How Macro Should Macromarketing Be?

Abstract

Because macromarketing is macro, its domain is necessarily broad. The question of how broad it is has not been adequately answered. This article proposes an institutional approach to the teaching of macromarketing. Although markets are, themselves, institutions, what is proposed here is examining the antecedent institutions for the development of markets. The set of antecedents proposed here includes economic, political, and technological institutions. The role of each in the development of market societies and the sustainability of such societies is critically examined. In each of the texts used in the course, it is argued that sustainability is tied directly to the economic, political, and technological institutions that underlie the market institutions that evolve. This approach expands the domain of macromarketing from agorology, the study of the market as an institution, to thesmology, the study of institutions.