My JMREditorship: A Life of π

*Michael J. Houston is Ecolab-Pierson M. Grieve Chair in International Marketing and Associate Dean of Global Initiatives, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota (e-mail: mhouston@umn.edu). In 1989 when I became editor of Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), the journal had been in place for 25 years. Much had changed in the landscape of academic journals in marketing since its inception in 1964. When JMR was first established, the only other academic journal of note in marketing was Journal of Marketing (JM), also published by the American Marketing Association (AMA). The AMA was able to clearly position the two journals in the minds of readers and prospective authors. However, by 1989, two additional journals had established themselves as highquality publication outlets in the marketing discipline. Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) had been in place since 1974 and had become an important outlet for manuscripts focused on consumer behavior, and Marketing Science had been in place since 1982 and had become an important outlet for manuscripts focused on quantitative aspects of marketing. Each of these journals focused on topics and methods consistent with the editorial mission of JMR and had published many articles that otherwise might have been submitted to JMR, including some of my own published at JCR. A concern was that the perception of JMR as an outlet for these types of manuscripts had diminished. While I had nothing but high regard for these journals, I believed it was important that JMR regain any lost position for the types of manuscripts going to JCR and Marketing Science. The purpose was to remind authors that JMR remained an important outlet for these types of manuscripts, given the large numbers of such manuscripts under development. At the same time, it was important that JMR continue to be the preferred outlet for methodological developments and empirical research on all marketing-related phenomena. It seemed clear that my own identity as a consumer researcher would likely convey the needed impression that consumer behavior was an appropriate topic for JMR. More important, however, was the need to convey that JMR also welcomed quantitative manuscripts of the type going to Marketing Science. Consequently, during invited presentations at various marketing departments around the country and at Meet the Editor sessions at conferences, it was important to communicate the broad scope of manuscripts appropriate for JMR. Therefore, in looking back at the journal during the 1989–1991 period, the types of manuscripts appearing in JMR became a key issue I examined to determine whether my efforts realized any degree of success. The mix of topics appearing in the journal is a major element of what follows. It is also necessary to consider any key types of manuscripts that emerged during the 1989–1991 period in terms of either topic or method along with articles that have proved to be influential. To accomplish my objectives here, I have developed a rough categorization scheme for classifying all the articles appearing during the time of my editorship and have determined the frequency of each category. I also examined citation counts for each of the articles through Google Scholar. Table 1 shows the percentage breakdown for the various article categories, and the Appendix identifies articles in each category that have received at least 250 citations.