The authors introduce and examine a new marketing concept that a small
set of leading firms has begun to adopt: marketing doctrine. Marketing
doctrine refers to a firm’s unique principles, distilled from its
experiences, which provide firm-wide guidance on market-facing choices.
As such, marketing doctrine provides a firm-wide common approach to
decision making. Importantly, marketing doctrine helps a firm address
the classic consistency–flexibility conundrum by providing high-level
guidance to all decision makers in the firm (thus ensuring consistency)
but not specifying execution details (thus allowing for local
flexibility). Across three samples, the authors explore the concept
using a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach with 35 executives
from several industries. This article makes four contributions. First,
it offers a parsimonious definition of the marketing doctrine construct
and contrasts it with related constructs. Second, it offers insight into
how firms can develop marketing doctrine. Third, it develops a
conceptual model that identifies the antecedents and consequences of
marketing doctrine use. Finally, the authors explore the moderating
effects of three unpredictable environments (competitive intensity,
market turbulence, and structural flux) on the marketing doctrine
use–performance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]