Investigating Relational Ontologies in Macromarketing: Toward a Relational Approach and Research Agenda

Abstract

The present paper assesses the usage of relational ontologies in the realm of macromarketing made available by consumer culture theorists. Our paper advances this movement by exploring the potential of relational ontologies to propel a more thorough methodological discussion and operationalization of relationality in macromarketing. To fulfill this task, the paper first identifies and discusses four perspectives that have provided stimuli for relational thought: the new mobilities paradigm, non-representational theories, practice theories and assemblage theories. Subsequently, the paper offers an organizing framework made of four steps (i.e., approaching, setting up, emplacing, and staging) in which the role of different relational perspectives is examined. Lastly, the paper sketches a hypothetical relational-inspired macromarketing study on the reputational capital of places as a way to encourage an applied discussion of this relational framework. By so doing, the paper seeks to better clarify the expected contribution of the different relational perspectives brought forward by CCT scholars to the realm of macromarketing, with a particular focus on methodological aspects.