Journal of Marketing Management

Vol. 27, Nos. 12, February 2011, 827

What makes a marketer? Development of marketing

professional identity among marketing graduates
during early career experiences
Roger Bennett, London Metropolitan University, UK

Abstract A sample of marketing graduates was surveyed to identify the factors

that caused some of them to feel that they had become professional marketers
consequent to their early experiences of work in graduate marketing positions. A
model of the possible determinants of the form of workplace identity that a
marketing graduate would assume was developed and tested. The model
hypothesised that: (i) a firms approaches to training and management
development, mentoring, appraisal and reward; (ii) the natures of the tasks
allocated to graduate marketing recruits and the task culture prevailing within
an enterprise; and (iii) specific characteristics of the individual employee affected
the emergence of particular types of workplace identity. Levels of each category
of professional identity observed among the sample members were then
correlated with job and organisational satisfaction and commitment, self-
assessed operational performance, and intention to remain with an enterprise.

Keywords marketing graduates; professional identity; management development;

mentoring; job satisfaction

Introduction
A primary task of marketing management is to direct individual marketers towards
organisational positions wherein they will be most effective (Honeycutt, Ford,
Swenson, & Swinyard, 1999). This requires an understanding by marketing
managers of the knowledge, skills, mind-sets, and experiences needed by members
of the marketing department for them to progress from junior to senior marketing
posts (Gray, Ottesen, Bell, Chapman, & Whitman, 2007). Mismatches between
organisational career-development paths and the needs of recently recruited
marketing staff have to be avoided (McDougall & Vaughn, 1996). Career templates
that are most likely to retain and get the very best out of junior marketers should be
created, resulting hopefully in improved organisational performance (Philipson,
1990). It is known that the manner in which a person identifies with a specific work
role significantly affects the individuals motivation, organisational perspectives, and
behaviour (Hekman, Bigley, Steensma, & Hereford, 2009). If, therefore, the essence
and degree of an individuals identification with a work role can be measured, and if

ISSN 0267-257X print/ISSN 1472-1376 online

# 2010 Westburn Publishers Ltd.
DOI:10.1080/02672571003647792
http://www.informaworld.com
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 9

the factors that contribute to a particular form of identification can be classified, then
marketing managers can devise training, job design, and planned-experience
programmes to facilitate the development of relevant genres of job identification
within marketing employees (cf. Miller, 2002).
This study examined certain factors that might influence the emergence within a
marketing graduate of a personal professional identity as a marketer during the
individuals first year of full-time employment in a graduate marketing role.
Specifically, the investigation assessed the relative impacts on a graduates propensity
to adopt a marketing-based professional identity of: various genres of in-company
training, mentoring, and management-development programmes; corporate task
cultures, appraisal and reward systems; and some of the employees personal
characteristics (e.g. involvement with a professional body). The probability that a
marketing graduate would assume a professional identity that focused predominantly
on the marketing function, hereafter referred to as a marketing professional identity
(MPI), was compared against the likelihood that the individual would develop a work-
related personal identity mainly associated with his or her employing organisation.
Research of this nature is important because, allegedly, there exist strong connections
between the form and depth of an employees professional identity and the levels of his
or her satisfaction, commitment, and operational performance in a job (see e.g. Baron
& Byrne, 1997; Kirpal, 2004; Loi, Hang-Yue, & Foley, 2004). Thus knowledge of the
mechanisms whereby professional identity is created has the potential to improve
efficiency within companies.

Nature of professional identity

Professional identity has been defined as the relatively stable and enduring
constellation of attributes, beliefs, values, motives and experiences in terms of which
people define themselves in a professional role (Ibarra, 1999, p. 764).

Functionally oriented identity

According to Kirpal (2004), the assumption by an individual of a specific and robust
professional identity within a particular functional field confers on the person a sense
of coherence and security in relation to that field. Additionally, it helps determine how
the person (i) interacts with an employing organisation and with fellow employees,
and (ii) perceives his or her role and duties. Typically, graduate recruits with marketing
or other vocational business degrees lack a strong professional identity when they join
their first employer (Holden & Harte, 2004). They will possess an identity as a
graduate of a certain business discipline but, as yet, will not have established a fully
fledged identity as a member of a specific profession. Attaining a functional
professional identity requires exposure to professional practice and the close
observation of others working in the area (Holden & Harte, 2004, p. 277). Several
studies have identified positive and significant links between high levels of functional
workplace identity and both job satisfaction and commitment (for details, see Loi
et al., 2004), loyalty and motivation, low employee turnover (Ng & Feldman, 2006),
and improved performance (Kirpal, 2004). Moreover, the possession of a strong
functional professional identity has been found to contribute to an individuals
occupational self-esteem (see Coon, 1994), which, in turn, is often related to
feelings of enthusiasm for a job and of personal effectiveness (Baron & Byrne,
10 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

1997). Davies (2002) observed how a strong and confident professional identity
linked to a specific business discipline would clarify a persons self-defined work role,
could enable the individual to downplay self-doubts regarding his or her ability to
complete tasks in the relevant field, and encouraged the employee to believe in the
efficacy of his or her judgements.

Organisationally orientated identity

A graduate recruit with a marketing degree might decide not to assume an MPI,
preferring instead to adopt an identity that focuses much more on the persons
involvement with a business as a whole than with a specific function (Bauer,
Morrison, & Callister, 1998; Michel, 2007). Hence, the newcomer comes to
interpret his or her occupational role in broader organisational as opposed to
marketing-specific terms. Some firms actively encourage their graduate recruits to
abandon narrowly based functional attitudes and self-images and to adopt an
organisationally oriented world view (Weick & Roberts, 1993). They want
newcomers to relate more with the similarities between business functions and
sections within an organisation than with differences and professional boundaries
that divide them (Davies, 2002; Feldman, 2002). Indeed, Garavan and Morley
(1997) noted how a core objective of many corporate management-development
programmes was to challenge the functional discipline based individual orientation
of new graduates (p. 1187). Graham and McKenzie (1995) similarly observed how the
graduate-development activities of numerous companies sought to build the
graduates broad understanding of the whole organisation, and deliberately rotated
recruits among jobs in several different functions in order to achieve this aim (p. 34).
It is known that the senior managements of a number of significant companies
believe that broadly based management competencies contribute more to
organisational success than do technical functional abilities (see Dacko, 2006). For
instance, Gushs (1996) study of six large UK retailing enterprises found that, whereas
their management did not regard marketing skills and knowledge to constitute an
important criterion when recruiting graduates, the possession by job applicants of
personal transferable skills such as initiative, assertiveness, decisiveness, and so on
were seen as paramount. Interestingly, the marketing graduates recruited by the six
businesses reported that prior to taking their jobs, they had assumed, as a matter of
course, that technical marketing rather than transferable personal skills would be vital
for securing a graduate position. Having worked in the sample companies for some
time, the graduates expressed surprise at how little they had been able to use the skills
and abilities they had learned on their degree courses (p. 9).

Factors encouraging specific identity orientations

Academic literature in the fields of professional-identity formation (for reviews, see

e.g. Bauer et al., 1998; Davies, 2002; Hoggs & Terry, 2000; Kirpal, 2004; Loi et al.,
2004; McLaughlin, 2003), organisationally focused employee identity (e.g. Ibarra,
1999; Linville & Carlston, 1994; Michel, 2007; Weick & Roberts, 1993), and
linkages between identity and career development (e.g. Dobrow & Higgins, 2005;
Doherty, Viney, & Adamson, 1997; Holmes, 2001; Ng & Feldman, 2006) has
indicated a number of variables with the potential to affect the extent to which an
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 11

individual adopts a functionally related rather than an organisationally orientated

professional identity, as discussed below.

(a) Nature of training received

Training for graduate marketing staff may concentrate on hard marketing skills such
as selling, merchandising, product and brand development, and so on, or on soft
skills to do with teamworking, leading and influencing colleagues, listening and
communication, and other generic interpersonal capacities (Maxwell & Ogden,
2005). Of course, employee training could include both of these genres, although, as
Dickmann and Harris (2005), Maxwell and Ogden (2005) and others have pointed
out, financial constraints normally prevent this from taking place. For graduate
marketing recruits, a companys choice of approach will often depend on whether
its senior management regards a marketing-graduate employees work to be mainly
concerned with technical problem solving that requires specialised marketing know-
how, or much broader managerial competencies. In the latter case, more holistic
training might be given whereby the transmission of specialist marketing skills is
eschewed in favour of training that stimulates among graduate recruits wider
organisational perspectives and collective rather than individual and functionally-
based thinking (Michel, 2007).
Jackson, Hollmann, and Gallan (2006) emphasised the importance of job rotations
as a device for shaping a graduates professional identity. Planned job rotations could
entail short secondments to a variety of disparate marketing sections, or jobs or
memberships of project teams completely outside the marketing domain. The
greater the proportion of a marketing graduates time spent on non-marketing tasks
consequent to joining a company, the heavier the incentive for the individual to adopt
an organisational and not a marketing-focused professional identity (Garavan &
Morley, 1997), especially if the person spends protracted periods interacting
predominantly with non-marketers. Likewise and as observed by Dickmann and
Harris (2005), the allocation of inferior job assignments within a particular business
function (such as marketing) has the capacity to induce disenchantment with work in
that business function. Moreover, a marketing graduate might have expected
marketing work to be quite different from the tasks the person is actually given
(Garavan & Morley, 1997), resulting perhaps in a loss of interest in the marketing
profession.

(b) Mentoring
Mentors introduce recruits to a firms norms of behaviour (Michel, 2007) and are
often primary role models in relation to newcomers professional identities (Dobrow
& Higgins, 2005). Thus mentoring by a person who belongs to and is fully committed
to a specific profession can influence the mentees desire to embed his or her identity
within that profession (Green & Bower, 1995; Ng & Feldman, 2006). A mentor
drawn from the marketing profession will (presumably) value marketing knowledge
very highly, and may well arouse the mentees desire to occupy a significant position
within the marketing community. Mentoring undertaken by a non-marketing general
manager, conversely, might be dominated by the consideration of broader managerial
issues (Campbell, 1997) at the expense of discussions concerning marketing skills (cf.
Fine & Pullins, 1998). A generalist senior manager might be regarded as more
powerful, influential, and salient within the organisation and may thus represent a
more attractive role model than a mentor from a particular business function (Bosley,
12 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

Arnold, & Cohen, 2006). This could induce a mentee to adopt an occupational self-
concept based on the example set by the generalist senior manager (Linville &
Carlston, 1994). Moreover, mentoring that involves mainly organisational rather
than marketing matters may be seen as more useful by mentees because it might
offer them a greater awareness of lucrative career opportunities in the wider
organisation (Kidd, Jackson, & Hirsh, 2002). Mentors introduce mentees to
networks within a business and/or an industry sector (Dickmann & Harris, 2005).
The network contacts that a recruit establishes during his or her early association with
an enterprise will provide the newcomer with information, assistance with tasks, and
emotional support (Seibert, Kraimer, & Liden, 2001). These network contacts can
facilitate or impede an individuals efforts to embed him or herself in a particular form
of workplace identity.

(c) Task culture within the organisation

Marketing graduates might be encouraged to adopt organisationally directed
identities if the employing firm deliberately organises their work in non-functionally
specific open-ended manners. This will involve maximum task flexibility, minimal
application of rules and set procedures, and widespread collective and cross-
disciplinary (as opposed to functional and individualistic) activity and decision
making (see Michel, 2007). Recruits are thus induced to think collectively and
organisationally (Molden & Dweck, 2006) and not in single-discipline terms
(Bowen, Bedford, & Nathan, 1991), to observe a wide range of considerations, and
to communicate extensively across the organisation (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld,
1999). Conversely, the assumption of functionally based identities might be stimulated
if an enterprise is highly prescriptive when structuring employees tasks (Michel,
2007). Here, job specifications will be narrowly defined and usually function-
related. Pre-established norms and procedures will exist to guide behaviour and
courses of action, functionally based technical skills will be nurtured (Bowen et al.,
1991; Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Gardy, 2001), and the recruit will be encouraged to
participate in a specialised community of interest (such as marketing) (Dickmann &
Harris, 2005). Internal devices for implementing this approach include induction and
training programmes that deal only with functional (and not company-wide) issues
(Lashinsky, 2006; Michel, 2007), fuzzy job descriptions unrelated to any one business
function, compulsory shared decision making (Molden & Dweck, 2006), performance
appraisal based on organisation-level targets (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2001), and the
development of generic interpersonal skills. Marketing graduates immersed in this
kind of non-prescriptive task-formation environment might quickly abandon any
allegiance they had to the marketing profession in favour of an organisationally
focused identity (cf. Schatzki, 2001).

(d) Opportunities for advancement

Kirpal (2004) observed how employees had been greatly encouraged to form function-
specific as opposed to organisational identities in recent years because of a lack of job
security. The latter resulted from increasingly competitive markets, company
rationalisations, and frequent corporate downsizing. Loyalty to and identification
with a particular professional area (such as marketing) rather than identification
with a single (probably short-term) employer were more probable in these turbulent
circumstances. Moreover, contemporary enterprises are arguably so intricate and
technical that specialisation and a deep functional knowledge base are essential for
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 13

advancement within a firm (Michel, 2007). A factor that could militate against a
graduates inclination to adopt an MPI is that it is known that the senior
management of some enterprises do not recognise the professionalism and skills of
marketers to the same extents that they value the merits of other professions (see
Bennett, 2008, for details of the research literature supporting this proposition).
Success in marketing might be assumed to depend not on complex intellectual
accomplishment but rather on qualities of character and persistence (McCole,
2004, p.531). Top management may believe that marketing skills can be (easily)
learned in-house, have a limited shelf-life, and are company specific (Gush, 1996,
p. 11). If marketing is not perceived to offer a major career route within an
organisation, graduate marketing recruits may be deterred from wanting to identify
deeply with the marketing profession. A firms internal rewards systems (other than
those leading to promotion) could also impel a marketing graduate to assume an
MPI. Performance-related pay, bonuses, accelerated increments, and so on linked
directly to achievements specifically related to marketing could steer an individual
towards an MPI.

(e) Association with a professional body

In Britain, there exist a number of professional bodies in the marketing field, for
example the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Market Research Society
(MRS), the Communications, Advertising and Marketing Foundation (CAM), the
Institute of Direct Marketing, and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. These
bodies seek to maintain and improve the marketing professions occupational status,
offer training in marketing methods, and publish and otherwise disseminate materials
on the latest developments in the field. Members of these professional bodies have
been found to be more knowledgeable about marketing than others and to practise
more sophisticated marketing methods (Gabriel, Kottasz, & Bennett, 2007; Murphy
& Southey, 2003). Interactions with a marketing professional body might result in a
greater degree of personal identification with the marketing function (McLaughlin,
2003), particularly if an individual has had to devote significant effort in order to
become a member, for example by passing examinations or completing a professional-
development programme. The professional status resulting from membership of a
professional body may be associated with an employee taking a professional pride in
the quality of his or her marketing work: projects might be seen as ends in themselves
and not merely as a means for earning a living (Swan, Newell, & Robertson, 2000).

(f) Class of marketing degree

A hallmark of professional status is that an individuals professional knowledge is
substantial and has been acquired through a long and intellectually demanding period
of training that involved significant effort (Davies, 2002). Evidence of having
completed a protracted period of training in the marketing field is available from the
fact that an individual has an undergraduate marketing degree. To the extent that
gaining a high class of marketing degree is an indication of the depth of a graduates
personal investment in having become a marketer, the person is perhaps more likely to
want to embed him or herself comprehensively in the marketing function and hence to
adopt a strong MPI (cf. Ng & Feldman, 2006). This, according to Ng and Feldman
(2006), could result from the heavy sunk costs of having obtained a high class of
vocational degree (p. 337).
14 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

(g) The dependent variables

Many studies have revealed significant and substantial connections between strong
professional identity and both job satisfaction and commitment (for details see
e.g. Coon, 1994; Davies, 2002; Loi et al., 2004; McDermott et al., 2006; Ng &
Feldman, 2006). However, these investigations did not differentiate between the
relative impacts on satisfaction and commitment of a robust professional identity
related to a specific business function (such as marketing) as opposed to an identity
mainly anchored against a particular organisation. Accordingly, the present study
examined the possible linkages between high MPI and (i) satisfaction with a job, (ii)
satisfaction with an employing organisation, (iii) commitment to an employing
organisation, and (iv) commitment to pursuing a career as a marketing professional.
This was repeated for marketing graduates who exhibited very high organisational
identity. Garavan and Morley (1997) noted relationships between high
organisationally orientated identity and employees (self-assessed) levels of
performance and their intention to remain with an organisation. The current
investigation also queried these matters.

The study

The investigation was completed among the marketing graduates in a large university
in Greater London that offers a BA in marketing and a modular degree with a heavy
marketing specialisation. Graduates of these programmes in 2006 and 2007 were
contacted by e-mail approximately 15 to 18 months after leaving the institution and
asked to fill in a questionnaire. A period of 15 to 18 months was selected on the advice
of managers in the careers office of the authors home university, who cautioned that
the accuracy of the contact addresses of the institutions graduates fell sharply after
one-and-a-half years. Also research has established that structured graduate induction
and training programmes typically last for no longer than 18 months (Doherty et al.,
1997). A total of 212 individuals completed their marketing degree in 2005, and 229
in 2006. A total of 305 of the 441 people approached (in 2007 and 2008) responded to
the communication (69.2%), of whom 111 (36.4%) had not taken jobs in the
marketing area, had progressed to postgraduate courses, or were working in jobs
that could not be described as graduate level (e.g. supermarket check-out assistants).
On average the 194 participants had been with their current employer for 123/4
months. Their average age was 25.9 years. Half the sample was female. (Cowell, 1987,
found that females were well represented among marketing executives in the 2534
age group, but poorly represented thereafter.) A total of 14% of the participants had
graduated with first-class honours, 38% with an upper second, 38% with a lower
second, and 20% with a third. (This represented a much better results profile than that
of the graduates who were not in graduate-level positions or were employed in non-
marketing areas, reflecting perhaps the greater ease with which better-qualified people
could find good jobs in the marketing area.) Of the 168 participants, 72 (43%) worked
in smaller firms with less than 100 employees (24% in micro enterprises with less
than 13 workers), 31% were in medium-sized businesses with 101500 employees,
while the remaining 26% were in larger companies. A total of 78% of the members of
the sample worked in the service sector, 30% in retailing, 18% in media or media
relations, and 14% in marketing research or the provision of other marketing
consultancy services (the remainder were employed in a wide range of sectors).
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 15

Examples of the participants job titles included brand executive, marketing

administrator, marketing research officer, media controller, public relations
executive, advertising planner, and community relations officer.
The degrees completed by the sample members were recognised by the major
professional bodies in the marketing field (notably the Chartered Institute of
Marketing and the Market Research Society), and these bodies offered exemptions
from many of their examinations and/or early access to full membership. Students
were encouraged by their lecturers to maximise their exemptions from relevant
professional-body examinations during their undergraduate years via the selection of
appropriate pathways, and in certain cases by doing some professional examinations in
parallel with their undergraduate units. Of the 194 respondents, 31 had built upon
these exemptions and were pursuing or had completed further studies with a
professional body (e.g. the intensive in-house block-release programmes leading to
the MRS Diploma). An additional 22 people reported that they were associated with a
professional body (e.g. the Direct Marketing Association or the IPA) in some way. Two-
thirds of the participants had attended an in-house course, and 40% had been on an
external short course sponsored by their employing company.

The questionnaire
A questionnaire covering the previously mentioned constructs was drafted, pretested,
refined, and then distributed by e-mail to the sampling frame. A summary of the final
questionnaire is given in Table 1. The word company was used to describe an
employing organisation, but the text accompanying the questionnaire made it clear
that company meant any type of business. Firm size was queried, although there are no
a priori reasons for supposing that large enterprises will encourage their employees to
adopt functional rather than organisational professional identities. On the one hand, big
companies are more likely to have specialist staff and departments that cover various
business functions (Gabriel et al., 2007), whilst on the other, they may be anxious to
inculcate in their graduate recruits organisation-wide perspectives and attitudes.
A persons commitment to the marketing profession (see Table 1, section 11) and to
his or her employing organisation (section 12) was measured via adaptation of an
inventory originally developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979). Items assessing
satisfaction with a job (section 13) and with an organisation (section 14) were based on
an instrument first devised by Brayfield and Rothe (1951). Task culture (section 10) was
evaluated using items informed by the work of Michel (2007). An inventory of Brown,
Condor, Matthews, Wade, and Williams (1986) was modified to evaluate the degrees of
a persons MPI and identification with an employing organisation (sections two and
three). Levels of self-assessed performance (section 15) were measured via items based
on Chung (2000). The suggestions of Gush (1996) and of Garavan and Morley (1997)
were followed when creating items to describe the natures of the tasks undertaken by the
respondents (section seven). The remaining questionnaire items were constructed ab
initio to meet the aims of the present study. Apart from factual queries, all the items
shown in Table 1 were measured using seven-point scales: 7 agree very strongly,
1 disagree very strongly.

Estimation

The model involved some constructs with formative indicators and others with
reflective indicators, and a number of the regressors were not normally distributed.
16 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

Table 1 The questionnaire.

1. Name, age, gender, job title, period in present job, title and class of degree obtained,
firm size and industry sector, examinations of professional bodies taken or to be taken,
memberships of professional bodies
2. Marketing professional identity
(a) I feel strongly that I am a member of the marketing profession
(b) I am pleased to describe myself as a member of the marketing profession
(c) I can identify strongly with members of the marketing profession
(d) Being a member of the marketing profession is very important to me
(e) I feel that I have strong ties with the marketing profession
(f) I never feel uncomfortable about being called a member of the marketing
profession
3. Organisationally focused identity
(a) I feel a strong sense of identification with this particular company
(b) I am pleased to describe myself as belonging to this particular company
(c) I can identify strongly with people who belong to this particular company
(d) Belonging to this particular company is very important to me
(e) I feel I have strong ties with this particular company
(f) I never feel uncomfortable about belonging to this particular company
4. Training and personal development
(a) The training and personal development activities I have received from this company
have mainly involved the improvement of my marketing skills
(b) The training and personal development I have received have mainly involved the
improvement of my general interpersonal and/or organisational skills
(e.g. communication, leadership)
(c) The training and personal development I have received have involved a relatively
even balance of marketing and general interpersonal and/or organisational skills
(d) This company has provided me with very little training and personal
development
5. Mentoring
(a) My mentor was a marketing specialist
(b) My mentor was someone who was deeply committed to the marketing profession
(c) My mentor was a member of a professional body in the marketing field
(d) My mentor was a marketing person through and through
6. Appraisal
(a) I am appraised mainly against my successes in achieving targets specifically
related to marketing
(b) I am appraised mainly against my contributions to the organisation as a whole, not
just the marketing department (reverse scored)
7. Reward
(a) I am rewarded for achieving specific marketing goals
(b) In this company, people are rewarded for contributing to the attainment of
organisation-wide goals rather than function-specific (e.g. marketing) goals
(reverse scored)
8. Nature of activities undertaken
(a) The tasks I have undertaken for this company have enabled me to use my
marketing knowledge, marketing skills, and marketing ability (reverse scored)
(b) The tasks I have completed for this company have required the application of
common sense rather than marketing skills and knowledge
(c) My work has required the application of interpersonal skills rather than technical
marketing skills

(Continued)
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 17

Table I. (Continued)
(d) Most of the tasks I have undertaken for this company have related to business
functions outside marketing
(e) Since joining the company, I have worked on a wide range of non-marketing
activities and/or projects
9. Networking
(a) At work, I interact predominantly with marketing professionals (reverse scored)
(b) At work, I have a wide range of network contacts with people who are not involved
with marketing
(c) I spend most of my time at work with non-marketers
10. Opportunities for advancement
(a) The marketing function is highly valued in this company
(b) Marketers are promoted to top positions in this company
(c) Senior management in this company recognises that success in marketing
requires large amounts of skill, knowledge, and intellectual ability
11. Task culture
(a) In this company, personal roles and job descriptions are normally linked to a
single business function such as marketing or accounting
(b) People with great expertise in a specific business function are valued very highly
in this company
(c) Relationships between job roles are very fluid in this company
(d) In this company, people from different sections and business functions are
expected as a matter of course to interact, work collectively on projects, share
information, and take decisions jointly
12. Commitment to the marketing profession
(a) I talk up the marketing profession to my friends as a great profession to work in
(b) I feel very committed to the marketing profession
(c) I will always want to work in marketing no matter which organisation I am
employed by
(d) Working in marketing inspires me to give of my very best
(e) I hardly ever think about working in fields other than marketing
13. Commitment to the organisation
(a) I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order
to help this organisation to be successful
(b) I feel very loyal towards this organisation
(c) It would take a very big change in my circumstances to cause me to want to leave
this organisation
(d) I really care about the fate of this organisation
(e) I hardly ever think about leaving this organisation
14. Job satisfaction
(a) I find real enjoyment in my job
(b) My job is interesting, challenging, and exciting
(c) I like my job much more than the average person would
(d) My job is almost like a hobby to me
(e) I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment as a result of doing my job
15. Satisfaction with the organisation
(a) Working for this particular organisation gives me a great deal of satisfaction
(b) This organisation is very enjoyable to work for
(c) This is an excellent organisation to work for
(d) I feel enthusiastic about this organisation
(e) I am proud to belong to this organisation

(Continued)
18 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

Table I. (Continued)
16. Self-assessed performance
(a) I believe I have achieved a high level of success in my present job
(b) My managers opinions of the quality of my work have been very positive
(c) I have done well in this job
(d) The company has been pleased with my performance in my current role
17. Intention to remain
(a) I intend remaining with this company for the foreseeable future
(b) My experiences with this company have been so positive that I wish to continue
working here
(c) Currently, I have no desire to work for another company

Hence, the model was estimated using the technique of partial least squares
(specifically PLS Graph version 3 package, Chin, 2001). Decisions concerning
whether particular constructs were to be regarded as formative or reflective were
taken on the basis of whether all their indicators loaded (with a value of at least .4)
on the same factor in a principal components factor analysis, the magnitudes of
Cronbachs alpha and average variance extracted (AVE) values, and whether,
intuitively, different genres of indicator contributed to the formation of the relevant
construct (see Diamantopoulos & Winklhofer, 2001). Section three of the
questionnaire involved mutually exclusive options concerning training and
development, which were thus coded as binary variables (see Hair, Anderson,
Tatham, & Black, 1998, pp. 8385). The model was estimated twice: once using
MPI as the dependent variable and then with organisationally focused identity (OFI)
as the dependent variable. Standard statistical measures were applied to test for the
possible presence of early or late response bias and, since job performance was self-
assessed, of common method variance (Lindell & Whitney, 2001). The response
patterns of the first and last batches of questionnaires received did not differ
significantly on the average. A joint factor analysis of the responses for the
independent variables and the self-assessed performance indicators generated a
solution with the independent and dependent variables loading onto different
factors, and there were no unexpected substantial correlations between items that in
principle ought not to be related. Hence, there was no evidence to suggest that
common method bias had contaminated the results.
There were no indications of firm size or industry sector affecting any of the outcomes,
so these variables were not included in the final estimations. Second- and third-order
moderators were formed and entered on an experimental basis. No significant (p < .05)
moderating effects were detected. Correlations among all the independent variables were
below R .4, except for that between marketing-based appraisal and marketing-based
rewards. However, at R .51, this latter association was well below the threshold at
which it might be anticipated to create technical problems due to multicollinearity (Aiken
& West, 1991). Correlations rather than regressions were used to assess the presence of
associations between MPI, organisationally focused identity, and the dependent variables
because the latter will be explained in part by variables not covered by the questionnaire
(e.g. salary levels and personal relationships with colleagues). (The exclusion of relevant
regressors can bias the values of the regression coefficients on the independent variables
retained within an incomplete regression analysis.)
A total of 40% of the responses of the sample members fell in the top three of the
seven agree/disagree categories of a composite variable created (by averaging) for the
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 19

MPI items (see Table 1). A total of 32% of the replies were in the top three divisions of
a composite formed for organisationally focused identity (section 3). Just 8% of the
participants exhibited both a high MPI and a high OFI (as defined in the
abovementioned manner): while 9% had both a low MPI (i.e. falling in the lowest
three categories) and a low OFI. This indicates an overall either/or situation, with
most participants having developed either a high MPI or a high OFI as a consequence
of the suggested influences.

Results

Figure 1 shows the results plus key diagnostic statistics (R2 for formative constructs and
Cronbachs alpha values and leading eigenvalues [lambda values] for reflective indicators)
for the model involving MPI. (The Cronbachs alpha and AVE values were comparable so
only the former are displayed.) Figure 2 gives the PLS outputs for organisationally
focused identity. The explanatory variables in Figure 2 are the same as in Figure 1 (see
Table 1), so R2, alpha, and lambda values are not repeated. However, the variables have
been renamed in organisationally orientated terms so as to facilitate easy interpretation.
The outcomes to the estimation exhibited discriminant validity among the constructs, as
each latent variable shared more variance with its indicators than it shared with other
exogenous latent variables (the criterion recommended by Fornell & Cha, 1994).
It can be seen from Figure 1 that four company-related and two personal factors
contributed significantly to the formation of a strong MPI. Females were more likely to
display high MPI than males. Equally, Figure 2 indicates that females were significantly
less inclined to develop powerful identities anchored against an employing
organisation. This might be explained, perhaps, in terms of young women
recognising that their lengths of association with particular firms will often be
shorter than those of male counterparts due to career interruptions associated with
child-bearing and the rearing of young children (Cowell, 1987). Employees who were
involved in some way with a marketing professional body (e.g. by taking examinations,
participating in activities, seeking associate or full membership) exhibited a high
probability of assuming a robust MPI. Class of degree obtained did not exert a
significant impact on identity formation. It was posited in an earlier section that
class of degree could be regarded as a proxy for the effort and sacrifice devoted to
obtaining a marketing qualification. This presumption may have been wrong; it could
be that individuals who graduate with lower degree classifications have struggled just
as much as others but have been hampered by financial problems, adverse family
circumstances, and so on that moderated their performances.
Training and management development that concentrated predominantly on
marketing and mentoring by a marketing specialist contributed substantially to the
formation of a strong MPI, as did heavy engagement with marketing (rather than
general) tasks. Functional task culture also exerted a positive and significant influence
on the emergence within a graduate of an MPI. The existence of good opportunities for
advancement for marketers within a firm did not induce marketing graduates to assume
a powerful MPI, which could exist in employees in companies where the value of
marketing was not highly regarded. Possibly, marketing graduates employed by the
latter enterprises were already thinking ahead to job opportunities in other businesses
once they had gained experience with their current firms. These individuals would
report high MPI in conjunction with poor opportunities for advancement so that,
statistically, positively significant connections would not arise. People who networked
 20

Figure 1 Determinants of a strong MPI.

Note: Significant parameters (p < .05) are indicated by an asterisk, t-values in parentheses.

Marketing focused training and .42*

management development
(4.93)

Mentoring by a .32*
3-item formative marketing
construct, R-square = .61 professional (3.12)
6-item reflective construct,
lambda = 4.4, alpha = .87
2-item formative Marketing based .10
construct, R-square = .65 appraisal
(0.92)
Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

2-item formative Marketing based .10

construct, R-square = .48 reward systems
(0.89)
Strength of MPI
Activities undertaken .36*
5-item reflective, lambda mainly concerned
= 3.7, alpha = .87 with marketing (3.55)

Functional task .36* Gender .41*

5-item reflective, lambda
= 4.0, alpha = .89 culture within the firm (female) (5.51)
(3.50)

3-item formative, Networking mainly .12 Class of .08

R-square = .69 with other marketers degree (0.90)
(1.01)

Good opportunities .11 Involved with .34*

3-item formative, for advancement for a professional
R-square = .64 marketers (0.98) body (4.44)
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 21

Figure 2 Determinants of a strong OFI.

Organisationally focused .42*

training and management
development (6.17)

Mentoring by a .39*
general manager
(5.58)

Organisationally .12
based appraisal
(1.22)

Organisationally .11
based reward
systems (1.11)

Strength of OFI
Activities undertaken .29*
mainly of a general
nature (2.95)

.33* Gender .33*

Open-ended task
culture within the firm (male)
(4.34) (4.49)

Networking mainly .09 Class of .06

with generalists degree
(0.78) (0.55)

Poor opportunities for .09 Involved with .11

advancement for a professional
marketers (0.69) body (1.07)

extensively with non-marketers were no more likely to have a high MPI than others,
indicating that a strong MPI could occur in employees whose workplace network
contacts were mostly outside the marketing function. Marketers might enjoy high
esteem among these non-marketing network contacts, hence contributing to their
desire to display an MPI. Appraisal and reward against purely marketing targets failed
to exert significant effects. It seems that it was quite possible for a person to regard him
or herself as a professional marketer whilst still being assessed and given performance-
related pay in relation to contributions to broadly based organisational activities.
Figure 2 indicates that low values of the variables that determined a strong MPI
contributed significantly to the formation of a high organisationally focused identity,
with the single exception of whether a person was involved with a professional body.
Overall, therefore, Figure 2 tells the same story as Figure 1, but in reverse. Marketing
graduates were more likely to assume an identity that was linked largely to an employing
company if they were male, had received broadly based generalist management training,
were mentored by generalists, undertook duties of a general rather than function-
specific nature, and had worked in an environment wherein personal roles and job
22 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

descriptions were vaguely defined and very fluid. In order to evaluate the relative
contributions of particular variables to the probability that an individual would adopt
an MPI rather than an OFI, a bivariate logistic regression was run with OFI as the
reference category. People were classified as high MPI if their responses fell in the top-
three divisions of the composite created for this construct (see above) having taken out
the 33 individuals with either a high MPI plus a strong OFI or a low MPI and a low OFI
(leaving n 45), and high OFI if their replies were in the top three divisions of the OFI
composite (n 30) after excluding the abovementioned subjects.
Initially all the Figure 1 variables were entered in a stepwise fashion. The same
variables that attained significance in the model shown in Figure 1 were significant
(p < .05) in the logistic regression, so the latter was recomputed excluding the
insignificant variables. The results are given in Table 2. It can be seen from the
ExpBeta column in Table 2 that the fact that a person is female rather than male is
associated with a near doubling of the probability that the individual will have a high
MPI. Graduates who were involved with a marketing professional body had a 41%
higher probability of having opted for a marketing as opposed to an organisational
identity. A unit increase in any of the other Table 2 variables would lead to increases in
the probability that a subject fell in the high MPI category of between 32% and 63%.

Identity, job satisfaction, and commitment

Table 3 exhibits the values of the correlations that arose between the two forms of
identity and the various dependent variables. All the correlations were significant at

Table 2 Probablity that a person has a high MPI.

Beta ExpBeta
Mentoring by a marketing professional .49(6.23) 1.63
Activities undertaken were mainly concerned with marketing .28(4.14) 1.32
Functional task culture within the firm .31(4.66) 1.36
Marketing focused training and professional development .45(6.06) 1.57
Gender (female vs. male) .68(7.97) 1.97
Involvement with a professional body .34(4.92) 1.41
Dependant variable has value one if the person has high MPI and zero if the person has high OFI. Chi-
square values (1 df) in parentheses. -2LL ratio (188 df) 174.58 (r .75). Nagelkerke pseudo
R2 .49. Percentage of cases correctly allocated .79.

Table 3 Identity, satisfaction and performance.

1. Marketing professional identity 1

2. Organisationally focused identity .61 1
3. Satisfaction with job .59 .55 1
4. Satisfaction with the employing organisation .38 .69 .43 1
5. Commitment to the marketing profession .73 .28 .42 .27 1
6. Commitment to the organisation .40 .68 .44 .60 .21 1
7. Self-assessed performance .50 .55 .52 .47 .33 .40 1
8. Intention to remain with the organisation .29 .28 .29 .42 .11 .37 .28 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 23

the .05 level or less, apart from that between intention to remain and commitment to
the marketing profession, reflecting perhaps a more entrepreneurial approach
towards work and employing businesses amongst people with low organisational
commitment (Matlay, 2005). In fact, all the correlations involving the intention to
remain variable were considerably lower than others in Table 3. This is not surprising,
perhaps, given that the sample mainly comprised well-qualified, occupationally
mobile young people with good prospects. It is only natural that individuals of this
nature would be looking ahead to career advancement in other companies once they
had acquired appropriate work experience, even though they might have been happy
in their current jobs. Also half the sample consisted of young women, some of whom
might have been anticipating taking a career break in the not-too-distant future in
order to have children.
Consistent with previous literature in the area (see e.g. Feldman, 2006; McDermott
et al., 2006; Ng & Feldman, 2006), a strong MPI was associated with satisfaction with
both a job and the employing organisation, and also with commitment to the marketing
function. Concomitantly, a powerful OFI correlated substantially and significantly with
job satisfaction, organisational satisfaction, and commitment to the organisation (cf.
Allen, 2006; Loi et al., 2004; Michel, 2007; Weick & Roberts, 1993). High levels of
both genres of identity were significantly associated with (self-assessed) successful job
performance (cf. Baron & Byrne, 1997; Garavan & Morley, 1997; Kirpal, 2004). The
possession of a strong workplace identity may, it seems, have reinforced a persons self-
confidence in his or her ability to complete tasks (Davies, 2002) and have motivated the
individual to work harder and more diligently (Coon, 1994).

Conclusion and managerial implications

The results are consistent with the view that a business can manage systemically the
ways in which a graduate recruit defines his or her professional identity. It appears that
specific approaches to graduate training and development, mentoring, job and task
design, and the conscious planning of the duties completed by newcomers can exert a
heavy influence on the form of an individuals chosen identity. External factors that
seem to affect the matter are a persons gender and whether the individual has a
connection with a professional body. Most of the people in the sample had made a
transition from having an identity as a university graduate to having either a robust
MPI or a strong organisationally focused identity. Irrespective of whether a persons
identity was functionally or organisationally orientated, a powerful sense of workplace
identity was associated with job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and sound
operational performance. This implies the desirability of stimulating the development
of a strong sense of identity within graduate employees. A business might ideally want
its graduate recruits to possess both a high MPI and a high OFI. This is difficult (and
expensive) to achieve, however, given that different sorts of policies and approaches
appear to contribute to the emergence within a newcomer of each particular form.
Thus the inculcation of both a strong MPI and a strong OFI might require two
mentoring programmes running in parallel one involving a marketing specialist,
the other a generalist manager two distinct training schemes the first based on
functional skills, the second on organisational competencies and so on. As a number
of researchers have pointed out, few companies can afford or have the inclination to
follow this dual approach. In the present study, a large majority of the respondents
ended up having one type of identity or the other. Unfortunately, it was not possible
24 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

within the confines of an already crowded questionnaire to explore the first-year

experiences of the subset of respondents who reported the possession of both a high
MPI and a high OFI.
A number of limitations apply to the investigation. The data was self-reported, and
graduates from just a single university were studied. However, there was no evidence of
common method bias in the results, and the (large) university hosting the investigation
had been engaged in teaching marketing students for many years. The institutions
marketing programmes were similar to those offered by other universities that provide
marketing degrees. Obviously, it would be useful to replicate the study in other higher-
education institutions. It would also be valuable to compare the outcomes to the present
investigation with those from studies of professional-identity formation in other
(business) functional areas, for example accounting or human-resource management.
The observed connections between strong professional identity and job satisfaction,
operational performance, and satisfaction with an employing organisation merit further
research, and have many implications. Why and exactly how do these linkages arise?
Additional topics for future research include the precise reasons why females were
apparently less disposed to assume organisationally focused identities than males (and
the consequences of this for companies), and why intention to remain did not
correlate with the depth of a persons identity as extensively as the other dependent
variables. Finally, longer-term studies could assess how a graduate recruits identity
evolves over a protracted period. What is the position after, say, five years, 10 years,
and beyond?

References
Aiken, L., & West, S. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
Allen, D. (2006). Do organisational socialisation tactics influence newcomer embeddedness and
turnover? Journal of Management, 32(2), 237256.
Baron, R., & Byrne, D. (1997). Social psychology (8th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bauer, T., Morrison, E., & Callister, R. (1998). Organisational socialisation: A review and
directions for future research. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management,
16(2), 149214.
Bennett, R. (2008). Reaching the board: Factors facilitating the progression of marketing
executives to senior positions in British companies. British Journal of Management, 20(1),
3054.
Bosley, S., Arnold, J., & Cohen, L. (2006). The anatomy of credibility: A conceptual framework
of valued career helper attributes. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 70(1), 116134.
Bowen, D., Bedford, G., & Nathan, B. (1991). Hiring for the organisation, not the job. Academy
of Management Executive, 5(1), 3551.
Brayfield, A., & Rothe, H. (1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology,
35(4), 307311.
Brown, R., Condor, S., Matthews, A., Wade, G., & Williams, J. (1986). Explaining intergroup
differentiation in an industrial organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 59(2),
273286.
Campbell, T. (1997). Do senior sales reps make good mentors? Sales and Marketing
Management, 149(12), 9496.
Chin, W. (2001). PLS-Graph users guide (Version 3). Houston, TX: Soft Modelling.
Chung, K. (2000). Hotel management curriculum reform based on required competencies of
hotel employees and career success in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 21(5),
473487.
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 25

Coon, D. (1994). Essentials of psychology (6th ed.). Los Angeles: West.

Cowell, D. (1987). Some insights into the background and training of marketing executives in
the UK. Journal of Marketing Management, 5(1), 5160.
Dacko, S. (2006). Narrowing the skills gap for marketers of the future. Marketing Intelligence
and Planning, 24(3), 283295.
Davies, C. (2002). Workers, professions and identities. In J. Henderson & D. Atkinson (Eds.),
Managing care in context (pp. 189210). London: Routledge.
Diamantopoulos, A., & Winklhofer, H. (2001). Index construction with formative indicators:
An alternative to scale development. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 269278.
Dickmann, M., & Harris, H. (2005). Developing career capital for global careers: The role of
international assignments. Journal of World Business, 40(4), 399408.
Dobrow, S., & Higgins, M. (2005). Developmental networks and professional identity: A
longitudinal study. Career Development International, 10(6/7), 567583.
Doherty, N., Viney, C., & Adamson, S. (1997). Rhetoric or reality: Shifts in graduate career
management. Career Development International, 2(4), 173179.
Feldman, D. (2002). Stability in the midst of change: A developmental perspective on the study
of careers. In D. Feldman (Ed.), Work careers: A developmental perspective (pp. 326). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fine, L., & Pullins, E. (1998). Peer mentoring dyads in the industrial sales force: Does gender
matter? Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 18(4), 89103.
Fornell, C., & Cha, J. (1994). Partial least squares. In R. Bagazzi (Ed.), Advanced methods of
marketing research (pp. 5278). Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Gabriel, H., Kottasz, R., & Bennett, R. (2006). Advertising planning, ad-agency use of
advertising models, and the academic practitioner divide. Marketing Intelligence and
Planning, 24(5), 505527.
Garavan, T., & Morley, M. (1997). The socialisation of high-potential graduates into the
organisation. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 12(2), 118137.
Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, D., & Gardy, R. (2001). Managing human resources. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Graham, C., & McKenzie, A. (1995). Delivering the promise: Developing new graduates.
Education and Training, 37(2), 3340.
Gray, B., Ottesen, G., Bell, J., Chapman, C., & Whitman, J. (2007). What are the essential
capabilities of marketers? A comparative study of managers, academics and student
perceptions. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 25(3), 271295.
Green, S., & Bauer, T. (1995). Supervisory mentoring by advisors: Relationships with doctoral
student potential, productivity and commitment. Personnel Psychology, 48(4), 537561.
Gush, J. (1996). Graduates into the retail industry: An assessment of the nature and causes of
mismatches between the needs and expectations of the retail industry and its graduate
employees. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 24(9), 512.
Hair, J., Anderson, R., Tatham, R., & Black, W. (1998). Multivariate data analysis5th ( ed.).
London: Prentice-Hall.
Hekman, D., Bigley, G., Steensma, H., & Hereford, J. (2009). Combined effects of organisational
and professional identification on the reciprocity dynamic for professional employees.
Academy of Management Journal, 52(3), 506526.
Hoggs, M., & Terry, D. (2000). Social identity and self-categorisation processes in
organisational contexts. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 121141.
Holden, R., & Harte, V. (2004). New graduate engagement with professional development: A
pilot study. Journal of European Industrial Training, 28(24), 273282.
Holmes, L. (2001). Reconsidering graduate employability: The graduate identity approach.
Quality in Higher Education, 7(2), 111119.
Honeycutt, E., Ford, J., Swenson, M., & Swinyard, W. (1999). Student preferences for sales
careers around the Pacific Rim. Industrial Marketing Management, 28(1), 2736.
Ibarra, H. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional
adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764791.
26 Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 27

Jackson, D., Hollmann, T., & Gallan, A. (2006). Examining career development programmes
for the sales force. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 21(5), 291299.
Kidd, J., Jackson, C., & Hirsh, W. (2002). The outcomes of effective career discussion at work.
Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 62(1), 119133.
Kirpal, S. (2004). Work identities of nurses: Between caring and efficiency demands. Career
Development International, 9(3), 274304.
Lashinsky, A. (2006). Chaos by design. Fortune, 154(7), 8698.
Lindell, M., & Whitney, D. (2001). Accounting for common method bias in cross-sectional
research designs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 114121.
Linville, P., & Carlston, D. (1994). Social cognition of the self. In P. Devine, D. Hamilton, &
T. Olstrom (Ed.), Social cognition: Impact on social psychology (pp. 144193). San Diego:
Academic Press.
Loi, R., Hang-Yue, N., & Foley, S. (2004). The effect of professional identification on job
attitudes: A study of lawyers in Hong Kong. International Journal of Organisational
Analysis, 12(2), 109128.
Maxwell, G., & Ogden, S. (2005). Career development of female managers in retailing:
Inhibitors and enablers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 13(2), 111120.
Matlay, H. (2005). Entrepreneurship education in UK business schools: Conceptual, contextual and
policy considerations. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(4), 627643.
McCole, P. (2004). Refocusing marketing to reflect practice. Marketing Intelligence and
Planning, 22(5), 531539.
McDermott, E., Mangan, J. and OConnor, M. (2006), Graduate Development
Programmes and Satisfaction Levels, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol.
30, No. 6, pp. 456471.
McDougall, M., & Vaughn, E. (1996). Changing expectations of career development:
Implications for organisations and for social marketing. Journal of Management
Development, 15(9), 3646.
McLaughlin, J. (2003). Risky professional boundaries: Articulations of the personal self by
antenatal screening professionals. Journal of Health Organisation and Management, 17(4),
264279.
Michel, A. (2007). A distributed cognition perspective on newcomers change processes: The
management of cognitive uncertainty in two investment banks. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 52, 507557.
Miller, R. (2002). A prototype skills audit for marketing communications professionals.
Marketing Theory, 2(4), 419428.
Molden, D., & Dweck, C. (2006). Finding meaning in psychology: A lay theories approach to self-
regulation, social perception and social development. American Psychologist, 61(2), 192203.
Mowday, R., Steers, R., & Porter, L. (1979). The measurement of organisational commitment.
Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 14(2), 224247.
Murphy, G., & Southey, G. (2003). High performance work practices: Perceived determinants
of adoption and the role of the HR practitioner. Personnel Review, 32(1), 7392.
Ng, T., & Feldman, D. (2006). Organisational embeddedness and occupational embeddedness
across career stages. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 70(2), 336351.
Philipson, P. (1990). Career development and job templating. International Journal of Career
Management, 2(1), 715.
Schatzki, T. (2001). The practice of theory. In T. Schatzki, K. Cetina, & E. Von Savigny (Eds.),
The practice turn in contemporary theory (pp. 114). New York: Routledge.
Seibert, S., Kraimer, M., & Liden, R. (2001). A social capital theory of career success. Academy
of Management Journal, 44(2), 219237.
Swan, J., Newell, S., & Robertson, M. (2000). The diffusion, design and social shaping of
production management information systems in Europe. Information Technology and People,
13(1), 2745.
Weick, K., & Roberts, K. (1993). Collective mind in organisations: Heedful interrelating on
flight decks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(2), 357381.
 Bennett What makes a marketer? 27

Weick, K., Sutcliffe, K., & Obstfeld, D. (1999). Organising for high reliability: Processes of
collective mindfulness. In R. Sutton & B. Staw (Eds)., Research in organisational behaviour
(Vol. 21, pp. 81123). Stamford, CT: JAI Press.

About the author

Roger Bennett is a professor and the director of the Centre for Research in Marketing at London
Metropolitan University. His research interests focus on marketing communications, especially
the promotional and communications activities of non-profit organisations and the effectiveness
of various forms of advertising imagery employed in the non-profit field. Roger is the author of
many books and a large number of journal articles on various aspects of marketing and business
management.

Centre for Research in Marketing, London Metropolitan Business School, 84 Moorgate,

London EC2M 6SQ.
T 44 20 7320 1577
E r.bennett@londonmet.ac.uk
Copyright of Journal of Marketing Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied
or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.