Ethnocentricity in academic marketing journals: a study of authors, reviewers, editorial boards and editors

Purpose – This paper aims to examine and compare a set of key characteristics of ethnocentricity that influence the policy of academic marketing journals, and hence the provenance, authorship and nature of articles in academic marketing journals.

Design/methodology/approach – The “fundamental” characteristics of three major marketing journals, published in the USA, the UK and New Zealand, were examined for the six-year period from the start of 2000 to the end of 2006. Data were collected from editorials and web homepages. Analysis was conducted of 811 articles, 1,676 authors, three editorial teams and three sets of reviewers

Findings – There is a challenging academic ethnocentricity in the management and implied policy of the three journals. The extent varies, but the inescapable conclusion is that the world-wide research community in marketing is not properly represented by leading journals.

Research limitations/implications – The sample was intentionally small, and unrepresentative of any category except “leading quality”. The findings are intended to add momentum to a debate and point ways forward, not to provide generalisable answers.

Practical implications – The findings suggest that: the editorial boards and reviewing teams should be made more representative geographically; editorships should be organized around the concept of a team of geographically differentiated editors; editorial and review teams should be ethnographically representative of individuals who do research and wish to publish it, particularly beyond the English-speaking world. In general, the world-wide research community in marketing would benefit from less ethnocentricity in academic journals, and these leading examples should strive to reduce it.

Originality/value – The impact of ethnocentricity is underestimated in this context. The issue needs to be discussed, because of paradigmatic influences that it can have on a journal and the profile of its authors, and hence on journal ranking and perceptions of journal quality.

The Pareto plus syndrome in top marketing journals: research and journal criteria

Purpose – Pareto’s Law often refers to the theory that a small percentage of a total is responsible for a large proportion of the total outcome. It is commonly known as the 80/20 law or principle. The objective is to review and debate whether there is a “Pareto syndrome” in the distribution of crucial research and journal criteria in top marketing journals.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide a review and a debate based upon previous research on top marketing journals. For this purpose, the Pareto syndrome concept is introduced, based upon a set of research and journal criteria. Their distribution is examined.

Findings – The review of research and journal criteria in top marketing journals generated an extremely skewed outcome. When it comes to the criteria, the top journals in marketing tend to be governed by narrow concerns of research rather than broad ones.

Research limitations/implications – The research and journal criteria that have a skewed outcome may reinforce the rigidity and the lack of innovativeness of the marketing discipline. The evolutionary speed of the discipline may at best be reduced or it may at worst grind to a halt. The authors argue that there are a number of serious concerns to be addressed in the future review and debate of top journals in marketing.

Practical implications – Editors and editorial boards need seriously to address the concerns reviewed and debated, namely the skewed distribution of criteria, such as affiliation, data and methodology.

Originality/value – The authors debate that there is evidence that confirms the existence of a Pareto plus syndrome in key research and journal criteria of top marketing journals.

Guest editorial

An examination of Australian media reports over the last twelve months on the subject of Indigenous arts suggests a number of significant contradictions. Indigenous affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone called Aboriginal arts ‘Australia’s greatest cultural gift to the world’ (Australian, 24 January 2006), while the always-controversial expatriate Germaine Greer argued that much Indigenous art was in fact poor quality and ‘a big con’ (West Australian, 13 December 2005). Curators at France’s Musee du Quai Branly dedicated a wing of the new gallery to Aboriginal art. Yet many Indigenous leaders – including David Ross from the Central Land Council and Hetti Perkins, curator of Indigenous Arts at the Art Gallery of NSW – continue to publicise the widespread exploitation of Aboriginal artists in Central Australia by unscrupulous art dealers (Northern Territory News, 22 December 2005). Former head of the Northern Land Council and former Australian of the Year, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, who twenty years ago presented Bob Hawke with the painting Barunga Statement in celebration of the government’s commitment to a treaty, recently threatened to take the painting back from Parliament House in protest against ‘successive governments’’ neglect of Indigenous policy (Sydney Morning Herald, 21 January 2006). And in the performing arts, Richard Walley drew attention to the lack of professional recognition of Indigenous performing artists (Australian, 24 January 2006).

Such contradictions within the management and marketing of Indigenous arts have persisted for several years, and it was in response that this special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management was initiated. As guest editors, we sought to present research that examines, more deeply and constructively, the marketing of Indigenous arts in Australia both historically and in the present. What emerges from this collection of five papers is a familiar scholarly theme: a tension between the ‘periphery’ and the ‘centre’, between outback and city, between larger and smaller Australian states and between Australia and other nations.

Jonathan Sweet’s ‘UNESCO and cultural heritage practice in Australia in the 1950s’ looks at the evolving relationship between Australia and the United Nations through an analysis of a significant touring exhibition: Australian Aboriginal Culture. Sweet pinpoints the 1950s as a period in which Australian museology’s approach to Indigenous cultures gradually changed, and in which Australian participation in UNESCO through the exhibition helped shape the ideological position UNESCO advocated. His article provides a useful historical contrast against which the following four articles may be read.

Chapman, Cardamone, Manahan and Rentschler look at local and contemporary issues in Indigenous arts marketing. Katrina Chapman’s ‘Positioning urban Aboriginal art in the Australian Indigenous art market’ investigates perceptions about contemporary urban Aboriginal art, concluding that the estrangement – and indeed stereotyping – of urban and traditional art creates a false set of values that urban artists are challenging. Similarly, Megan Cardamone, Esmai Manahan and Ruth Rentschler contrast perceptions of Aboriginal arts from the northern and south-eastern states, identifying crucial misconceptions that contribute to the value system applied to these arts. As Ruth Rentschler is a joint editor of this issue, the review process for this article has been managed by Katya Johanson as co-editor.

Two case studies of marketing the arts – which look at different artforms and in opposite sides of the country – then follow. Jennifer Radbourne, Janet Campbell and Vera Ding’s ‘Building audiences for Indigenous theatre’ analyses research on audiences and potential audiences for Kooemba Jdarra – Brisbane’s Indigenous performing arts company – to identify the ways in which audience attendance may be encouraged.

Finally, Jacqui Healy’s ‘Balgo 4-04’ provides a close examination of a unique art exhibition: a major commercial exhibition of the kind usually seen in Sydney and Melbourne, held in an arts centre in the middle of the Tanami Desert and retailing directly to collectors.

The editors are grateful to Warlayirti Artists Art Centre for permission to use the photographs that accompany Jacqui Healy’s article. We would also like to thank the contributors, Jo Caust for the opportunity to present this special issue, and Pearl Field for her assistance in putting it all together.

Who receives the most help? The most needy or those with the best marketers? (Editorial)

Presents an editorial overview of the tussle between who is best at the receiving end- the needy or the best marketer. Adoption of traditional marketing strategies to counter challenges from charitable organizations; Development of the entire market into focusing of the product's social responsibility; Shifting of practice from effective marketing to simply generating more resources from donors; Provision of a neutral field by evaluating charities on what they do rather than their marketing strategy.

Top versus leading journals in marketing : some challenging thoughts

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to discuss some criteria in order to distinguish between top versus leading journals in marketing. The aim is to stimulate the debate of the adequacy of those issues that dominate in the top marketing journals.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors discuss three groups of criteria, namely journal, article, and research. Each is discussed based on a set of dimensions: journal criteria – the editor, the editorial board, the editorial objective and the author affiliations; article criteria – research implication, practice implication, readability and originality; and research criteria – process, paradigm, representation, readership and contribution.

Findings – While the top journals in marketing are named, the analysis is meant to be of a more general nature rather than to question or lambaste a specific journal.

Research limitations/implications – There is an underlying quest for identifying and verifying the top academic journals in different research disciplines. As an extension to the discussion of top versus non-top journals, the authors raise another crucial issue, namely criteria to differentiate between top and leading journals in marketing.

Practical implications – These criteria are based on the authors' examination of the editorial descriptions and overall contents of six top journals in marketing. The criteria are also derived from a review of the literature on academic journals and academic publishing.

Originality/value – The discussion may stimulate and widen debate with respect to what constitutes a leading academic journal in marketing. The suggested list of criteria should be seen as a trigger for further discussion. It does not aspire to be complete, but a complement to the ongoing discussion of academic journals and academic publishing in marketing.

Food references and marketing in popular magazines for children and adolescents in New Zealand. A content analysis

Food marketing is recognized as an important factor influencing children's food preferences and consumption. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and extent of unhealthy food marketing and non-branded food references in magazines targeted at and popular among children and adolescents 10–17 years in New Zealand. A content analysis was conducted of all food references (branded and non-branded) found in the five magazines with the highest readership among 10–17 year olds, and the three magazines (of which two were already included among the five most popular magazines) targeted to 10–17 year olds. For each of the six magazines one issue per month (n = 72 issues in total) over a one-year period (December 2012–January 2014) was included. All foods referenced were classified into healthy/unhealthy according to the food-based Ministry of Health classification system. Branded food references (30% of total) were more frequent for unhealthy (43%) compared to healthy (25%) foods. Magazines specifically targeted to children and adolescents contained a significantly higher proportion of unhealthy branded food references (72%, n = 51/71) compared to the most popular magazines among children and adolescents (42%, n = 133/317), of which most were targeted to women. ‘Snack items’ such as chocolates and ice creams were marketed most frequently (n = 104; 36%), while ‘vegetables and fruits’ were marketed the least frequently (n = 9; 3%). Direct advertisements accounted for 27% of branded food references and 25% of those featured health or nutrition claims. Both branded and non-branded food references were common within magazines targeted at and popular among children and adolescents, and skewed toward unhealthy foods. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of self-regulation in marketing and emphasizes that government regulations are needed in order to curb children's current potential high exposures to unhealthy food marketing. In addition, magazine editors could take socially responsible editorial positions in regard to healthy eating.