Sophistication in Research in Marketing Donald R. Lehmann Leigh McAlister Richard Staelin “Ideas that Matter” Pre-Conference Summer AMA 2010

The Research System And Feedback Loops Solid Lines = Direct Effects Dash Lines = Feedback Effects

Lynch Old Days: More Aspiration For Conceptual Papers Today: Don’t Even Consider It Before Tenure

Lynch Need more papers for promotion Count instead of read

Lynch Process impacts PhD Training Nature of papers PhD students write

Lynch Journals publishing more papers More authors More papers/author

LMS Drawing scholars from other fields New methods New theories Less interest in marketing

LMS Outside scholars drive technical sophistication arms race Not needed/helpful understanding marketing

LMS Accelerates Elison- identified: “Execution drives out Idea quality” Yadav (2010) shift from conceptual articles Reibstein/Day/Wind (2009) shift away from relevance

Survey of Published Authors JM, JMR, JCR, MktSci; Past 5 years 510 sent out 56% response rate – No follow up notification Target Journal – 20% JM – 40% JCR – 20% JMR – 20% Marketing Science

What makes a good review? UsefulReviews Enhance managerial relevance Provide theoretical justification Rule out alternative explanations ≈ Idea Quality Not Useful Reviews Use a different model Use a more complex method Alter the thrust of the paper ≈ Execution Quality

Asked to increase managerial relevance…. 45% said it resulted in new insight 41% said it improved the focus of the paper

Asked to use more complex method…. 80% said it had no impact on paper’s conclusions 38% said it made the paper harder to read People said they got this request 50% of the time

Old Fart-itis? No. Responses didn’t differ by cohort, except In the field 5 years or less Less frequent requests for more complex model Fewer conflicting requests from reviewers In the field… 5 years or less22% 6-10 years23% years26% More than 20 years24%

What to do? Editors – Tell reviewers to rebalance method and idea – Back up policy with editorial decisions Reviewers – Interesting – Not wrong

What to do? More complex method is appropriate if: – Assumptions are met – Method is focus of research – Method changes the result – Benefit > extra communication cost – Method is described simply