Taking stock of the literature in the thematic field of “Social Representations, Economy, Advertising, Marketing and Organizational Contexts”

Part of a larger research project, launched by de rosa in 1994, aimed at performing the meta-theoretical analysis of the scientific literature published on Social Representations Theory, and representing the unified framework of the EC-funded project (ITN-PeopleMSCA-IDP 2013, no. 6072799 http://www.europhd.eu/SoReComJointIDP). The analysis of the big data and meta-data enables researchers to take stock of the scientific field developed in more than 50 years by providing information about the current level of development of the theory (de Rosa, A.S. 2015b; Wachelke et al., 2015). Objective: The purposes of the meta-theoretical study (de Rosa, 1994, 2013; de Rosa & d’Ambrosio 2003, 2008; Paterson, 2001) are (a) to develop a framework for studying social representations in the mentioned thematic field; (b) to analyze the research methods used for study; (c) to prescribe solutions for increasing the predictive value of the theory; and (e) to create an integrated body of knowledge related to the thematic field of Social Representations, Economy, Advertising, Marketing and Organizational Contexts. The main research question guiding the study is: “What is the impact of the Social Representations Theory in the thematic field of Economy, Advertising, Marketing and Organizational Contexts?” The goal of providing insight over the existing body of knowledge through meta-theoretical analysis will be reached by identifying the major schools of thought that underlie the considered theory; identifying the underlying assumptions; examining the theory’s historical development, including significant markers; determining how context potentially influenced the choice of theoretical frameworks; and evaluating the quality of the selected theory according to agreed-upon criteria in the thematic field of Social Representations, Economy, Advertising, Marketing and Organizational Contexts. Conclusions: The findings emphasize that SRT offers insight in understanding economic phenomena as such, an alliance between psychology, sociology and economics may strategically help in challenging and overcoming the limits of the theory. Another important finding shows that the research published in indexed Journals is more thoroughly approached. The predictive value of the theory can be increased by adjusting the method to the theory and to the studied phenomenon.