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Early Development of Collegiate Education in International Marketing Author(s): Peggy Cunningham and D. G. Brian Jones Source: Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1997), pp. 87-102Published by: American Marketing AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25043048Accessed: 24-05-2015 15:38 UTC

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Educator Insights: Early Development of Collegiate Education in International Marketing

This article sheds light on some of the early roots of international

marketing thought; it describes some of the earliest university courses offered in international marketing in North America. It pre sents evidence that international marketing was the subject of aca

demic endeavor early in the twentieth century. It compares and

contrasts topics covered in the earliest courses with those used in

modern programs of study.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the long history of

collegiate education in international marketing. Rare archival sources are used to document specific examples of university courses and writings on the subject. Evidence relating to the

early development of marketing dates from the turn of this

century. Attention is focused on collegiate education in the United States and Canada because of the availability of source materials and because of the obvious historical ties between these two countries.

Very little study has been made of the intellectual heritage of international marketing. Bartels (1988) used a somewhat nar row definition of marketing and, thus, failed to recognize the

early international marketing scholarship described in this

study. Eroglu and Eroglu (1993) focused on the development of international marketing as an organized and legitimized discipline. In contrast, this article demonstrates that the in tellectual seeds of international marketing thought were

planted long before what is commonly believed to be the case. The efforts here are a matter of establishing the chrono

logical evolution of international marketing thought rather than an attempt to "set the record straight" in terms of refut

ing work by other scholars.

Admittedly, it is difficult to draw precise lines around the

subject matter of international marketing, especially in the

early part of this century. This difficulty arises for two rea sons. The first problem associated with this task arises be cause the terminology surrounding early and modern

marketing wasn't synonymous. We contend that early usage of terms such as "commerce," "trade," "merchandising," and

"distribution" are a reflection of early marketing practice.

ABSTRACT

Peggy Cunningham D.G. Brian Jones

Submitted July 1996

Revised October 1996

December 1996

? Journal of International Marketing Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997, pp. 87-102

ISSN 1069-031X

87



The Early Literature

Second, one has to differentiate between marketing practice and

marketing theory. While international marketing practice pre dates the biblical age, as witnessed by the development of trade routes linking Europe and Asia, it is claimed that marketing thought?the attempt to offer and integrate theories explaining practice?is less than 100 years old. Sheth and Garrett (1986) describe the development of marketing theory as follows:

. . . early pioneers made numerous conscious efforts to

evaluate marketing above selling and distribution, to link marketing as an idea rather than a group of activi

ties so that it could be recognized as a planning function and to generate several principles of marketing so that it could be labeled as a science rather than an art. (p. 211)

To support the contention that there was emerging theory in international marketing early in this century, this article be

gins by looking briefly at early attempts to develop a literature

dealing specifically with international marketing. Attention is then devoted to the more substantial efforts at establishing

university curricula on the subject. Curricula development is taken as an indication that there was an evolving body of in

ternational marketing theory. In other words, there was an at

tempt to integrate and explain international marketing practice by early scholars. This article then focuses on the ear

liest identifiable developments in two countries?the United

States, and its traditionally lock-stepped follower, Canada. Fi

nally, a detailed comparison is made of how international

marketing was taught in early courses with how the subject is

approached in modern business curricula.

The early twentieth-century American business school pro

fessors, George M. Fisk and Simon Litman, are recognized as

pioneering university teachers of marketing. However, what

is not generally known is that both of these scholars were

specifically interested in international marketing and wrote

about marketing in the context of international commerce.

Fisk holds the distinction of being recognized as one of the first scholars in North America to teach a university market

ing course. He did so in 1902 at the University of Illinois (Lit man 1950; Maynard 1941). His own university education had

taken him to many different parts of the world. He started at

Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylva nia and continued in Halle, Berlin, Munich, London, Paris,

Geneva, and Brussels (Ely 1910). He received his Ph.D. in po litical economy from the University of Munich in 1896. From 1897 to 1900 he worked as the Secretary of the American Em

bassy in Berlin under Ambassador Andrew D. White to

whom Fisk dedicated his first book?International Commer cial Policies (1907).

88 Peggy Cunningham and D.G. Brian Jones



The "policies" with which Fisk was most concerned in his book were those bearing on free trade and economic protec tionism. However, there is also an unmistakable marketing

identity to the book. It begins, appropriately enough, by defining its subject matter?international commerce. Com

merce, Fisk asserted, is concerned with the creation of time,

place, and quantity utilities. Its agent is the merchant; its ma terials are goods, commodities, merchandise, wares, or prod

ucts. In other words, Fisk was writing about marketing.

While some present-day writers acknowledge the early ori

gins of international trade, they deny that such practices could be conceived of as marketing. However, Fisk's writ

ings, while labeled commerce, are undeniably marketing ori

ented and reflect an attempt to explain and set norms for

practice, as the following quotation illustrates:

When goods have been manufactured they must be dis tributed to those places where consumers are to be

found, held until they are wanted and furnished in de sired quantities. That branch of economics which thus serves as a bridge between initial producers and final consumers by creating the necessary place, time and

quantity utilities, is commerce. (Fisk 1907, p. 6)

In other words, here is a turn-of-the-century scholar writing about what we understand today as marketing theory. Thus, we

contend that early scholars' use of the term "international com merce" can be interpreted as meaning "international marketing."

It is important to recognize that early marketing scholars used terminology in ways that differ from modern usage. This confusion about terminology at least partially explains why the early scholarship in international marketing has not been recognized. Nevett (1995) stresses that researchers have to be cognizant of this problem when conducting historical research. An examination of some of the early work in mar

keting education reveals that the term "commerce" was used

to designate international marketing and to distinguish such international dealings between nations from domestic com

merce, frequently labeled as trade. The following quotation clarifies this distinction.

The terms "commerce" and "trade" mean very much the

same thing, although the former often refers to commer

cial dealings between nations, while the latter is more

often applied to internal mercantile intercourse. Thus we speak, on the one hand, of the foreign commerce or

commercial relations of the United States and, on the other hand, of the wholesale or retail trade of individual




merchants . . . Trade is either wholesale or retail. The

latter may be defined as sales to the final consumer and the former as mercantile transactions among all classes

except the final consumer. (Fisk 1907, p. 6)

Most of Fisk's book was devoted to discussing the interna tional political environment in which marketing took place, rather than the techniques of international marketing. In any case, it provides a significant starting point for the historical examination of international marketing education.

Simon Litman was a contemporary of Fisk's and has also

been cited as one of the first university teachers of marketing in North America. He made his contribution in that connec tion in 1902-03 at the University of California (Maynard 1941). Litman's background and education were similar to

Fisk's, yet even more international in nature. He grew up in

Russia where he attended a high school of commerce. He then moved to the United States where his family entered the textile business, and eventually he pursued studies in politi cal science and economics in Paris, Munich, and Zurich. In

1901, Litman received his Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Zurich. The following year he was offered a

faculty position at the University of California (Litman 1963).

Litman began writing about international commerce and inter

national marketing in 1907, while he was on the faculty of the

University of California. After the great earthquake in 1906 he wrote articles that, in part, were intended to promote the port of San Francisco during the city's rebuilding process. "The

Trading Place of Nations" (1906) and "San Francisco as a For

eign Shipping Port" (1908) were examples of those efforts. Lit man also began, in 1907, to write a book tentatively titled, Mechanism and Technique of Commerce, which was to have been in large measure a book about international marketing.

Although Mechanism and Technique of Commerce was never published, it may ultimately have provided the basis for Litman's Essentials of International Trade, which was

published in 1923. We do know, however, that it did become the basis for a course titled "Mechanism and Technique of

Commerce," which was taught by Litman at the University of Illinois starting in the 1910s. The chapter headings included in the outline are indicative of the marketing issues of con cern to Litman, and included: "Wholesale Trade," "Storage &

Warehousing Industry," "Retail Trade," "Department Stores,"

"Cooperative Distribution," and "Commercial Competition," which was described as dealing with:

Character in wholesale and in retail trade. Influence of

mail order business. Various fields in which merchants




compete; acquisition of a suitable locality, of necessary capital and credit, of competent employees, of advanta

geous sources of supply. Competition to win customers.

Underselling. Effect on the quality of goods. Attractive

packing. Conveniences in the store. Free delivery of

goods. Advertising. Productive and consumptive goods. The bulk of advertising confined to finished articles. Rea sons why. Mediums and methods of advertising. Compar ative value of each medium. Purpose of advertising and its significance in modern business. (Litman 1923, p. 15)

Keeping in mind that there were few, if any, texts dealing with the subject of marketing in 1907, it is nonetheless clear that marketing was the focus of Litman's thinking at that time. Furthermore, and this is the most remarkable aspect of

Mechanism and Technique of Commerce for our purpose here, Litman's outline relied extensively on examples from international marketing. His "Fairs" were those of Leipzig and Novgorod; the auctions were those of London and

Antwerp. He used as illustrations markets in Les Halles Cen

trales Paris, chambers of commerce in England and the United States, and commercial museums of London, Brus

sels, and Vienna.

Although Mechanism and Technique of Commerce was never

published, it illustrates the fact that ideas about international

marketing existed long before textbooks on the subject were

published. Furthermore, it also served as the basis of a course of instruction at the University of Illinois during the 1910s, and, in that way, reminds us that curriculum development

was an important part of the development of international

marketing thought.

In a survey of 50 American colleges and universities con

ducted in 1922, Moffat reported that many institutions had been offering courses in foreign trade since 1917 and one had done so since the turn of the century (1922, p. 399). Three ad ditional cases are documented in the pages that follow and

we suspect that there were more. In many instances these

courses only implicitly dealt with the narrower field of inter national marketing. In some cases, however, that focus was

more clear and direct. Consider the following examples.

It is difficult to write about the origins of the marketing cur riculum (including international marketing) of either of these schools without reference to the other. Their histories are tied together by an almost tragic connection between the pio neer marketing scholars of each school?George M. Fisk at the University of Illinois and Simon Litman at the University of California. Indeed, Litman moved to the University of Illi nois to take over Fisk's position when the latter left in 1907.

Shortly thereafter Fisk died accidentally.

Curriculum Development in the United States

University of Illinois? University of California

Educator Insights: Early Development of Collegiate 91 Education in International Marketing



The early curriculum in international marketing at the Uni

versity of Illinois is particularly noteworthy, because both Fisk and Litman taught there. As described above, those two scholars had similar backgrounds and training. Both have been recognized for their seminal contributions to the birth of the marketing discipline?and in a tragic twist of fate, Lit

man may have had the career in international marketing that Fisk would have had if Fisk had lived.

Fisk has been credited for teaching one of the first university courses in marketing while at the University of Illinois in 1902 (Litman 1950). That course, "Domestic Commerce and Commercial Politics" was described as follows.

... a course on internal [domestic] trade including a

comparative study of the various forms of commercial

organization, such as general wholesale and retail trade,

department, co-operative, and company stores, ped

dling, huckstering and hawking, booths, auctions, com

mercial agents, including commercial travellers, and the

coupon system. Other subjects considered are markets

and fairs, stock and produce exchanges, trade compa

nies, commercial and technical schools. (University of Illinois Catalogue, 1902-03, p. 23)

What is most interesting for our purposes here, however, is

that this 1902 course was offered with a companion course,

also taught by Professor Fisk. This second course was enti

tled "Foreign Commerce and Commercial Politics" and was

the international version of the domestic marketing course.

Continuation of course 28 [Domestic Commerce and Commercial Politics]. A study of the various commer cial systems (mercantile, free trade, and protective); kinds of tariffs, commercial treaties, reciprocity; com

mercial statistics and balances; institutions for further

ing export trade (commercial museums and bureaus of

information, sample houses, consular reports, etc.).

(University of Illinois Catalogue 1902-03, p. 207)

Thus, the first documented college course in marketing had a concomitant course in international marketing and was

taught by the same individual scholar.

In 1907 when Fisk left the University of Illinois, his position was filled by Litman, who had pioneered a course in marketing at the University of California in 1903 (Maynard 1941). In his 1950 Journal of Marketing article, "The Beginnings of Teaching

Marketing in American Universities," Litman described the 1903 University of California course, "The Technique of l?ade and Commerce," and included the following discussion.

92 P^ggy Cunningham and D.G. Brian Jones



The proximity of the port of San Francisco may have had something to do with the inclusion in my discus sions of what has been termed foreign trade. I felt that this trade was not foreign to our national economy; the

handling of outgoing and incoming products on docks and in piers, in warehouses and customs houses, in

stores where importations were competing with domes tic merchandise, seemed to me to present problems of

salesmanship, advertising, and financing closely inter woven with national distributive activities. If this be

heresy, I plead guilty to it. (pp. 221-22)

The closing sentence seems to indicate Litman's surprise that

anyone would assume international marketing was not natu

rally and necessarily a part of marketing.

Similarly, the Harvard Business School in 1915 offered three courses grouped under the section heading "Foreign TYade,"

which included the following description.

Manufactured wares must not only be offered for sale;

they must be pushed and pushed intelligently with due reference to distributing methods and consumer de

mand. Merchandising methods are, in some lines, quite different in the United States and foreign countries_ The analogies and contrasts with the merchandising methods in the domestic trade of the United States make such study profitable even to students who do not plan to enter the import or export trade. [Harvard Business School Register 1915, p. 38)

One of the interesting things about this description was its

explicit recognition of differences in marketing technique be tween countries. The absence of that distinction is often lamented by international marketing scholars today. Of fur

ther interest is that the three courses offered in foreign trade at Harvard were all taught by marketing specialists?Paul Cherington, Seldin Martin, and Melvin Copeland.

"Foreign T?ade Methods" was taught by Cherington and dealt

with market selection, market development, and channel rela

tions for both importing and exporting (Harvard Business

School Register 1915, pp. 38-39). "European l?ade" was taught

by Copeland and offered the following course description.

The problems of wholesale and retail distribution in Eu

rope are given special attention because of their bearing upon the selection of import agencies by the American

exporter, upon his credit and price policies, and upon

Harvard Business School




Curriculum Development in Canada

the methods of creating a permanent consumer demand. The discussion of these problems is also of interest to stu dents of domestic marketing methods in the United States.

(Harvard Business School Register 1915, pp. 39-40)

Undoubtedly, this course evolved from the one Copeland had been teaching at Harvard since 1909 entitled "Economic Re sources and Commercial Policy of the Chief European States,"

which was an extension of the required introductory course in marketing. And finally, Seldon Martin taught the course in "Latin-American T?ade Problems," which looked at:

problems of selling methods, trade organization, arrang

ing of credit, financing of transactions, transportation of

goods, combination to secure trade more economically, tariff barriers and the like. [Harvard Business School

Register 1915, p. 40)

Thus, it is evident that international marketing was consid ered an important facet of the marketing discipline by pioneer

marketing scholars. Moreover, there is clear evidence that it

was taught at an early point in the development of American

university curricula in marketing. Although business schools were later to develop in Canada, when they did so interna tional marketing was likewise part of the curriculum.

In 1919, Queen's University started Canada's first university program leading to a Bachelor of Commerce degree. The pro gram was deliberately modeled after those at Harvard and the

University of Chicago (Jones and McLean 1995). It included in its curriculum the first distinctly Canadian university course in marketing (Jones 1992, p. 127). Within two years that marketing course was split into two offerings, "Domestic

Marketing" and "Foreign Marketing." Both courses were re

quired for the major in "Foreign Trade," which was one of nine majors offered in the Queen's program. The latter course was taught by W.C. Clark, a graduate of Harvard and the chief architect of the Queen's business program. In addition to the School's Calendar description, there remain reading lists and final exams for that course as well as student theses from that

era, all of which provide considerable insight into what was

being taught in international marketing in Canada at that time. In 1921 the Queen's course in Foreign Marketing was:

A course in the methods and problems of international

trading, with special reference to export trade and to

Canadian conditions. The economics of world trade. Canada's foreign trade?chief products and markets.

The technique of foreign trade?preparing foreign ship




ments, shipping terms and documents, shipping, price quotations, financing. Export policies?direct and indi rect exporting. Analyzing and developing foreign mar kets. Export policies in our more important industries. Relation of import to export trade. {Queen's University Calendar 1921, p. 116)

While the course in "Domestic Marketing" could, and did, draw on well-known texts such as Cherington's Elements of

Marketing, Copeland's Some Problems of Marketing, and Weld's Marketing of Farm Products, the international course had to rely on the careful selection of international trade

readings, which, nevertheless, had a clear focus on market

ing issues. Thus, Clark followed the Harvard example of

combining basic principles with problems or cases, teaching theory combined with practice.

The principles of international marketing were covered using Wolfe's (1919) text, Theory and Practice of International

Commerce, which was described as "a scientific outline of the merchandising principles in export and import" (p. 3).

The marketing content is evident in Wolfe's emphasis on mer

chandising, which included such topics as "Merchants as

Middlemen," "Producers and Consumers," "Commission Mer

chants and Agents," "Selling Agents and Representatives," as

well as chapters on international pricing, shipping, and pro motion. Indeed, Wolfe was undoubtedly focusing on market

ing when he wrote that the "central technical process known as the sale ... forms the center of our consideration leading us

to a systematic study of conditions antecedent and subsequent to the conclusion of the sales contract" (Wolfe 1919, p. 4).

Wolfe's text provided Clark with some basic principles or "methods" of foreign marketing. To give students the opportu nity to study real problems and cases, Clark included as re

quired reading the Reports of the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce and Consular Reports. The former con

sisted of articles that were published weekly, dealing with Canadian trade in various countries of the world. These were

very detailed statistical descriptions of the exports and im

ports of foreign countries together with discussions of the op portunities for Canadian trade. The reports provided the basis of problems for which students were assigned the task of de

veloping marketing solutions. For example, student theses dealt with such topics as "Trade Relations with Brazil"

(Hawkins 1929), "Australian External T?ade" (Britton 1930), "A Study of the Canadian Export T?ade in Dairy Products" (In

gersoll 1930), and "Canada's TYade with the Empire" (Engler 1931). The relative importance accorded foreign trade in the

Queen's business program between 1926 and 1946 is sug gested by the fact that 34 of 495 graduates (7 percent) chose such international marketing topics for the thesis requirement.




International Marketing?

Then and Now

Further evidence of the nature ofthat 1921 course in foreign marketing is available from the final exam, which included

questions dealing with:

shipping to, and financing in, Rio de Janeiro,

use of export commission houses as middlemen,

sources of information for international marketing re

search,

the development of "a comprehensive campaign for overseas trade," and

the role of foreign trade in the Canadian economy. (Queen's University Examinations, April, 1922)

The latter topic is especially noteworthy. During the 1920s, and indeed throughout much of its history, Canada had a small domestic market and, thus, the country depended heav

ily on exports of staple commodities such as grain and lumber to foreign markets. One of the very first books to deal exclu

sively with Canadian marketing, published in 1939, focused

specifically on that issue (the relatively greater importance to Canada of developing foreign markets), in chapters on "The Commercial Policy of Canada," and "Marketing Canadian Goods Abroad" (Kemp 1939).

In every sense, then, the 1921 Queen's University course was

about international marketing. In title, in description, and in

content, it is further evidence that pioneer marketing schol ars were clearly developing international marketing thought.

While it may be true that there has been a growth of interest and importance for the subject during the past couple of

decades, its heritage extends well into the early development of the marketing discipline.

One of the most surprising aspects uncovered during this re

search is the consistencies between the earliest international

marketing courses and those offered by modern business schools. People who think that international marketing has

just become the "hot topic" of the 1980s and 1990s have only to read an early exam question before they realize how simi lar coverage in the two eras is. The following question, for ex

ample, is as applicable today as when it was written in 1922.

Question 3: The Nip and Tuck Motor Co. Ltd. with fac

tory headquarters at Oshawa and branch sales offices in

Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver has been doing an expanding business in Canada for

years. Its product is a moderate priced automobile of

good quality... The time has been reached when added

domestic sales are obtained at an increasing cost per




unit of new business; and the company believes that ex

port offers a promising field for expanding sales and

augmenting profits.

(a) Suggest the type of investigation to be made and the character of the information to be gathered which

you would recommend to the company before defi

nitely committing itself to the new venture.

(b) State the chief sources to which the company should

go for its information.

(c) Outline a plan that the company might adopt in or

ganizing a comprehensive campaign for overseas

trade. (Queen's University Examinations, 1922)

As the exam question reveals, analyzing foreign markets and

organizing international marketing campaigns was as impor tant a topic in early marketing courses as it is today.

To further test whether topics considered important in the

early history of international marketing are still deemed rele vant and important today, popular international marketing texts were examined (e.g., Cateora 1993; Keegan 1994; Terp stra and Sarathy 1991). Course outlines were requested from the schools discussed in the earlier sections of this article (e.g.

Harvard, University of California) that had influential/early courses in international marketing. Additional syllabi for

modern international marketing were obtained from the Busi ness Administration Series of Reading Lists and Course Out lines (Schwindt 1995). Phil Parker's syllabus for international

marketing at INSEAD, for example, is typical of the material

gathered. His international marketing course is organized around nine topics: planning, researching international mar

kets, segmenting international markets, international pricing, entry strategies, foreign distribution, international communi

cations, product policy, and organization and control. George

Yip's syllabus for global marketing management at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School stresses, in addition to the above

topics, that management of the complexity associated with

multiple markets is essential. John Quelch, of the Harvard Business School, expands on the above areas to include such

topics as trademark protection, hyper inflation, international

product life cycles, and international sales force policy. Su san Douglas of the Stern School, New York University, in cludes the topic of ethics.

Paralleling early efforts, some schools offer multiple interna

tional marketing courses, including specialist courses such as the international marketing channels course offered by Anne Coughlan of the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Man

agement, Northwestern University, or the global brands course offered by Donald Sexton of Columbia University.




When McDaniel and Smith (1987) asked which topics should be included in an international marketing course, modern

managers seem to agree with academic coverage described

above, although the importance weightings may be different. The topics ranked according to importance chosen were: inter national product planning, pricing, distribution, marketing re

search, cultural environment, advertising, and personal selling.

Thus, it can be seen that the thorny issue of market selection in the complex global arena still plagues marketing students as

well as scholars. Product line management across markets chal

lenged early marketers just as it does today. Problems of whole sale and retail distribution are just as relevant in the 1990s as

they were in the 1920s. The differences in buyer behavior and the resulting differences in merchandising strategy generates just as much interest and lively discussion now as they must

have in the 1920s. Credit and pricing policies also have no eas ier solutions in the 1990s than they did in the 1920s.

While the courses taught in the 1920s and the ones taught in the 1990s share surprising similarities, there are marked dif ferences as well. Although considerable attention is paid to the issues of developing channels of distribution in both eras, little attention is given to shipping or logistics in today's courses since they now are handled by specialist areas adja cent to, but outside of, marketing. The types of products dis cussed in the two different eras also reflect the evolution of the North American economy from one largely dependent on the sale of agricultural products and natural resources (the

main topics for discussion in the 1920s) to an industrialized,

knowledge-based economy exporting a wide range of prod ucts and services directed at both final consumers as well as industrial buyers. While early international marketing courses had large components of what would be called

macro-marketing topics such as the relationship between im

port and export trade, government trade and regulatory pol

icy, and monetary policy, modern courses omit these topics since they are now offered by other university departments such as political science and economics. The absence of cer

tain topics in modern courses, however, is striking. While

importing was a prevalent topic in the earliest courses, it is almost entirely absent in courses offered today. This is in

spite of the fact that North Americans are frequently net im

porters of many goods and services.

Still other changes in modern international marketing courses reflect not only the nature of international marketing, but also the evolution of the marketing discipline itself.

While the early courses focused on offensive strategies (i.e.,

growing markets abroad and exporting to them), many mod ern courses add coverage of defensive strategies (protecting domestic markets from the inroads of foreign competitors,

Peggy Cunningham and D.G. Brian Jones



largely from Asia). Thus, as international competition inten

sifies, more and more attention is being paid to satisfaction

building strategies to prevent inroads from foreign competitors. Market planning is discussed in the context of managing multiple markets with the coverage of topics such as the cross-subsidization of markets and marketing synergies. Top ics such as first mover advantages, managing compressed life

cycles, and designing promotion programs to convey the nu ances of complex product offerings have growing relevance to the marketing of technically advanced products and ser vices. As firms form alliances to market such products, topics such as relationship marketing and alliance management are

receiving more attention. Not only must firms build lasting bonds with consumers, they must also establish close-knit re

lationships with suppliers of components as well as with members of the channel of distribution.

The advancement and increased weight put on international

marketing in the modern era perhaps can best be seen by the

range and depth of material now available for teaching the

topic. As was the case with the early courses, most modern

syllabi use a text as required reading material. Unlike most of the early offerings, many courses also list a range of cases

that will be used to help students apply theoretical topics to actual business decisions. Other instructors supplement these materials with extensive reading lists and recommend, like Tamer Cavusgil of the Eli Broad Graduate School of Man

agement, Michigan State University, that students also famil iarize themselves with a number of business periodicals and

journals such as the Columbia Journal of World Business, the Global Trade Executive, the Journal of International Business

Studies, and the Journal of International Marketing.

One remarkable difference between the materials used in the 1920s and those used in the 1990s is the change in gender specific language. In the early history of the discipline, men

were the only international academics and assumed to be the

only students; course materials were clearly targeted at them as this excerpt from the Queen's Calendar demonstrates. "This course is designed for men preparing for service in the

development of our foreign trade, whether as government trade commissioners or in private enterprise" (Queen's Cal

endar 1921, p.18).

Of course, the history of marketing thought or ideas depends on a definition of "marketing" and therefore, in this case, of "international marketing." Defined rather narrowly, the

study of international marketing has been dated to the 1930s

and is even thought by some contemporary marketing schol ars to be a more recent topic of concern. One doesn't need to

move very far from those narrow definitions of international

Conclusions




The Authors

Peggy Cunningham is assistant

professor of marketing at Queen's University, Ontario.

D.G. Brian Jones is associate pro

fessor of marketing at University of Prince Edward Island.

marketing to see that pioneer marketing scholars such as

Fisk, Litman, Cherington, Copeland, and others, studied such issues and integrated them at the outset into university

marketing curricula.

International marketing was also an obvious and integral part of the thinking and curriculum when Canadian university business schools opened in the early 1920s. The first such course was offered at Queen's University in 1921. Of course, it was somewhat different from early courses in the United States in its focus on the distinct marketing problems of Canadian international trade.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowl

edged. Helpful comments were

provided by Jean Boddewyn and three anonymous reviewers. An

earlier version of this paper was

presented by the authors at the 7th

Marketing History Conference.

There is a surprising similarity between modern interna tional marketing education and its antecedents of the early twentieth century. Many of the same issues, such as market

analysis and development in addition to guidelines about how to carry out the basic marketing functions in other coun

tries, typify both eras. With the increased internationaliza tion of business, it is undeniable that international marketing techniques have become more sophisticated and the manage

ment task more complex. While modern international mar

keting courses reflect this complexity, the core topics offered in today's courses are highly similar to those in the earliest courses. The topic has increased in importance, and univer

sity course offerings have proliferated; it is no longer com

mon to see just an international version of the introductory marketing course, nor only specialized books on the topic.

Today it is more likely that international marketing is inte

grated into other courses and texts on marketing as well as

being offered as stand-alone, specialist offerings. Then again,

recalling Litman's comments cited above, perhaps that's the

way it has been for a long time?the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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early development of collegiate education in international marketing

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