CALL FOR PAPERS
INTERNATIONAL MARKETING REVIEW (IMR)
Special Issue: ADVANCING THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETING RESEARCH AGENDA WITH INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGIES
The International Marketing Review (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/imr.htm) seeks to publish interesting, well written and academically robust papers which communicate clearly on international marketing issues. It is not a home for general
marketing papers, but adopts a pluralist approach to international marketing research and welcomes submissions which present the results of rigorously conducted, robust research, whatever the specific methodology employed. All the papers published in the journal
are blind reviewed with three reviewers, and aim to communicate theoretical information clearly so it can be applied to practical situations in the real world.
The International Marketing Review invites the submission of articles that fit the theme “Advancing the international marketing research agenda with innovative methodologies”. Despite significant
progress in terms of conceptualisations and methodologies and the realisation that ‘international’ research has become common practice in the domain of business and marketing
(Cadogan 2010;
Malhotra, Agarwal, and Peterson 1996),
there is a realisation that the utilisation of appropriate procedures may be somewhat unsatisfactory. Data are frequently collected and analysed at multiple levels
(Oliveira, Cadogan, and Souchon 2012),
cross-cultural equivalence tests prove unsatisfactory and fall short of desired comparability thresholds
(Salzberger and Sinkovics 2006;
Steenkamp and Baumgartner 1998)
and response-rates are plummeting because researchers are cramming too much into their studies and respondents’ fatigue is stretched to its limits
(Dillman, Sinclair, and Clark 1993).
The rise of emerging markets, due to their significant institutional difference from the developed markets, further heightens these conceptual and methodological challenges. Questions arise regarding
large bodies of existing literature and how these translate into applicable and actionable research questions for emerging market contexts. For instance, how to make sense of internationalisation research and how to synthesize findings with a view to their
suitability for emerging markets? Further, company capabilities are likely to be shaped within business groups and networks and thus social network analysis may become increasingly relevant for conceptual and methodological reasons
(Borgatti, Everett, and Johnson 2013).
These approaches may be particularly useful when studying internationalisation processes of SMEs. How much can advanced methods of systematic analysis help us to reach a consensual understanding out of vastly diverging bodies of work
(Borenstein et al. 2009).
Advanced research methodologies also push us to tackle new marketing issues and develop new theories for these markets
(Burgess and Steenkamp 2006,
2013;
Sheth 2011). For example, qualitative
research methods may be more suitable than quantitative methods to explore the effects of institutions on consumers and organizations at the individual and group level
(Burgess and Steenkamp 2006;
Ingenbleek, Tessema, and van Trijp 2013).
Significant within-country-heterogeneity in emerging markets may challenge traditional data analysis methods such as measurement invariance and level of analysis. To this end, methods such as finite mixture model and multilevel analysis have been proposed
to help remedy these deficiencies (Burgess and Steenkamp 2006;
Peterson, Arregle, and Martin 2012).
There is much pressure on the research community to diversify research methodologies
(Nakata and Huang 2005).
This special issue is set up with a view to pushing the frontiers regarding rigour and trustworthiness
(Sinkovics, Penz, and Ghauri 2008),
for the sake of clearer conceptualisations and perspectives on the real problems underlying these phenomena. We therefore seeks original research that provides a basis for understanding current issues and advancing practices/methodologies in International
Marketing Research. Although all research methodologies and perspectives are welcome, papers that offer strong theoretical foundations and empirical focus will be preferred.
Rudolf R. Sinkovics (*)
Professor of International Business
Centre for Comparative & International Business Research (CIBER)
The University of Manchester, Manchester Business School
Booth Street West, Manchester M15 6PB, United Kingdom.
Phone: +44 161 306 8980
[log in to unmask], www.manchester.ac.uk/research/rudolf.sinkovics
Ruey-Jer ‘Bryan’ Jean
Associate Professor of International Business
National Chengchi University
64, Sec.2 Zhi-Nan Road, Taipei, 11605, Taiwan
Phone: +886 (2) 29393091 88180
Daekwan Kim
Associate Professor of Marketing
The College of Business
Florida State University
P.O. Box 3061110
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110
Phone: (850)644-7890
Prof Dr Rudolf R Sinkovics
| Professor of International Business
| The University of Manchester | Manchester Business School | Booth Street West
| Room MBS East F7 | Manchester M15 6PB | United Kingdom
| Tel +44 (161) 306 8980 | [log in to unmask]
| www.manchester.ac.uk/research/rudolf.sinkovics
| www.mbs.ac.uk/ciber | www.risingpowers.net