What do we mean by “marketing” resources and competencies? A comment on Hooley, Greenley, Cadogan, and Fahey (JBR 2005)

Hooley et al. [Hooley, G.J., Greenley, G.E., Cadogan, J.W., and Fahy, J., 2005. The performance impact of marketing resources. J Bus Res, 58, 18–27.] develop and empirically test scales for measuring marketing resources and competencies and to assess their performance outcomes. Their method provides a useful aid only for expanding understanding of marketing where “marketing” is interpreted as an adjective, rather than a verb. We develop a refined categorization of marketing competencies based on this important distinction. In particular, we argue that a view of marketing competencies as a verb complements Hooley et al.'s treatment by suggesting a new type of marketing competence, called “competence-based marketing”. A case study in the Italian high fashion industry illustrates this new perspective.