Science, serendipity and the contemporary marketing condition

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this commentary is to summarise developments in the science of serendipity and urge marketers to pay more attention to the incorrigible incalculability of commercial life.

Design/methodology/approach

Explains how luck is a crucial component of business success and argues, citing examples of Shelby D. Hunt and Ted Levitt, among others, that it is perhaps time to abandon our fixation with customer focus and start taking serendipity seriously

Findings

Fortune, clearly, favours the brand. Indeed, the history of management in general and marketing in particular reveals that serendipity plays a significant part in the commercial equation.

Originality/value

Highlights the latter day advances in the science of serendipity.

Citation

Brown, S. (2005), "Science, serendipity and the contemporary marketing condition", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 11/12, pp. 1229-1234. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560510623235