Collection Development Statement
Marketing
Principal Selector
Diane Zabel
Benzak Business Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Secondary Selectors
Gary White
Head, Schreyer Business Library
309 Paterno Library
Daniel Hickey
Business/IST Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Kevin Harwell
Business Librarian
309 Paterno Library
Fund
MKTG
General Statement
Marketing is one of the major functional areas of business. Marketers study trends to identify the need for new products and services, oversee product development, identify potential markets for products and services, develop pricing strategy, and promote goods and services. The fundamentals of marketing are often described as the “four P’s”: product, place, price, and promotion. In terms of the curriculum, “every Smeal Marketing course explores one of these aspects and how it relates to others.” (Smeal College Web Site: http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/academics-advising/information-on-smeal-majors/marketing)
Program Information
Collections in this area support marketing programs in the Smeal College of Business and other campuses of Penn State. Business students across the Penn State system are required to take marketing courses. Smeal College offers undergraduate and doctoral programs in marketing. Marketing is also one of the concentrations in the MBA program. Additionally, these resources are used by students enrolled in other programs (most notably, the School of Hospitality Management and the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management) that focus on the marketing of services.
There are currently 21 faculty members. In terms of research, “the department is consistently ranked in the top 20 marketing department in the U.S. Over half of the faculty serve on editorial boards of top marketing journals and many have won prestigious awards for their research contributions.” (Smeal College Web Site: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/phd/mktg/) Twelve students are currently enrolled in the doctoral program.
Areas of Focus/Strengths
Collection strengths include services marketing, new product development, consumer behavior, marketing strategy, marketing ethics, and electronic commerce. Marketing students also make heavy use of electronic resources relating to company information, industry analysis, and marketing data.
Description of Materials Covered
Marketing collections consists of resources relating to a variety of subjects: consumer behavior; marketing research; marketing strategy; product development; market segmentation; brand management; business to business marketing; product promotion; global marketing; retailing; electronic commerce; marketing management; sales management; marketing ethics; and research methodology. The emphasis is on scholarly monographs and research journals. Textbooks, conference proceedings, and popular works are collected selectively. Marketing collections also include career-related materials and audio visual materials.
Overlap with Other Collections
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, there is considerable overlap with other collection areas, including, but not limited to the following:
• Advertising
• Economics
• Geography
• Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management
• Management
• Management Information Systems
• Psychology
• Public Relations
• Quality and Manufacturing Management
• Recreation, Park and Tourism Management
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Supply Chain and Information Systems
Subject & Language Modifiers
Emphasis is placed on English language materials. Materials published in the last two to three years are primarily collected because of the need for currency.
Exclusions
Marketing collections generally exclude dissertations and theses (except for those written by individuals who join the Penn State faculty in this school), working papers, and case studies.
Special Considerations
In addition to supporting the curricular and research needs of the Marketing Department, this fund must support the needs of researchers affiliated with The Institute for the Study of Business Markets and the Center for Digital Transformation, two research centers affiliated with the Marketing Department. A new responsibility is the collection of materials to support Smeal’s recently established Center for Sports Business and Research, a center led by one of Smeal’s distinguished professors of marketing.
Future Directions
New or expanding areas of interest include the following: buyer-seller relationships; business-to-business marketing; online consumer behavior; branding issues in sustainability; and sports marketing.
May 2009
