JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Deadline has now passed

Presenting Marketing Differently: Developing Devices to Disseminate Post-Representational Research

Guest Editors: Jack Coffin, University of Manchester, UK, & Tim Hill, University of Bath, UK

Journals and books are the dominant mechanisms through which marketing and consumer researchers communicate their findings. However, it has been argued that knowledge dissemination is limited by text-based mediums of representation, particularly when that knowledge relates to multi-sensory, embodied, and pre-reflexive phenomena (Anderson & Harrison, 2010; Blackman, 2012; Latham, 2003; Thrift, 1996, 2005, 2008). Marketing researchers have turned to actor-network theory (Bajde, 2013; Bettany, 2007; Epp & Price 2010), non-representational theory (Hill et al., 2014) and assemblage approaches (Hoffman & Novak, 2018) in order to bring to life phenomena like spatialised smells (Canniford et al., 2017; Henshaw et al., 2016), the atmosphere of place (Hill, 2015), and territorial negotiations (Cheetham et al., 2018), but inevitably translate these novel theorisations into traditional textual templates like the journal article or book chapter. As Bettany (2015) notes, these institutionalised vehicles of representation legitimise certain forms of knowledge and exclude others. It is therefore important to challenge our discursive dogma and ask: how might we present (marketing) research differently?

The Journal of Marketing Management (JMM) is calling for submissions to a special issue exploring how to present research differently, formulated as a forum to discuss, develop, and demonstrate alternative modes of dissemination. We agree with Sherry (2000: 227) that “for better and for worse, how we represent our research findings determines ultimately their validity and usefulness”. As such, we seek to trouble the textual template of prosaic publications, to explore methods and media that might be used to communicate difficult-to-represent phenomena with less distortion or omission, and to consider how marketing scholars can enrich and extend their epistemic cultures. We do not suggest that researchers should adopt alternative dissemination methods for the sake of difference; rather, we argue that different methods of conceptual communication may be more appropriate when investigating multifaceted and messy markets or complex configurations of consumption. This call is running in parallel with the Presenting Life Differently workshop at the Academy of Marketing Conference in July 2019 (https://www.academyofmarketing.org/conference/conference-2019/). However, participation in the conference is not a prerequisite for submission to JMM. This is an open call for submission – we want to encourage a broad range of submissions from scholars across (and beyond) marketing.

JMM has championed challenges to convention over the last few years, and in this spirit of unorthodoxy we invite any submission that opens up alternative ways of thinking about, and doing, marketing and consumer research. Theories and methods can be drawn from a single discipline or may involve inter-disciplinary (or anti-disciplinary) fusions of thought. Some researchers may choose to work around the archetype of the academic article but with(in) the limits of language, such as the recent JMM special issue on community which included a conversation transcript between four leading academics interested in the topic (Arvidsson et al., 2018). Other researchers may seek to move beyond the limitations of language by including other registers of representation wherever possible. One source of inspiration for such intellectual innovativeness is another recent JMM special issue on videography, where scholars were able to submit videos as well as written papers to convey their arguments (see Rokka et al., 2018). A number of other suggestions are provided below, but these should be taken as inspirational points of departure, not normative restrictions or a list of preferred topics.

Possible Submission Examples

  • Walking tours
  • Sampling smells, tastes, or materials to touch
  • Music and songs (recorded and/or sheet music)
  • Virtual Reality Headsets
  • Role-play and immersive theatre (including scripts)
  • Gamification and Apps
  • Dialogues and other Conversational Structures
  • Interactive narratives (where the reader chooses the direction of the narrative)
  • Wiki-research
  • Videography and film
  • Photography and visual arts
  • ‘How-to’ guides to allow readers to experience a consumption practice first-hand

Submission Requirements: While we seek to encourage creative submissions, we also acknowledge that there are a range of technical, legal, and institutional conditions that must be considered during the publication process. We encourage authors to email the Editor(s) informally, ideally as soon as possible, to start a conversation about their submission, especially if they are proposing an unconventional format that raises issues necessitating additional consideration.

Email the editors at: jack.coffin@manchester.ac.uk

Authors will be required to email a 250-750 word final proposal to the Special Issue Editors by the 16th of August 2019. This proposal will describe the core idea or argument of the proposed submission, but also detail how the author(s) see their submission working as a citable piece of academic work, including addressing issues of anonymity (for peer review), accessibility, copyright, and any technical requirements.

After discussing the practicalities of unconventional submissions, selected authors will be invited to upload a full submission for review by the 16th of March 2020. This two-stage submission process will ensure that authors do not invest too much time and effort in ideas that are not currently feasible as an academic journal publication. We recommend the recent JMM blog post on video submissions https://www.jmmnews.com/how-to-submit-a-video-article/ and the accompanying Videography issue at https://www.jmmnews.com/screening-marketing/ as a source of information and inspiration.

The closing dates for submissions are:
16 August 2019 for the 250-750 proposal, and
16 March 2020 for the full submission from invited authors. (Detailed instructions for submission will be provided to invited authors).

References

Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. (2010). The Promise of Non-Representational Theories. In B. Anderson & P. Harrison (Eds.), Taking-Place: Non-Representational Theories and Geography (pp. 1–34). Surrey, UK: Ashgate.
Arvidsson, A., Bradshaw, A., Hulme, A. & Canniford, R. (2018). The future of community research: a conversation with Alison Hulme, Alan Bradshaw and Adam Arvidsson. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(7-8), 694-704. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2018.1481254
Bajde, D. (2013). Consumer Culture Theory (Re)visits Actor-Network Theory: Flattening Consumption Studies. Marketing Theory, 13(2), 227–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593113477887
Bettany, S. (2007). The Material Semiotics of Consumption or Where (and What) are the Objects of Consumer Culture Theory? In R.W. Belk & J.F. Sherry (Eds.) Consumer Culture Theory: Research in Consumer Behavior (Vol. 11, pp. 41–56). Oxford, UK: JAI Press.
Bettany, S. (2015). A Commentary: Where (and what) is the critical in consumer-oriented actor-network theory? In R. Canniford & D. Bajde (Eds.) Assembling Consumption: Researching Actors, Networks and Markets (pp.187-197). London, UK: Routledge.
Blackman, L. (2012). Immaterial Bodies. Affect, Embodiment, Mediation. London, UK: Sage.
Canniford, R. (2012). Poetic Witness: Marketplace Research through Poetic Transcription and Poetic Translation. Marketing Theory, 12(4), 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593112457740
Canniford, R., Riach, H. & Hill, T. (2017). Nosenography: How Smell Constitutes Meaning, Identity and Temporal Experience in Spatial Assemblages. Marketing Theory, 18(2), 234-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593117732462
Cheetham, F., McEachern, M.G. & Warnaby, G. (2017). A kaleidoscopic view of the territorialized consumption of place. Marketing Theory, 18(4), 473-492. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593117724608
Epp, A. & Price, L.L. (2010). The Storied Life of Singularized Objects: Forces of Agency and Network Transformation. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 820–37. https://doi.org/10.1086/603547
Henshaw, V., Medway, D., Warnaby, G. & Perkins, C. (2016). Marketing the “city of smells”. Marketing Theory, 16(2), 153–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593115619970
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Hill, T. (2015). Mood-Management in the English Premier League. In R. Canniford & D. Bajde (Eds.) Assembling Consumption: Researching Actors, Networks and Markets (pp.155-171). London, UK: Routledge.
Hill, T., Canniford, R. & Mol, J. (2014). Non-representational Marketing Theory. Marketing Theory 14(4), 377–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593114533232
Hoffman, D.L. & Novak, T.P. (2018). Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(6), 1178-1204. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx105
Belk, R.W. & Kozinets, R.V. (2005). Videography in marketing and consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: an international journal, 8(2), 128-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/13522750510592418
Latham, A. (2003). Research, Performance, and Doing Human Geography: Some Reflections on the Diary-Photograph, Diary-Interview Method. Environment and Planning A, 35(11), 1993–2017. https://doi.org/10.1068/a3587
Rokka, J., Hietanen, J., & Brownlie, D. (2018). Screening Marketing: Videography and the Expanding Horizons of Filmic Research. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(5-6), 421-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1403112
Sherry, J. (2000). Place, Technology, and Representation. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(2), 273-278. https://doi.org/10.1086/314325
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Thrift, N. (1996). Spatial Formations. London: Sage.
Thrift, N. (2005). Knowing Capitalism. London, UK: Sage.
Thrift, N. (2008). Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

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