Introduction: Thought leadership in brand management

This special issue contains eight articles developed from presentations at the fourth annual Thought Leaders' International Conference on Brand Management, held in Birmingham, UK in April 2008. Following a blind reviewing process, 65 papers were accepted and presented at the conference and all authors had the opportunity to revise their papers for possible inclusion in this special issue. A further round of double blind reviewing resulted in the selection of these eight articles. This introduction presents an overview of this thought-leading research into brand management.     

Marketing research in Korea: Special joint issue of journal of business research and journal of the Korean academy of marketing science

This special joint issue of the Journal of Business Research with the Journal of the Korean Academy of Marketing Science contains nine articles that were originally presented at the Fall 2005 Korean Academy of Marketing Science (KAMS) International Conference and the Spring 2006 KAMS International Conference. After a blind review process, 120 papers were accepted for conference proceedings. Of these papers, the conference selection committee selected 20 papers as outstanding contributions to the marketing literature. A board of review members blind reviewed these 20 papers and accepted 9 of them for this special issue. Contributions to marketing literature are discussed.     

New developments in global consumer behavior and marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features ten articles selected from the papers presented during the seventh meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal (Canada), September 22–24, 2011. The papers cover topics relating to new developments in online research, acculturation/socialization research, research methodology, and marketing strategy.     

Globalization, culture, and marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features eleven articles selected from the papers presented during the fifth meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, September 25 and 26, 2009. They cover topics related to globalization, cultural values, global consumer behavior, market segmentation, marketing strategies of emerging economies, consumer socialization, materialism, service quality, and government actions.     

Editorial introduction: Advances in theory and practice of digital marketing

This special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services aims to bring together a variety of disciplines and a scholarly community for the advancement of knowledge regarding practice and research related to digital and social media marketing. Accordingly, the special issue includes papers using a variety of theories, research methods, contexts, and conceptualizations to enrich our understanding of digital and social media marketing from consumer and practitioner perspectives. The thirteen articles accepted for inclusion in this special issue are summarised in this editorial introduction.     

“Where the East Kisses the West”: Marketing Convergence and Divergence in the New Europe Editorial to the Special Section

This special section contains articles based on selected papers presented during the 7^th EMAC Regional Conference hosted by the School of Economics and Business, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2016. Following the double-blind review process, 14 best articles qualified for publication in this special section. Apart from the articles tackling the issues in emerging markets, a broad range of different topics, ranging from consumer journey and international branding to strategic issues are also included in this special issue.     

Latin American firms competing in the global economy

As part of a cooperative effort between the Journal of Business Research (JBR) and the Business Association of Latin American Studies (BALAS), this special issue brings updated research on the Latin American business environment. Out of 226 papers submitted to the BALAS 2012 conference, which was hosted by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), 22 were pre-selected to run for publication in this special issue — and only 14 actually were accepted after the demanding three rounds of a double blind review process that was run after the conference. This introduction to the special issue of the JBR on the BALAS 2012 conference brings an overview of the changes that have taken place in the business environment of Latin America, the evolution of the internationalization behavior of Latin American firms and the changes in their strengths to compete both domestically and abroad.     

Exploring globalization and marketing performance at the 2012 Global Marketing Conference at Seoul

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features sixteen articles selected from papers presented during the third Global Marketing Conference held in Seoul, July 19–22, 2012, hosted by Korean Scholars of Marketing Science, European Marketing Academy, Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution, International Textile and Apparel Association, and Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. The articles offer readers an interesting mix of topics and methods in complex and global marketing environments. They offer marketing practitioners new ideas and approaches for dealing effectively with the increasingly challenging marketing world and provide marketing researchers insights that may inspire future research.     

Religion,humanism, marketing,and the consumption of socially responsible products,services, and ideas: Introduction to a special topic section

This introduction to the special issue provides an overview and brief summary of the eight articles that follow and take up the issue's theme. Despite the fact that religion and religious world views exert considerable influence on consumer attitudes and behavior, mainstream business journals have presented little research that explores the relationship between religion and marketing. Articles featured in this special issue examine three themes of interest: (1) the influence of strongly held religious or non-religious world views on the marketing of socially responsible behaviors; (2) how religious world views influence the conduct of marketing; and (3) what marketing scholars can learn from the marketing practices of various religious organizations. The authors extend a note of appreciation to the reviewers of the many papers submitted to the issue and to the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Research, Arch Woodside.     

Advances in spreadsheet and database training: Editorial

This special section of the Journal of Business Research includes papers on advances in teaching spreadsheet and database software. After a blind review process, four papers were accepted for the special section. Other papers examine whether database instruction can assist with transferring problem-solving skills from one setting to another, incorporating spreadsheet training in the marketing curriculum, using spreadsheets for exploratory data analysis, and using spreadsheets as a decision support system. The authors of each paper discuss the implications for the university business curriculum.     

Learning consumer behavior using marketing anthropology methods

This Journal of Business Research special section includes ten articles selected from papers presented during the 2016 Global Marketing Conference held July 21–24. The conference theme was “Bridging Asia and the World: Global Platform for Interface between Marketing and Management.” This special edition presents marketing research and perspectives via anthropology methodologies. This special edition answers calls for research that puts focal participants to exchanges and processes back into data collection (e.g., Denzin, 2001).     

Understanding subsistence marketplaces: Toward sustainable consumption and commerce for a better world

This article provides the background and the events leading up to this special issue, and the composition of articles that follow. This special issue includes articles that take a bottom-up approach in understanding and explaining subsistence marketplaces, focusing on individual, communal, and cultural factors that influence consumers and entrepreneurs who live at or near subsistence, and who comprise a majority of the world's population. This bottom-up focus is distinct and complementary to the macro-level economic development and mid-level business strategy (e.g., base of the pyramid) approaches to the role of business in poverty alleviation. This special issue consists largely of papers based on presentations at the second subsistence marketplace conference held in Chicago in 2008, with articles and essays reflecting a healthy commingling of disciplinary perspectives that cuts across social and commercial enterprises.     

New developments in modeling Internet consumer behavior: Introduction to the special issue

This first special issue of the Journal of Business Research on Internet consumer behavior features thirteen articles selected from the papers submitted following a call for submissions issued in January 2008. They cover topics related to new developments in modeling Internet consumer behavior, and the contributions are regrouped into three broad categories: modeling based on the S–O–R paradigm, modeling based on the TAM model and advances in online consumer information processing. It concludes with future research directions.     

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Introduction to the special issue

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Business Research on the topic of resource interaction in inter-organizational networks. Both networks and resources receive considerable attention in the field of business studies. As companies specialize further and rely on cooperative agreements with external parties, the importance of networks is gaining increasing recognition. Resources are typically a key factor for identifying a company's competencies, or its sources of growth, profitability, and sustained competitive advantage. This special issue takes a novel approach by directing attention toward the processes of interaction in which companies combine and recombine resources at the network level. This approach provides new insights into the development, production, exchange, and use of resources. The introductory article also reviews the 13 articles in this special issue and concludes by discussing their contributions to the fields of marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, and logistics.     

Comment: A conceptual framework for studying the interaction of demand, supply and the market environment in product line optimization

This paper examines the work of Michalek et al. (2011) and Tsafarakis, Marinakis and Matsatsinis (2011), published in this issue of the International Journal of Research in Marketing, within a strategic framework. This framework allows a consideration of how the powerful tools that the two papers propose can be harnessed within the overall direction and activity of the firm.On reviewing these two papers, one could concentrate on the algorithms and heuristics that make the complex problem of product line optimization tractable. Such an analysis would be valuable. Instead I concentrate on the strategic environment in which the optimization decision takes place to allow a consideration of applications and extensions within a managerial context. I do that by suggesting a framework for product line decisions after a brief overview of both articles. That enables me to examine managerial issues that arise in implementing such an approach in practice, many of which are addressed in the two papers. For those issues not addressed in the papers, I propose a set of research questions which would be valuable to managers.     

Impact of culture on marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features eleven articles selected from the papers presented during the fourth meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, September 23 and 24, 2007. They cover topics related to culture and marketing communications, consumer socialization, materialism, identity and religiosity, service quality, language effects, consumer revenge behavior and government actions.     

Advances in internet consumer behavior and marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This second special issue of the Journal of Business Research on Internet consumer behavior features twelve articles selected from the papers submitted following a call for submissions issued in January 2008. They cover topics related to advances in internet consumer behavior and marketing strategy, and the contributions are regrouped into four broad categories: influence of trust and role of virtual communities; understanding the role of electronic word-of-mouth; understanding consumer reactions to pricing on the internet; consumer issues in marketing strategy. It concludes with future research directions.     

Business Ethics in Transitional Economies: Introduction

This paper introduces the special issue of papers selected from those presented at the International Conference on Business Ethics in Transitional Economies, held March 20–22, 2002 in Celakovice and Prague, Czech Republic. A brief background on the conference is given, and a summary of the papers offered in this special issue is provided.     

Anatomy of entrepreneurial marketing

The motivation for this special issue came from the growing attention and debate on what constitutes Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM). Research in EM was first pursued collectively by the Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association about three decades ago. Recently, there is widespread recognition of the significance of entrepreneurship and innovation to marketing, and indeed the importance of marketing in successful entrepreneurship. Whereas many scholars view that EM is more suitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there is also now a growing recognition of the important role of entrepreneurs in any marketing activities including at the corporate, community and social level. In light of this, it is not surprising that the government, industry and academics are recognising the contribution of EM to explain a range of issues. Although entrepreneurship and marketing are individually acknowledged as a major element in improving firm performance, their dynamics are still an area with limited theory and empirical work being undertaken. These issues have been highlighted in many international marketing and entrepreneurship conferences in the last 10 years. Indeed this special issue was proposed after EM special sessions held at the 2013 AMS WMC (Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress) in Melbourne and ANZMAC 2013 (Australia and New Zealand Marketing Association Conference) in Auckland, New Zealand. The collection of papers presented in this Special Edition of Journal of Strategic Marketing was selected from the papers submitted at the close of the call for papers and following double blind review process. From the review process, authors of five submissions were selected and compiled into this [special issue on the Anatomy of Entrepreneurial Marketing]. It is our intention that this special issue becomes a valuable resource for both scholars and practitioners alike.