Research traditions and patterns in marketing scholarship

Abstract

In the past 40 years, marketing scholarship has made tremendous advances. Our methods are diverse and relatively sophisticated. As a brief perusal of any marketing textbook (or journal) indicates, we have developed approaches for solving important managerial problems. Consumer behavior, sales management, and advertising have been distinct fields of study, within marketing, for more than 40 years. There are specialized journals for each of these areas, butJAMS, as a general journal, also publishes scholarly articles in these areas. Nonetheless, each of these subdisciplines has its own unique set of patterns and traditions, and there does not appear to be a lot of communication between scholars who specialize in distinct subareas. In this way, we have a tendency to remain somewhat isolated as researchers and scholars. At the same time, there is an increasing challenge to fit all of marketing scholarship under one unified and harmonious tent.