What the study found
The commentary argues that marketing is an integrated being-doing phenomenon shaped by social practices. It says marketing emerges through recurrent processes of value formation, resource integration, and promise orchestration within institutional contexts.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors conclude that grounding marketing in societal and practice-based realities can provide an institutionally informed ontology for research and practice. They also suggest this framing is relevant in the context of global, ecological, and socio-economic challenges.
What the researchers tested
This is an invited commentary responding to Christian Grönroos’s article about reorienting marketing around the phenomenon itself. The authors draw on philosophical debates about essence and action and on practice-theoretical perspectives.
What worked and what didn't
The commentary extends Grönroos’s provocation by proposing that marketing should not be treated as detached from practice. It further argues that restoring demand fulfilment requires deeper engagement with the institutional and sociocultural forces that shape demand, and it proposes three domains: relational value creation in use, integrated promise orchestration, and institutional governance of market practices.
What to keep in mind
The abstract presents a conceptual commentary rather than an empirical study, so no data, sample, or experiment is described. Specific limitations are not described in the available summary.
Key points
- Marketing is presented as a being-doing phenomenon constituted through social practices.
- The authors link marketing to value formation, resource integration, and promise orchestration.
- They argue that demand fulfilment should be understood in relation to institutional and sociocultural forces.
- Three proposed lenses are relational value creation in use, integrated promise orchestration, and institutional governance of market practices.
- The piece is an invited commentary, not an empirical study.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- Marketing is framed as a social practice phenomenon
- Authors:
- Anu Helkkula, Eric J. Arnould
- Institutions:
- Aalto University, Hanken School of Economics
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-21
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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