The macro side of marketing takes the subject beyond the realm of commerce and into the wider societal context, looking at the marketing process in its entirety. We have long been suspicious of the negative side of the marketing process, exemplified in credit card debt, poor diet, smoking and alcohol abuse. But on the other hand consumer choice, public service information and the encouragement of innovation and creativity are also ways in which marketing affects the social and environmental sphere, in ways that scholars are only beginning to fully investigate. The study of macromarketing, with its focus on how marketing and society inform each other, is increasingly seen as the fastest growing direction in marketing education.

This four-volume set takes on these questions from every angle, and to date is the only authoritative collection of the most important writing published in the field. It surveys the history of the discipline, before pushing the boundaries of macromarketing scholarship with work on contemporary topics such as Islamic marketing ethics, pharmaceutical marketing, the Fair Trade movement, and the role of marketing in the developing world. In addition, the broad intellectual interests of the international editorial board incorporate papers of cross-disciplinary influence that might not be on the radar of marketing academics.