The Value of Sticky Articles Joel Huber Duke University

Why Sticky? ► Their messages are easily recalled ► Their methods, theory and substantive results are replicated ► And they are often cited ► Sticky Articles are influential publications

Successful publications are like successful ideas ► Sticky ideas are  Story like  Simple  Unexpected  Concrete  Credible  Emotional

How is a publication like a story? ► Stories involve central characters who are in conflict, the story is about the resolution of that conflict ► There are three kinds of stores in JMR publications  Theory stories  Methodology stories  Substantive stories

Three kinds of stories in JMR StoryConflictResult Theoretical Which theory is best? Prune or build theoretical tree Method Which method? Establish better method Market or Consumer Which behavior? Predict behavior

Story strategy-target ► Who is the story for?  The conflict of the story defines who is interested— targeting is critical ► Core readers know the substantive area and will read your paper because it is central to their knowledge base—they are also your reviewers ► Incremental readers are drawn into your story particularly if it is sticky—these are critical readers

Story strategy-content ► Most publications have multiple stories, but one of the stories needs to have priority: Theory, method or substantive contribution ► One story is appropriately missing—the researcher’s story—that personal story is irrelevant

How to make the story SIMPLE ► Develop short simple ways to tell the story—research elevator speech  Avoid multiple stories  Define your paper in terms of a series of short sentences or propositions  Avoid acronyms  Be consistent in your terminology  Make up as few new labels as possible

How to make the story UNEXPECTED ► The ending is known from the abstract, but the method remains surprising ► Stress the surprising nature of your result  Prior conflict among researchers  Set up reasons for alternative outcomes  Measure peoples’ priors  Stress the logical nature of your final result—it is not quirky or random

How to make your story EMOTIONAL ► Generally emotions such as boredom, elation, anger and love have no place in a scholarly journal ► However, academics are emotional about theories, methods and practice, so play that up ► Further, the more the story is concrete, the more it will inspire emotions on the part of the reader

How to make your story Concrete ► Research is framed in abstract terms but your data and implications are or can be made so ► Articles often open with a specific scenario of a shopper or a marketer posing a question about what they should or will do ► In your discussion section bring up specific ways your results can be used

How to make the story CREDIBLE ► Build your results from methods accepted by your audience ► Show your results in different contexts  Different products, markets, contexts and methods of analyses ► Display your results in different ways  Verbally, graphically, tables ► Credibility builds from making the same point from different perspectives

How to encourage sequels ► A complete story is one that cannot replicated or modified in sequel form ► It is hard to add to a circle--It will not be referenced as the story has been ► Make your story as general as possible to encourage replications with respect to your theory, method or substantive results ► Those replications are even better if they come from other researchers

Key ideas ► Publications are like ideas…if they are easy to remember and valuable they will endure ► Ideas that are sticky come from  Focused stories that are  Simple, concrete, emotional, unexpected and credible ► Writing sticky papers is difficult, but critical for impact