The Organization of Marketing Activities: A Contingency Theory of Structure and Performance

Previous analysis of marketing organization has focused on the coordination of marketing activities and on organizational forms used to accomplish this, while ignoring the organization of marketing tasks at the work unit level. This article develops a contingency approach to the structure and performance of marketing activities at the work unit level, as well as higher levels within organizations, by blending the theoretical implications of traditional organization theory and transaction cost economics. Four propositions are developed to explain the effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptiveness of various marketing organizational structures. In addition, four basic structures of marketing organization are also explored.