The marketing firm is that business organisation which responds to the imperatives of consumer-orientation. Its style of management is marked by its adherence to the criteria of goal separation, participation in marketing transactions, entrepreneurial sovereignty and reciprocal entrepreneurial management, all of which are explored in this pioneering book. It assumes the proposition, uncontroversial enough to marketing academics and students, that contemporary firms can survive and prosper ¿ achieve their financial goal, be it the maximization of profit or sales or growth ¿ only if they respond appropriately to those imperatives: specifically, the forces that promote consumer discretion and consumer sophistication. Surprisingly, however, theories of the firm,