Critical historical research method and marketing scholarship

As a research toolkit grounded in the philosophy and practice of critical analysis, critical ‘historical research method’ (critical HRM) can help explain marketing-related phenomena that shape and are shaped by social context and human agency. The value to marketing scholarship of critical HRM, which relies on critical realism (CR) and abductive reasoning (AR), is shown by (1) presenting elements of effective historical research, and (2) arguing historical research that entails social factors and their interactions compels a methodology for capturing the social and dynamic features of research objects. Implications of critical HRM for theory building and marketing practice are then summarised.