Paul H. Nystrom | |
|---|---|
 Paul Henry Nystrom | |
| Born | January 25, 1878 |
| Died | August 17, 1969 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | American |
| Academic career | |
| Institution | Columbia University |
| Field | Marketing |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin |
| Doctoral advisor | William Amasa Scott |
Paul Henry Nystrom (January 25, 1878 – August 17, 1969)[1] was an American economist, and professor of marketing at Columbia University. He is most known as pioneer in marketing,[2] and for his The Economics of Retailing (1915)[3] and his Economics of Fashion (1928).[4]
Nystrom obtained his Ph.B. from the University of Wisconsin in 1909, and his Ph.M. in 1910, and his Ph.D. in 1914[5] under William Amasa Scott (1862–1944).
Nystrom started his academic career as assistant professor of Political Economy in the University of Wisconsin. He later became associate professor of economics in the University of Minnesota and eventually professor of marketing at Columbia University, where he retired in 1950.
Nystrom served as editor of the American Marketing Journal and as the first editor of its successor, the Journal of Marketing. He was also a founding member of the American Marketing Association.[6]
Nystrom is frequently associated with the philosophy of futility, a phrase which he coined in his 1928 book Economics of Fashion to describe the disposition caused by the monotony of the new industrial age.[7][8][9] In this work he also contributed to the concept of Hemline index.
In the preface of "The Economics of Retailing," Nystrom explained the aim of the book and its restrictions:
And furthermore:
The key concept in "The Economics of Retailing" is the concept of distribution. Nystrom explained that "the term 'distribution' is used in another sense in the standard books on political economy. There, it means the shares of income received by members of society for their participation in, or contribution to, the economic system. The term as used here has no reference to the income of any one."[11]
The term is used in the meaning of logistics. Nystrom It refers solely to the processes of carrying and exchanging material goods, and, used in that sense, is but a part or a phase of what economic treatises call 'production.' Wherever the term distribution is used in this work it should be remembered that it means distribution of goods, and not what technical treatises on economic theory call distribution of wealth."[11]
In the modern distributive system producers and consumers are regularly departed by at least two middlemen: the wholesaler and the retailer. Nystrom presented the following series of charts "to give a clear idea of the customary channels of distribution in the main lines of trade passing from the producer to the consumer through retail stores."[12]
In chapter 12 Nystrom described the organization of the department store and introduced two types of organizational structures. He introduced the department store as "a retailing institution that deals in several lines of goods, each line separated or 'departmentized' from the rest, both in location within the building and in the concern's accounting and management systems. Each department is considered practically as a store in itself, and in large stores each has its separate organization of buyer, or department manager, and salespeople, much the same as any independent store."[13]
About the organization he explained:
More specific on the charts, he noted:
In a 1916 review of this work Carroll W. Doten expressed the importance of this work. She said:
In Economics of fashion, Nystrom presented a notable opinion about style and fashion. He stated:
Sproles (1974) stated, that "for centuries the phenomena of fashion behavior have been the varied subject of social analysts, cultural historians, moral critics, academic theorists, and business entrepreneurs. Spanning decades and centuries of changing fashions, literally thousands of commentaries focusing on the vagaries and nuances of fashion behavior have been published. Taken collectively, this major body of analytical commentary and anecdotal opinion describes fashion as a complex, diffuse, often perplexing, highly visible characteristic of civilizations."[17] In this matter Nystrom is clearly an exception.
Carolyn Mair (2014) added, that Nystrom in his 1931 work had "argued that the industrial revolution had induced a ‘philosophy of futility’ that would increase the consumption of goods and services as an activity for its own sake. He discussed the concept of conspicuous consumption as behavioural addiction, narcissistic behaviour or both which was a means to satisfy consumers’ desire for instant gratification of hedonic expectations."[18]
