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Marketing strategy implementation in healthcare organizations: Navigating the challenges of marketing dispersion

Author

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  • Malshe, Avinash
  • Biemans, Wim
  • Friend, Scott B.

Abstract

To keep pace with various demands, marketing activities are often distributed outside the confines of a centralized department. Marketing dispersion is particularly prevalent in healthcare organizations, where market challenges and internal pressures call for non-marketing employees (NMEs) to play key roles in marketing strategy implementation. What remains uncertain, however, is how marketing being dispersed to NMEs impedes implementation. The authors gather and leverage multisource qualitative data, including three in-depth interviews for each of the 40 healthcare organizations sampled (n = 120), to examine the involvement of NMEs in marketing strategy implementation. Findings identify three types of marketing strategy implementation impediments associated with marketing dispersion, as well as the NME-related drivers of these hindrances. The findings conclude with tactics that can help marketers to mitigate the mechanisms at play between the emergent drivers and impediments. The results offer contributions at the intersection of marketing strategy implementation, marketing dispersion, and healthcare marketing literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Malshe, Avinash & Biemans, Wim & Friend, Scott B., 2025. "Marketing strategy implementation in healthcare organizations: Navigating the challenges of marketing dispersion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325004163
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115593
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    References listed on IDEAS

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