Publication patterns in journals dedicated to issues of marketing and society : benchmarking and analysis

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and distribution of scholars engaged in knowledge production in journals focusing on marketing and society, broadly defined. Who is interested in issues of marketing and society? Where are they from? How does this compare to patterns of scholarship in recognized journals in marketing? The answers to these questions have implications for how sub-disciplines like Macromarketing can position themselves for future growth.

Publishing in socially oriented journals - the state of play in Asia

Purpose: This paper examines this issue by examining institutional publishing in six socially oriented marketing journals generally and then explores the performance within Asian institutions and those within Australia and New Zealand, in detail.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Authorships of Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Non-Profit and Public Sector Marketing, International Journal of Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, and Social Marketing Quarterly, from 1999-2003 were tracked, by institution and nationality of school. Results are reported for both number of authors and percent of authorship.

Findings: There is a dominance of publishing by North American Academics within the social area. Asia academics appear to be generally under-represented, based on the region’s size, although scholars in Australia and New Zealand perform relatively better than one might anticipate.

Research Limitations/Implications: A review of socially oriented publishing performance by institutions in Asia identifies that socially oriented research appears to be a focus in Australia and New Zealand across a range of institutions, but occurs less frequently in other Asian countries.

Practical Implications: Results are useful for understanding the role of socially oriented research among scholars in Asia and the Pacific. While Australia and New Zealand have made marks in socially oriented research, it appears to be a potential “growth area” for marketing scholars in Asia and the Pacific.

Originality/Value: This is the first paper to examine the role of geography in publishing among those interested in social issues in marketing.

Environmental marketing claims : consumer interpretation and policy implications

Environmental claims communicate the concept of green brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine if environmental claims yield satisfactory results. Secondly, what policy measures would best encourage the adoption of environmental claims by businesses? Finally, how should businesses address practical and theoretical implications?The results suggests that in order to avoid misleading consumers, policy makers need to evaluate the public’s understanding of the meaning of claims, disallow the use of nonstandard claims by businesses, establish an education program and mandate their usage. There is also an indication that the usage of recognisable third party environmental labelling may be a more reliable.

Corporate social responsibility : corporate reputation, business performance and public liability

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be viewed as a business strategy rather than a philanthropic concept. The increasing use of CSR as a corporate core strategy, in reaction to consumers‘ growing sentiments, can influence aggregate consumption and consumers‘ quality of life. As such, CSR would be of interest to the policy makers and may become subject to corporate governance and control mechanism. CSR is largely unregulated. Reliance on corporations‘ self-restraint and voluntary initiatives is inadequate to protect the society and avoid the disadvantages that may emerge from the potential deceptive practices in using a CSR strategy. This study investigates the evidence of economic benefits as incentives to corporations for using CSR. CSR is measured in terms of the firm‘s relationships with primary stakeholders. A model is constructed to identify the primary stakeholders and to estimate the association between CSR, corporate reputation and business performance. Policy implications of CSR are discussed.

Ideology for the 10 billion: introduction to globalization of marketing ideology

Discussions of ideology are akin to walking a tightrope, especially in a discipline that largely views itself as nonideological, but whose concepts are used to advance ideas and ideologies of all kinds. Through three insightful refereed articles and four invited commentaries, this special issue of the Journal of Macromarketing manages to walk the tightrope, even though the balance bar lurches dangerously to one side and then to the other. As the special issue editors, in this introductory essay, we set up the context for discussions of ideology and marketing, provide some of our views, and then introduce the seven contributions via brief previews.