L’utilisation des données et approches historiques dans la recherche en marketing devient de plus en plus fréquente. Pourtant, le manque d’unité méthodologique freine encore leur développement et leur adoption systématique dans le domaine. Pour y remédier, nous commençons par définir les méthodes historiques comme l’ensemble des techniques mobilisant des sources du passé afin de collecter, vérifier et interpréter des traces ou pratiques, dans le but de fournir une explication contextualisée et critique des phénomènes étudiés. Ces données du passé peuvent être primaires, secondaires ou reconstituées. Par ailleurs, en nous appuyant sur une perspective theory to history, nous structurons et clarifions les apports des données et approches historiques à la littérature marketing. Deux dimensions organisent cette démarche – la perspective temporelle (diachronique vs synchronique) et le niveau d’analyse (micro vs macro) – donnant lieu à quatre conceptions distinctes : Raconter, Observer, Tracer et Cartographier. Ensemble, elles ouvrent de nouvelles voies pour penser la recherche en marketing dans la durée.
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