Enhancing marketing theory in academic research

It may be easier to describe “what not to do” than it is to describe “what to do” when writing a conceptual or theoretical article. In this sense, the five “wrong way” signs may be of limited value. Nonetheless, it is our experience that quite a number of marketing manuscripts sometimes wander down one of these streets where strong theory is rarely present. We realize that some of our recommendations are difficult to implement. The reality is that good theoretical work is far more difficult to do and requires far greater creativity than most empirical research. This fact should not deter such efforts, and journals, includingJAMS, must work to nurture such scholarship, even in the face of a very high hurdle. Nonetheless, we believe that marketing theorists have made significant progress over the past 50 years, but, if the discipline is to play an important role in the social sciences and influence management practice, it must accelerate its efforts to create its own unique theories of markets and marketing phenomena.JAMS is a welcoming and nurturing place for such work.