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.     

WOM and social media: Presaging future directions for research and practice

Word of mouth (WOM) has become the focus of growing interest among marketing practitioners and consumers. However, the promises of WOM marketing are often oversold, and various assertions about the nature of WOM, its dynamics, antecedents, and consequences at times have been misstated in mass-mediated articles and books on the topic. In this introductory paper for the special issue on WOM and social media, we survey the current state of WOM knowledge and the role of WOM in contemporary marketing, reconsider common beliefs about the WOM process in an effort to separate WOM facts from fallacies, and presage some future directions and best practices in light of evolving online channels of WOM generation and transmission.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Cross-cultural factors in international branding

Abstract

This is the second special issue resulting from the symposium titled ‘The Brand and Its History’. This issue aims at deepening the knowledge of the historical and cultural roots of the origin, uses, and meanings of modern branding. This editorial summarises previous contributions from economic, marketing, and historical literature; presents the main findings of the seven articles included in this issue; and reflects on possible further research.     

An overview of Web 2.0 social capital: a cross-cultural approach

This is an introductory paper for this Special Issue on Web 2.0 Social Capital. We present a general discussion of motivations for and barriers to applying an Enterprise 2.0 approach. Focus then shifts to the specific fields of knowledge sharing and e-commerce. The article continues with an examination of social capital 2.0 issues. Discussion centers on the employee’s perspective of using Web 2.0 applications and on the adoption of corporate Web 2.0 tools for collaboration. Finally, the paper presents a brief background for each of the topics covered in the five articles selected for this special issue on Web 2.0 social capital.     

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.     

Introduction to the special issue of the 3rd International Colloquium on design,branding and marketing

Following the inaugural 1st International Colloquium on Global Design and Marketing that took place in 2011, the organisers wrote that ‘Notwithstanding the centrality of design to the practical world of marketing, …empirical studies of design issues are rare in marketing journals’ (Melewar, Dennis and Kent, 2014, p2241 citing (e.g.) Bloch, 2011; and Luchs & Swan, 2011). Since then, iterations of the Colloquium with associated journal special issues and books have been addressing this issue and developing the new sub-discipline of design | branding | marketing. This special issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services contains a set of four articles that were selected after several rounds of evaluations and were presented during the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Branding and Marketing. The symposium was hosted by Bournemouth University from 5 to 6 April 2017. The articles cover topics that deal with retail design, retail strategy, and adoption of innovation and retail education, while contributing to the theoretical perspectives of design, branding and marketing.     

Defining the Product in Social Marketing: An Analysis of Published Research

Social marketing, a discipline rooted in marketing principles, lacks consensus on the conceptual and operational definition of product. The purpose of this article was to explore how social marketing researchers have conceptualized the product and how this definition has influenced strategy development. A systematic review of 10 years of peer-reviewed literature resulted in 92 intervention-based articles. Nearly all studies focused on health-related behavior change. Few studies used marketing language and the three product level classification. One-third of studies provided a tangible product while communication was the only strategy in over half of the studies. The focus on behavior as the product and using communication as the primary or sole strategy may limit social marketing's effectiveness as the approach resembles other social change strategies. If social marketing research aims to advance its position as a social change strategy, a starting point should be to reexamine the definition of product.     

Social marketing: thoughts from an empathetic outsider

ABSTRACT

Social marketing holds great hope for promoting well-being and social good. Yet, as a ‘master’s tools’ strategy it must be deployed carefully and critically to ensure campaigns are not co-opted by the individualising and issue shaping forces of mainstream marketing. Moreover, social marketing strategies should go beyond promoting better and healthier choices for individuals, and be deployed to encourage critical thinking, political engagement and social action.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Impoverished consumers,Catholic social teaching,and distributive justice

Consistent with the goals of the special issue of Journal of Business Research, this paper examines the 1986 pastoral letter of the U.S. Catholic bishops titled, Economic Justice for All, and its impact on marketing practice for the last 25 years. The brief literature review places this text within the larger context of Catholic Social Teaching and marketing practice, teasing out four testable propositions for examining social and distributive justice. The evidence presented from a variety of secondary sources reveals a lack of sustained progress to meet the goals inherent in the bishops' appeal. To advance their arguments, modifications to the ways marketers are educated, incentivized, and reviewed are posited, with a final secular way of considering these principles.     

Success in social marketing

In a series of articles, Philip Kotler, first with Sidney Levy [11], then with Gerald Zaltman [12], and then singularly [8], has significantly broadened the scope of marketing management. Marketing strategy, according to Kotler, is pertinent in numerous areas in addition to its business application. This article is concerned with one particular area for the expanding application of the marketing concept— social marketing.The use of marketing strategy to achieve social objectives produces both similarities and differences to business applications. Comparing these similarities and differences should produce some insight about the potential success of social marketing.     

Marketing and society: Preface to special section on volunteerism, price assurances, and direct-to-consumer advertising

We discuss the reasons why this call for papers was issued and describe the process of selecting the three articles presented in this special section. We argue that maximizing stakeholder welfare and not just consumption maybe a new goal for marketing that will be consistent with emerging societal trends. Three articles on volunteerism, price assurances, and direct-to-consumer advertising result from our call and are presented in this section. This introduction is an overview of the three articles.     

A Bibliometric Review of the Special Issues of Psychology & Marketing: 1984-2020

Psychology & Marketing (P&M), an internationally reputed journal, publishes original, peer-reviewed, empirical research on the application of psychological theories and techniques to marketing. The aim of this essay is to provide a bibliometric overview of the leading trends in the special issues of P&M over its history (1984–2020). Using bibliometric techniques, we analyze the impact of the special issues via their most cited papers, most productive authors, affiliated institutions and countries, as well as the best guest editors who contributed to the selection of the most cited special issue articles. Using network analysis VOSviewer software, we also group the special issues into four clusters to identify common themes. Further, we develop graphical visualization of coauthorships, bibliographic coupling, and cocitations. Results show that the most productive contributors are from American institutions and that P&M remains well connected to other leading journals in the marketing and psychology discipline, such as the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research.     

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.