Role Theory Approaches for Effectiveness of Marketing-oriented Boundary Spanners

Role theory has proved remarkably promising in examining effectiveness of marketing-oriented boundary spanners. This paper reviews different approaches for examining role theory implications for boundary spanners—namely universalistic and contingency approaches—and develops the configural approach by extending configurational theory principles to role theory. Neither the contingency nor the configural approach has received much attention in the marketing literature. We compare and contrast different approaches, outlining bodies of work that have remained less accessible to marketing researchers. By triangulating across the alternative approaches, we expose underlying assumptions and press for critical assessment of their ecological validity. We identify opportunities for potential contributions by exploring promising but as yet uncharted approaches.