The Global and Regional Dispersion of Publishing in the Field of International Marketing

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically examines the research productivity of academic institutions in the leading international marketing journals, leading generalist marketing journals, and leading international business journals between the years 1999 and 2003 from a regional and country-specific perspective. The research found that across the three groups of journals, the majority of works were authored by academics at institutions located in North America, although North Americans contribute significantly less in the international marketing and international business journals than leading generalist marketing journals. The findings suggest that there is a broadening of non-U.S. influence within the international marketing and international business journals, which should lead to a broadening of international marketing theory.     

Evaluating the impact of Arnould and Wallendorf's (1994) market-oriented ethnography

This paper evaluates the significance and research impact of Arnould and Wallendorf's (1994), “Market-Oriented Ethnography: Interpretation Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation” (A&W). A&W provides a comprehensive theoretical aspect of market-oriented ethnography which is useful to marketing practitioners in formulating marketing strategy. A citation analysis is conducted to assess the scholarly impact of A&W. In the 13 year period (1996-2009), A&W receives 204 citations in Google Scholar and 86 citations in Scopus. In total 43 journals include citations to A&W. The findings show that the cited authors are referencing the work of A&W mainly in two aspects: (1) using an ethnographic approach as an exemplar qualitative methodology; and (2) using an etic/emic perspective to provide deeper insights in a cultural context. Evidence in this report supports the assertion that A&W is a seminal contribution to advancing alternative research methods in marketing in general that go beyond the continuing dominant logic of empirical positivism.     

Eisenhardt's impact on theory in case study research

This article summarizes the key points of Eisenhardt's (1989), “Building theories from case study research,” and its impact on research in management and marketing. The present article uses citation data from the Web of Knowledge database which shows that Eisenhardt (1989) has 2509 citations to the end of 2008, and that the articles first citing Eisenhardt (1989), most frequently citing Eisenhardt (1989), and most recently citing Eisenhardt (1989) appear in high-ranking journals. The citation impact for Eisenhardt (1989) far exceeds that of other articles appearing in the same issue of the Academy of Management Review. Eisenhardt (1989) continues to receive high numbers of citations annually. The use of citations indicates an increasing engagement with Eisenhardt's (1989) framework, and an influence across several business disciplines. In a comparison with Armstrong's (2003) measure of important findings, this present study concludes that Eisenhardt's (1989) article is important in terms of the replication, validity, usefulness, and surprise values of her findings.     

A citation and profiling analysis of pricing research from 1980 to 2010

This paper identifies the body of literature related to pricing that exists in 20 marketing or business journals contained in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) between January 1980 and June 2010. During this 30-year period we found over 38,800 citations were made to 1945 articles that dealt with some aspect of pricing. Based on these data, we identify individual articles, authors, and institutions that have contributed most to this body of literature. We study what subjects within the domain of pricing have received most attention, and how these topics have evolved in three year periods. In addition, we use text mining and information visualization tools to identify networks of researchers who collaborate on pricing articles. We identify institutional affiliations within the networks and highlight most frequent subjects of articles written by researchers in each network. Our results show pricing is an important topic in the marketing domain.     

Meta-analysis selection bias in marketing research

The tendency of meta-analytic authors to select particular studies is called selection bias. Selection bias can affect the strength of the meta-analytic estimate and the attention that scholars devote to the results. This research is, in effect, a meta-analysis of the effect sizes reported or calculated from 94 meta-analysis studies of various topics in marketing research. The analysis reveals that estimates depend on the publication status of the included studies. The greater the percentage of studies that were published in academic journals vs. non-published studies, the greater is the size of the meta-effects, and the more published studies from leading journals the meta-analysis includes, the stronger the effect size. The meta-analytic effect size is a mediator for the influence of both the ratio of unpublished studies and the ratio of studies from leading journals on the probability of a meta-analysis to be published in a leading journal, which increases the number of citations to a meta-analysis. The findings of this study have several implications for meta-analysts, editors, reviewers and the marketing community on how to conduct and read current and future meta-analysis in marketing research.     

Business's environmental responsibility in Taiwan — Moral,legal or negotiated

This study explores both the negotiating styles and moral reasoning processes of business people and governmental officials in Taiwan, so as to provide a footing for outsiders when negotiating with Taiwanese over environmental concerns. Findings imply that Taiwanese business people and governmental officials can and will reason both at the conventional level and at the postconventional level of moral judgment. But, results of this study also indicate that Taiwanese negotiating styles do not necessarily match their levels of moral reasoning. With respect to pollution concerns, Taiwanese seem unwillingly to accept responsibility as autonomous individuals. Instead, responsibility is accepted when mandated by the law.Peihua Sheng teaches marketing and marketing research at the American College for the Applied Art, Atlanta Campus. She has taught marketing at the university level in Chinese for several years. Her research interests include business ethics, equity, and international marketing strategy.Linda Chang is a financial analyst on OTSUKA America. A native of Taiwan, she has an MBA. Her research interests are in the areas of planning and negotiation.Warren French is a professor of Marketing and the I. W. Cousins Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Georgia. His research interests include business ethics, aging, and international business. His articles have appeared in a variety of scholarly and practitioner-oriented journals.     

Cross-national research and international business: An interdisciplinary path

Comparative cross-national research is among the oldest approaches of scientific inquiry in the social sciences. We investigate the foundations of published works in cross-national research (CNR) in international business (IB), sociology, and psychology with an eye on leveraging their rich traditions for future IB research. Our approach aims to contribute and address repeated calls for taking an interdisciplinary approach in IB. We examined published CNR in 106 scholarly journals and identified 817 articles with 51,738 citations in IB, 477 works with 30,017 citations in sociology, and 835 articles with 54,519 citations in psychology. We use metric multidimensional scaling to examine the co-citation data for each field and identify knowledge and approaches commonplace in sociology and psychology to propose future research paths in IB. In particular multilevel analysis, which is scarcely used in IB, offers the potential of unfolding new dimensions within the field. Based on the emergent results from our MDS solutions, we recommend multiple future paths for CNR, particularly with respect to IB relationships, market entry, and related domains.     

Is there global inclusion of authors in the five leading advertising journals?

A question that has been raised in academia has to do with whether there is global inclusion of authors in publishing. While this issue has been explored in some areas in business and marketing it has generally not been investigated across 30 years of advertising research activity. This paper seeks to examine the global inclusion of authors in five advertising-focused journals. We found that, while there appears to be an increase in international publishing activity in advertising compared to data extrapolated from past studies, published advertising research still reveals a North American bias/domination. A failure to be globally inclusive may lead to an under-exploration of academic issues and perspectives, as important ‘non-US’ issues could possibly be ignored.     

Business Marketing Comes of Age: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT

Since 1978 business marketing has seen a great deal of research activity. It is reasonable to ask whether this has led to advances in theory development and a general increase in our level of knowledge of business marketing. This article reviews the business marketing literature from 1978–1997 from twenty-three journals, five sets of proceedings, and selected books of articles in an attempt to answer that question. Over two thousand articles were examined to assess the current state of the field and suggest directions for future development. As the sheer number of articles since 1978 would suggest, the field of business marketing has attracted a considerable amount of attention. Close examination of the past twenty years of research, however, clearly indicates that certain areas have received a disproportionate share of the research effort. Organizational buyer behavior, strategy and planning, and sales management accounted for over forty percent of the articles published. Important areas such as computers and technology in business markets, marketing to the government, ethics in business markets, and pricing, in contrast, have received relatively little research attention. Regardless of the uneven coverage, the research in business marketing over the past twenty years has been conceptually and empirically strong. Changes in the way business is done has also resulted in a recent surge in theory development in the area of buyer-seller relationships within the context of relationship marketing. Increased attention has also centered on cross functional issues, networks, and strategic alliances.     

Organizational Adaptation and Perceived International Marketing Effectiveness

American business faces a future of world wide competition for markets. Effective global marketing has been associated with the adaptation of domestic marketing, product design, financial, and personnel practices in the professional marketing literature. Perceived effectiveness in international markets, is correlated with a corporate culture oriented to global markets in the opinion of a sample of American executives.     

Benchmarking the RAE Returns of Marketing Professors' Journal Publications

Publishing in refereed journals is an acknowledged requirement for successful academics. In the UK, a rise in benchmarking activities, such as the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), has brought concerns about the relative quality of different journals to the fore. This paper reviews publication data from the RAE (2001) for full professors in marketing. Four ranking schemes are used to benchmark the quality of the journals included in the RAE. The findings highlight the difficulties which UK academics, including the established leading names, continue to face in publishing in the top North American marketing journals. The reasons for these difficulties are explored and future publication strategies are considered. The paper is intended to put into perspective the apparent requirement to publish in the top few US journals. The paper presents some suggestions for achieving this, but also raises the spectre of whether this really is either the right focus or a feasible one.     

Predominant sources and contributors of influential business ethics research: evidence and implications from a threshold citation analysis

Influential or frequently cited business ethics research does not appear in a vacuum; our study reveals its predominant sources and contributors by discipline. By examining citations from articles published in three top business ethics journals (Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and Business Ethics: A European Review) over the period 2004–2008, we document that the preponderance of influential business ethics research comes primarily from the management faculty. In addition, management journals and management books are the predominant sources for influential business ethics research. Further, among the management fields, organizational behavior and organizational structure predominate leadership and strategy as the major subject areas for influential business ethics research, suggesting that this influential body of research is focused on a micro rather than on a macro context. These empirical results lend credence to the perception that there is a silo effect in influential business ethics research and suggest that business ethics research in a micro context might have permeated to the teaching of business ethics.     

A comparison of Nigerian to American views of bribery and extortion in international commerce

This study investigates the differences in the way bribery and extortion is perceived by two different cultures — American and Nigerian. Two hundred and forty American business students and one hundred and eighty Nigerian business students were presented with three scenarios describing a businessman offering a bribe to a government official and three scenarios describing a businessman being forced to pay a bribe to an official in order to do business. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the ethical reactions of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reactions to bribery and extortion vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Nigerians perceived some of the scenarios as being less unethical than did Americans. John Tsalikis is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His research interests include marketing ethics, international marketing, and direct marketing. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Psychology and Marketing, and the Journal of International Consumer Marketing. Osita Nwachukwu is an Assistant Professor of Management at Western Illinois University. His research interests include marketing ethics, and business policy. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Journal of International Consumer Marketing.     

Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of factors influencing ethical judgments of the final consumer

Business and marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their ethical beliefs and ideologies. This research investigates general attitudes of consumers relative to business, government and people in general, and compares these attitudes to their beliefs concerning various questionable consumer practices. The results show that consumers' ethical beliefs are determined, in part, by who is at fault in the unethical behavior (the seller or the buyer). The results also indicate that those with a more positive attitude toward business are less likely to engage in questionable consumer practices, but one's attitudes toward salespeople, the government and people in general arenot related to the consumer's ethical beliefs.Scott J. Vitell is an Associate Professor and the Michael S. Starnes Professor of Marketing and Business Ethics at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, Research in Marketing and numerous other journals and proceedings.James A. Muncy is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. His publications have appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Marketing Education, andAdvances in Consumer Research. He has also published in the National Proceedings of the American Marketing Association and the American Psychological Association and has published five chapters in books. He is active in the Association for Consumer Research, acting as its Publications Director and Newsletter Coeditor.     

Perceptual Differences of Marketing Journals: A Worldwide Perspective

The practice of evaluating faculty and business schools based on their journal publications has increased the emphasis on research output in peer reviewed journals. Since journal standings are a frequently debated issue, this study seeks to examine the perceptual differences of journals between different segments of marketing academics. Based on a worldwide online survey, journals are assessed in terms of four subjective quality metrics: journal familiarity, average rank position, percent of respondents who classify a journal as top tier, and readership. It is demonstrated that an individual's geographic origin, research interests or journal affiliation can have a significant impact on journal rankings.     

The Greening of International Marketing

In the instruction of an international marketing course, what should be taught or elaborated oa regarding the "green" movement? Is this an exclusively American idea that belongs in the discussion of domestic marketing current events? Should a student's sensitivity be raised concerning the environment on an international scale? Or should the topic of "green marketing" be taught as a ethical business issue? In this paper, we attempt to examine the "green marketing" issue and provide a foundation from which it may be addressed in the international domain.     

Where does business research go from here? Food-for-thought on academic papers in business research

This essay focuses on some of the adverse practices in business research publications. First, business researchers seem to have lost touch with business practice and to narrow the target group to fellow academics only, reducing the production of useful knowledge. Second, the objectives of business research publications narrow to impact and citations. This view leads to a strict focus on path-breaking theories and a denigration of replication and qualitative studies. Third, an obsession with the .05 significance level and corroborating findings leaves researchers with full file drawers of unpublished papers and could leave journals with a high rate of type I error papers. Fourth, complex, lengthy articles, the importance of carefully crafting a story around the research and a variety of style guidelines make business researchers less productive than they could be. Finally, a blind reliance on ISI's impact and citation scores may not do justice to a researcher's real contribution.     

A Bibliometric Study of Advertising Citations

Abstract

A bibliometric investigation identified citation patterns in advertising-related articles published during 1981–83 in a number of core journals and conference proceedings in advertising, marketing, consumer research and communication. Business publications and psychology publications were found to have accounted for more than half of the 6,312 citations coded in this study. Although the raw data indicated that the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Advertising Research were historically the most-cited journals, a method that controls for differences in years of publication, number of articles published per year and frequency of self-citations detected an increased impact, in recent years, on the part of the Journal of Advertising and of consumer-research publications.     

Bribery and extortion in international business: Ethical perceptions of Greeks compared to Americans

This study investigates the differences in he way bribery and extortion is perceived by two different cultures — American and Greek. Two hundred and forty American business students and two hundred and four Greek business students were presented with three scenarios describing a businessman offering a bribe to a government official and three scenarios describing a businessman being forced to pay a bribe to an official in order to do business. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the ethical reactions of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reactions to bribery and extortion vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Greeks perceived some of the scenarios as being less unethical than did Americans.John Tsalikis is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His research interests include marketing ethics, international marketing, and direct marketing. His articles have appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Psychology and Marketing, and theJournal of International Consumer Marketing.Michael S. LaTour is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Auburn University. His research interests include marketing ethics, and emotional responses to advertising. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, and theJournal of Advertising.The authors contributed equally to this article.     

Assessing the influence of marketing research on the social science literature

Citation analysis indicates that theJournal of Marketing and theJournal of Marketing Research contribute primarily to marketing and other business areas as opposed to nonbusiness social sciences. The journals are also heavily cited by practitioner-oriented publications. A list of most cited articles is provided.The authors acknowledge the research funding from Washington State University and the National University of Singapore for this project.