From the Editors-Elect: Meaningful Consumer Research

Abstract

We are honored, humbled, and excited to have been entrusted with the editorship of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ) as it enters its fifth decade of publication. Ushered into existence 40 years ago in June 1974, this journal was born in a time of intellectual ferment that has been likened to the “Mississippi River in flood stage” by founding editor Ronald Frank ( 1995, 486). Motivated by dissatisfaction with what were perceived as restrictive visions in other publication outlets and a shared conviction that there was a need to foster research that provided a deeper understanding of a fuller gamut of consumer behavior, the founders expressed bold ambitions. They sought to create a journal in which scholars interested in a spectrum of consumer behavior, construed in the broadest of terms, could be published. They intended that JCR should be “the first journal in which professionals sharing an interest in consumer behavior across disciplines send their material” (Frank 1974, i). And they believed that interdisciplinary research should be promoted. While the notion that the journal should publish impactful papers was largely implicit at the time of the founding, fostering high-impact research has become an explicit, complementary goal in the intervening years. Thus, the mandate we inherit is tripartite: publish work on the broad spectrum of consumer behavior, publish work that contributes to conversations across a range of disciplines, and publish research that is impactful.