Per una storia degli studi di marketing in Italia : note e appunti tra editoria e università

For a history of Marketing studies in Italy: Notes between publishing and higher education In this work we describe some aspects of the history of Marketing in Italy, referring both to the universities (didactic and research aspects) and to the publishing industry (books and specialized journals). By the historical point of view, we must remember the importance in Italy, since the second half of the 19th century, of advertising activities. This could have created a propitious situation to Marketing studies already in the early decades of the 20th century, thanks also to the work of dynamic and receptive entrepreneurs about these matters. Instead, especially since 1925-1926, the Fascist regime imposes serious conditionings on the Italian University, which in the field of economic studies bring teaching and research to take care of other topics, especially related to economic doctrine of Corporativismo (Corporatism).

After the Second World War marketing studies start developing in Italy, but the diffusion of this discipline in the universities is slow and tiring, despite - for example - the commitment of a scholar like Guglielmo Tagliacarne. Only between the end of the 1950s and the early 1960s Marketing begins to be taught (within courses of Industrial and commercial technique or Market analysis) in some universities; at the same time, Italian editions of American marketing texts begin to be published. In the following decades, the growth of Marketing in higher education goes together with the publication of Italian marketing books and specialized journals in the same matter. However, only at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, we can say that Marketing has found the right place in academic teaching and research. Studying these issues in a historical perspective invites us to deepen the multidisciplinary content of Marketing,

in reference both to the sphere of economic and social sciences and to specific aspects such agri-food economy, tourism, foodstuffs, and - finally - the marketing of agricultural products. [Publisher's text].