A review of empirical studies of aggregate marketing costs and productivity in the United States
This article reviews empirical studies of aggregate marketing cost and aggregate marketing productivity in the United States. A methodological comparison is made of five cost studies for 1929 and seven productivity studies covering a period from 1869 to 1968. The cost studies do not clarify—one way or the other—if marketing costs too much or too little. The productivity studies, on the other hand, despite a variety of methodologies, reveal a rising secular trend over the past century. Thus, it may be concluded that irrespective of changes in cost, marketing is becoming more productive.
The Forum: The Puzzle of Marketing Costs
BY the mid 192o's considerable information was available showing that the cost of marketing goods was approximately equal to the cost of their production. Census figures indicated that many more workers were engaged in marketing and that the proportion of those engaged in marketing had been increasing for several years. Available figures suggested that more capital was used in producing than in marketing goods and that many of the workers engaged in marketing were employed in retailing at relatively low wages.1 This presented a puzzle. If a great many more people were engaged in production than in marketing, we would expect the cost of production to exceed the cost of marketing; but the figures indicated that this was not the case. Some early teachers and writers reasoned that the cost of marketing had been very low when production was less specialized and that this cost had risen along with the increase in the division of labor and in the distances between buyers and sellers. In 1935· Lough and Gainsbrugh2 presented material showing that the cost of distributing manufactured goods through wholesale and retail channels decreased from 3i.4 per cent of retail value in 19091914 to 29.9 per cent in 1931 and that the cost of distributing all consumers' commodities through these channels declined
Socially responsible enterprise in Cuba: a positive role model for Corporate Social Responsibility?’
This article examines the unique institutional environment of socialist Cuba, where currently a process of controlled marketization and expansion of private enterprise is taking place. The article investigates business behaviour in Cuba with particular reference to implicit assumptions relating to socially responsible enterprise, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the term is understood in Western Liberal Democracies. It draws upon a series of interviews with business practitioners and business commentators (both Cuban and non-Cuban residents on the island). The interviews focused on the participants’ awareness of business ethics and socially responsible enterprise, and the cultural differences in assumptions and expectations relating to the concept of CSR between the Cuban and non-Cuban interviewees. We find that Cuba at this early stage of tentative marketization presents a positive role model of socially responsible enterprise. Both the highly regulated State economy and the embedded norms and values of social equity that have emerged as a consequence of Cuba’s socialist revolution facilitate business social responsibility. The relevance of this research to current debates in relation to CSR is discussed and it is argued that capitalist economies may similarly benefit from tighter regulatory control and by cultivating more pro-social business norms that prioritise ethical over economic concerns.