AN EXTENDED MARKETING PARADIGM FOR IMPLEMENTING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the shortcomings of the existing marketing paradigm and to identify the extended role of marketing in successful implementation of the supply chain management. The study is basically a ‘theoretical prescriptive’ one, which is mainly based upon the review of representative literature from relevant disciplines such as marketing, strategic marketing management, strategic management and supply chain management. The study explores the generally accepted paradigms of marketing and associated criticisms, distinguishes supply chain orientation from market orientation, and the marketing management from supply chain management, and discusses the augmented role of marketing in the successful implementation of supply chain management. The study concludes that marketing organizations have gradually become network organizations and that the aggregation of all components of the value system needs not only conceptual and organizational skills but also the skills to negotiate mutually beneficial returns for the contributions of all participants. Thus, market orientation should be collaborated with the supply chain orientation and the marketing mix should be enriched with the supplier and customer relationship management for successful   integration of the network to gain sustainable competitive advantage. The major contribution made by this study is the comprehension it spawns for marketing managers to realize that the traditional paradigms of marketing- market orientation, dyadic exchange relations and marketing mix- themselves along are no longer sufficient in dealing with customers in the network context, that unique structural properties of supply chain demand the market orientation shift away from the dyadic exchange paradigm towards the building of long term relationships with suppliers and channel members, and that linkage capabilities have the ability to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

Keywords: Dyadic Exchange Paradigm, Market Orientation, Supply Chain Orientation, Net Work Organization, Sustainable Competitive Advantages

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk