Freedom and international marketing : Janis Joplin's candidacy as Patron of the field

The role of international marketing in society as perceived by the public is under attack. The discipline has progressively been linked to exploitation, increases in poverty, and special interests. The appeal of the discipline has declined, academics have switched fields, and its domain has shrunk severely from its heyday in the 1970s. This article presents a call for a new breadth of thinking in the discipline. The concept of freedom offers international marketing a key change agent in times of global adjustment. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.