ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with a review of the relationship between the marketing concept and organisation structure, and then considers the process of integrating functions in the evolution or formation of a marketing department. This leads to an examination of the information-processing characteristics of marketing structures and the related shaping force of different environmental conditions. The chapter also examines the possible disintegration of the marketing sub-unit in the context of various emerging views about the future of marketing organisation. Recognising that marketing sub-unit responsibilities vary substantially between organisations implies that the location issue is critical, where location refers both to the level of the simple company hierarchy at which marketing responsibilities are placed, and in the divisional structures of more complex organisations. The evidence of practice suggests that we must recognise in particular the issue of the degree of centralisation or decentralisation of marketing responsibilities in activities and levels.
