Geographic information systems as a marketing information system technology

Marketing information systems (MKIS) are decision support systems targeted at marketing-specific decisions. One of the most widely disseminated MKIS models divides the marketing decision universe into four domains and links these domains to each other and to other marketing activities. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on the construction of specific MKIS targeted at problems in these domains or to the construction of integrated MKIS that span domains. This paper advocates the use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a DSS generator for constructing MKIS. The paper reviews the technical capabilities of GIS and shows how these capabilities align with accepted elements of MKIS. We see that a unique advantage of GIS over other MKIS technologies is its ability to integrate information from disparate sources and spanning multiple decision domains when a single decision requires this capability. The paper then uses a decision making resource-based approach and the four elements of the marketing mix to propose a research agenda for increasing our understanding of GIS as an MKIS technology. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved