Incorporate Marketing Strategy and Management: the Umbrella of the Ecosystem Theory

 Purpose: This paper proposes to incorporate marketing and management relational theories under the umbrella of the ecosystem theory. The ecosystem theory apprehends relational phenomena integrating the micro, mezzo and macro of an open system and considers the ethical and sustainable elements for its equilibrium  Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes an integrative literature review and discusses current paradigms in marketing and management.  Findings: Three major challenges have been identified: (1) the empirical complexity of the social processes (2) the integration of a tri-dimensional vision of the social phenomenon (the “What”), the modus operendi (the “How”) and its context (the “Why”), and (3) the philosophical complexity of envisioning integrative and convergent theories.  Research limitations/implications: The ecosystem theory proposes an open vision of the whole network respecting the equilibrium among the economic, the social exchange and the ecology for a long term performance  Practical implications: The ecosystem theory provides, for academicians and decision makers, new means of transforming: (1) the thinking process, (2) the research methodology, (3) the empirical representation and (4) the performance measures.  Originality/value: This paper is innovative by being the first to integrate several emergent paradigms in a dialectic perspective. 