The third revolution: Mass production of marketing information

ADLI ABOUZEEDAN, UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
MICHAEL BUSLER, THE RICHARD STOCKTON COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, USA
Abstract: The progress of humanity has witnessed major turning points in its prolonged history. Scholars describe such turning points using the word ‘Revolution’. There were, in general, two such major revolutions in the past. The first one is the so-called ‘the agricultural revolution’. This revolution started roughly 10,000 years ago in the region of the Middle East and other areas of the world (Rosenzweig, 2007). The agricultural revolution was facilitated by the ability of humanity to produce food on a regular mass-based scale instead of just gathering it. The second revolution is a one which took place in the 18th and 19th centuries and still in progress. This revolution was induced by the mass production of manufacturing tools and the power input to drive them. Collectively, this second shift in the level of advancement of human civilisation is referred to as ‘the industrial revolution’. In the closing decades of the last century, information technology (IT) started to impose a profound impact on the management and other functional aspects of organisations and firms. The said is more evident in the case of small- and medium-size enterprises. The impact on operational business functions of firm are most noticed in the field of Marketing. In this article, we argued that IT is creating a third turning point in human history. This latest shift is caused by the availability of marketing information on a massive scale for the first time in history. In this article, we discussed the nature of such change and the expected outcome of it. We referred to this shift as the Marketing Revolution. As we proceeded in our analysis, we reflected on how new key concepts such as e-globalisation, firm impact sphere and internetisation management can be used in understanding the Marketing Revolution.
Keywords: Marketing Revolution, Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Small And Medium-Size Enterprises SMEs, Localised Management, Networking Management, Internetisation Management, Information Technology, IT, Firm Impact Sphere, Localised Firm Impact Sphere, Semi-Globalised Firm Impact Sphere, Globalised Firm Impact Sphere, E-globalisation, e-Globalisation, Nikolai Kondratiev