Editorial

Volume 1, Issue 1

Abstract

A New Journal: Do We Really Need It?

And yet another journal. That is what some readers may think when starting to read this editorial. With so many scientific publications and such a difficult path to be recognized in the fields, one may think that a new scientific journal would be an utopian project.

We believe it is not. On the international scene, scientific journals focusing on marketing, innovation and strategy are quite rare, notwithstanding the overlaps of the three research areas. On May 22, 2023, we performed a search on ISI Web of Science, Current Contents, looking at the papers published between 2018 and 2022, with marketing AND innovation AND strategy in Topic, and filtered the results on Business Economics and kept only Articles, Review Articles and Editorial Material.  

The results were no less than impressive: a total of 1.744 publications on the topic with an increasing trend since 2019. And we only looked at a five-year period. The most prolific author, Sacha Kraus, published 11 articles in this period and only from authors affiliated with the Copenhagen Business School, 31 articles have been published.  Journal of Business Industrial Marketing published a total of 38 publications, followed closely by Strategic Management Journal (31 publications), Journal of Business Research (30 publications) and Industrial Marketing Management (29 publications).

When analyzing the most frequent words in the abstracts, the different research topics emerge. Firms, markets, business, strategy, innovativeness, industry, product, service, knowledge, competitiveness, platforms, data and technology.

Our new journal, IJMIS – International Journal of Marketing, Innovation and Strategy focuses on these topics, yet also dwells deeper in topics like communication, tourism, social marketing, circular economy, entrepreneurship and business reorientation due to contextual change. More specifically, the preferred topics are:

• business reorientation as a result of Covid-19 pandemics;
• consumer behaviour & market research;
• data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, social media strategy, marketing and business intelligence;
• destination marketing and niche tourism;
• digital / integrated communication, advertising and promotion;
• entrepreneurship, competitiveness and innovation in small and medium-sized companies;
• innovative approaches to teaching & learning in marketing, innovation and strategy;
• open innovation, business models and business model innovation;
• social marketing, corporate social responsibility and circular economy;
• other topics in marketing, innovation and strategy.

For all interested authors, conceptual articles are welcomed, using systematic literature review methodology or bibliometrics, as well as empirical articles focusing on case study methodologies, netnography, surveys, sentiment analysis, online naturalising inquiry and cross-sectional or time-series analyses based on secondary data sources.

The Very First Issue

The first issue of the first volume of our journal presents you a collection of five articles related to the digital world.

Luzia Arantes opens the issue with the perception of consumers on digital marketing and sustainability. More specifically, it focuses on the relationship between digital marketing, its tools and the presence on social networks by brands with online sustainability communication. By means of a questionnaire-based survey, the author uses structural equation modelling. Results indicate the existence of a relationship between digital marketing and the communication of sustainability through digital.

The second article is written by Joana Sofia Boucinha Santos and Ana Pinto de Lima, and analyzes the new online consumption habits resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Once again, a quantitative study implemented using a questionnaire-based survey. Results indicate that consumers changed their consumption habits in terms of proportion, amount spent on online purchases and payment methods. Changes were also noticed in the purchasing behavior of certain categories of products during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The third article belongs to Anabela Maria Bello de Figueiredo Marcos and Mariana Martinho Leira, who dive into the topic of the drivers of social media adoption in B2B markets. Based on data collected from workers from B2B companies, a structural equations model was used to test the relationships among the variables learning, memorability, absence of errors, usability, functionality, social influence, satisfaction, trust, and social media adoption. Different drivers influence social media usability, trust in social media and social media usefulness. Satisfaction with social media is achieved through greater ease of use, usefulness, and trust. When social media users are satisfied, are subject to social influence, and judge social media to be usefulness, they tend to adopt social media.  

Sara Santos, Pedro Espírito Santo and Luísa Augusto present us an article focused on word-of-mouth antecedents of city residents, in the context of gender differences. Using a cross-sectional study, the authors identify that infrastructure, atmosphere, and perceived psychological well-being positively influence citizens' word-of-mouth.

Our first issue ends with an article on the relationship of online trust with Consumer Generated Media, more specifically the case of Booking. Sandrina Teixeira, Ana Sofia and Ana Pinto de Lima develop a quantitative analysis utilizing a questionnaire-based survey based on the Trust Building Model and take into account three categories: website-based, company-based, and customer-based antecedents. Results indicate that perceived source credibility, information quality, perceived website quality, user satisfaction with previous experiences, and user experience and knowledge are the antecedents that affect online trust in the studied case.

Final Thoughts

All big endeavours start with the first step. And that step was made today.

We begin this journey with hope and responsibility. Hope that we’ll be able to keep up the rhythm and lead IJMIS into the future quality publications in the field. And responsibility to ensure the quality is maintained and improved along the years.

We thank all the authors who submitted articles for the first issue. We thank all the members of our editorial team and our community, who received today a new journal, in open source, that will disseminate knowledge related to marketing, innovation and strategy.

May you follow us in the following years, as readers, authors or reviewers. We will do our best to keep you engaged.