Marketing Models: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a systematic review of recent literature on the use of mathematical models in the marketing field to identify the main aims of model adoption in various functional areas of marketing. As study material, we have chosen 143 articles that used marketing models and were published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Quantitative Marketing and Economics and Quality and Quantity, from 2010–2014. Based on content analysis, these articles were assigned to consumer behaviour, product management, pricing management, distribution management, promotion management and marketing dynamics research themes in accordance with their research objectives. Some of these clusters were determined based on previous studies, while others emerged from our review. It is found that the highest (lowest) proportion of articles reviewed in this study involve research that uses marketing models in the marketing dynamics (distribution management) research theme. The next most common research theme was consumer behaviour. Articles utilising marketing models in product, pricing and promotion management themes were moderately common. We also summarise specific purposes for the use of marketing models in each research theme.