the dominant academy, but also understanding sociohistorical interests and mechanisms that shape the area in the U.S. In the end the article provides suggestions for the development of a Brazilian research agenda on marketing strategy.
Marketing strategy; market orientation; marketing history; sociology of knowledge; critical management studies