Austrian economics as a basis for a general marketing theory

Meer over het boek

In the field of marketing a number of theories compete for recognition, academic support and theoretical credibility. There are e.g. approaches from such diverse fields as economics, psychology and sociology. All in all, research on marketing is highly fragmented. The work at hand is a study on possibilities and obstacles of promoting "Austrian economics" - which emphasises the coordinating role of information (mostly via price-signals) in dynamic markets - as a general marketing-theory. At first, this thesis describes different concepts and problems toward marketing and marketing-theory. Then, epistemological principles and criteria towards marketing theories are discussed and the properties of Austrian economics in regard to marketing are shown. In the second half the epistemological criteria are applied on Austrian economics. In a Popperian framework Austrian economics suffers from certain weaknesses. Its immunization tendencies are an obstacle to empirical testing of its assumptions. However, Austrian economics offers important insights: Especially the descriptive and explicative properties of Austrian economics that are fruitful for marketing-theory. Without marketing, the market process would come to a halt in a state of disequilibrium. It is the informational role of marketing that improves the choices of alert consumers.