• Understand, reflect upon and contrast different perspectives and theories pertaining to markets and market dynamism.
• Identify and discuss the elements of an excellent marketing organization.
• Identify and discuss the significance of the marketing organization to firm performance
• Identify and discuss the essential marketing capabilities for marketing excellence and how such capabilities can be developed.
• Understand and discuss the impact of culture and leadership on driving and delivering marketing excellence.
• Follow academic conventions in the written assignment.

Marketing is a core business process and a strategic value orientation that companies have at their disposal to drive profit and sustainable performance. There are two key sides to marketing: (1) an expression of strategic decisions and tasks being enacted, and (2) foundational premises that support and enable excellence. This course focuses on the latter dimension, i.e. marketing excellence. Marketing excellence is gaining prevalence in today’s rapidly changing environments and is seen as an elementary part of the marketing discipline that is gaining increasing attention among practitioners. Despite its growing interest, the meaning of and ways to effectively exercise and evaluate marketing excellence still represent a strong challenge for practice. This course explores the meaning and constituents of an excellent marketing organization, outlines the capabilities and organizational requirements for achieving such excellence, and discusses ways in which companies can develop excellence in their marketing programs. Set up in a dynamic business context - where change has become the new constant - this course aims to provide an in-depth understanding of environmental challenges and the subsequent role of marketing excellence in shaping the environment. To address these topical business issues, the course builds on recent publications that explore these novel ideas about and frameworks of marketing excellence, its drivers and enablers, and the meaning and role of market dynamism in marketing excellence programs. The course covers, but is not limited to, the following topics:  

• Marketing excellence, its meaning and constituents
• Marketing capabilities for excellence: What are they? How are they developed?
• Influence of leadership on marketing excellence
• Organization and coordination of marketing processes for marketing excellence
• Identification of important activities that an excellent marketing organization should conduct
• Theoretical perspectives on markets and actors in markets
• Relationships between markets and marketing excellence

This course is part of the Minor in Marketing and Innovation, but can also be taken independently. 

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2. Arunachalam, S., Ramaswami, S. N., Herrmann, P., & Walker, D. (2018). Innovation pathway to profitability: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing capabilities. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(4), 744-766.
3. Caccicolatti, L. and Lee, S. H. (2016). Revisiting the relationship between marketing capabilities and firm performance: The moderating role of market orientation, marketing strategy and organizational power. Journal of Business Research, 69, 5597-5610.
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8. Nenonen, S., Storbacka, K., & Frethey-Bentham, C. (2019). Is your industrial marketing work working? Developing a composite index of market change. Industrial Marketing Management , 80 , 251-265.
9. Nenonen, S., Storbacka, K., & Windahl, C. (2019). Capabilities for market-shaping: Triggering and facilitating increased value creation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(4), 617-639.
10. Peteraf, M. A., & Bergen, M. E. (2003). Scanning dynamic competitive landscapes: a market‐based and resource‐based framework. Strategic management journal, 24(10), 1027-1041.
11. Quinn, L., Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Canhoto, A. and Analogbei, M. (2016). Troubled waters: The transformation of marketing in a digital world. European Journal of Marketing, 50 (12), 2103-2133.
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14. Zhang, J. Z., & Watson IV, G. F. (2020). Marketing ecosystem: An outside-in view for sustainable advantage. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, 287-304.