DAWN IACOBUCCI*
Gilbert A. Churchill Jr.’s Editorship of Journal of Marketing Research, 1979–1982 Gil Churchill served at Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) during an important time of maturation for the field. Journal of Marketing (JM) and JMR were firmly established, and both encouraged articles across the realm of marketing (e.g., segmentation, pricing, channels, advertising). Whereas JM was positioned a bit more for immediate relevance to practitioners, JMR was oriented more toward methods of conducting research across those marketing realms. The balancing act was one that Gil handled brilliantly, as evidenced by the Tables of Contents across his issues. For example, consider the article by Aaker and Bagozzi (1979), “Unobservable Variables in Structural Equation Models with an Application in Industrial Selling,” which nicely melds a methodological contribution with one in a substantive area of inquiry. Naturally, most articles emphasize one facet more than the other, but Gil achieved balance within each issue. For example, in the November 1978 issue (Vol. 15), there are two articles on sales force issues and two on measurement; in the August 1979 issue (Vol. 16), there are four articles on advertising and four articles on statistical issues. Another indicator of the field’s maturation is that two new journals were founded to help address scholarly specializations. Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) had just begun (1974), and Marketing Science was being launched (1982). Either of these new start-up journals alone, and certainly both of them together, could have caused overwhelming problems for JMR: had JCR siphoned off the best behavioral articles and Marketing Science the best quantitative articles, it could have left JMR seeking quality submissions or even a new identity. No doubt in part due to the growth of the field and resulting demand, both JCR and Marketing Science have been strong journals in their own regard since their inception. Nevertheless, it is easy to argue that Gil oversaw JMR flawlessly during this transition as well; the journal’s issues contain both articles classified as behavioral and those identified as quantitative, all sound and strong in content. For example, the November 1979 issue (Vol. 16) begins with articles on price elasticity and
sales territories, and it follows with articles on consumer surveys, attribute ratings, and brand comparisons in advertisements. Similarly, the May 1980 issue (Vol. 17) contains articles on predicting behavioral intentions and advertising and commercials, along with articles on dynamic pricing and modeling buying frequencies. Gil managed the myriad of JM/JMR and JMR/JCR/ Marketing Science challenges beautifully; and yet my respect is greater still for the methodological articles he published. Churchill’s editorial term, from 1979 to 1982, could be said to be the golden age of JMR. Consider a sampling of the models and methods, per issue:
• Attitude and functional measurement, psychometric testing, and segmentation (November 1978); • Brand choice models, conjoint measurement field experiments, and structural equation modeling (May 1979); • Contingency tables, multiattribute decompositional models, nominal variables, path models, and sparse data (August 1979); • Cluster analysis, logit models, and perceptual maps (November 1979); • Optimal scaling (correspondence analysis), longitudinal data, and survey response rates (February 1980); • Monte Carlo simulations and sample size and power estimation (May 1980); • Data aggregation issues, sampling optimization, and survey design (November 1980); • Factor analysis, importance weights, and model misspecifications (February 1981); • Construct validity and market share models (May 1981); • Effect size, moderators, and overlapping clusters (August 1981); • Beta binomial models and measurement error (November 1981); • Canonical correlations, discriminant analysis, jackknifes, and focus groups (February 1982); • Group decision making and nonmetric conjoint (May 1982); and • Conjoint analysis, perceptual maps, and rank order data (August 1982).
The development of these techniques was essential to the very development of the field of marketing. Gil had the foresight to encourage the introduction and presentation of new methods and models, as well as the experimentation that is the dialogue of the publishing process to facilitate researchers optimizing the methods we have all inherited and take for granted. Gil’s intelligence and selection criteria
*Dawn Iacobucci is E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Management in Marketing, Department of Marketing, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University (e-mail:
[email protected]. edu). The author is grateful to Jim Anderson, Bill Perreault, and Janet Christopher for their helpful comments and suggestions. © 2014, American Marketing Association ISSN: 0022-2437 (print), 1547-7193 (electronic)
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helped create a body of work that has gracefully withstood the test of time. Indeed, curious as to which JMR articles were those most cited of all time, I searched Journal of Marketing Research online via “Publish or Perish,” with no date restrictions or other modifiers. The top three most frequently cited articles were published during Gil’s years at the helm: first was Fornell and Larcker (1981), “Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error,” with 16,937 cites (as of 7:00 P.M., July 20, 2013); second was Churchill (1979), “A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs,” accepted by a guest editor, with 8,913 cites; and third was Oliver (1980), “A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions,” with 6,181 cites. The fourth most popular article had not achieved even half that number. Gil Churchill took on a challenging job during a potentially tumultuous time and did it exceedingly, extraordinarily well. No doubt, my immense regard for Gil Churchill is clear to the reader. He has been a delight to me personally in mentoring me as I joined him as coauthor of his premier text, Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations. Given that the other former editors are using this special section of JMR to express some personal reflections, I thought readers might be interested in hearing more of that side of Gil, so I called Janet Christopher, his longtime administrative associate at the University of Wisconsin and then JMR’s managing editor. I asked Janet first about the JMR job. She reminded me that during Gil’s editorship, not only was there no ScholarOne or other online manuscript submission and processing software service, this era preceded the widespread use of e-mail as well! She said that they kept a log, tracking the days when reviews were due and pursuing late reviewers by telephone. Even so, Gil set up the very best cutting-edge desktop technology for them both to create a system that would run as smoothly as possible. Indeed, they succeeded; they kept the JMR review process to a 45-day turnaround time, an impressive duration that rivals the statistics of any editor that has followed.
Janet and I also talked about Gil more generally. She told me about how she and colleagues viewed Gil, that the adjective “strong” always seemed to arise as his best descriptor. Gil is a serious person, all business, yet also quick with a smile, friendly, and hugely supportive of his students and colleagues, who were always seeking his advice. Gil is very disciplined in his approach to work— long before Nike came out with its “Just Do It” campaign, I remember Gil telling me that his work ethic is basically “butt in seat”—that is, sit down and do the work. To help ensure uninterrupted work time, Janet gained a reputation as Gil’s “hit woman” (amusing if you know how kind Janet is). As a result, Gil met every JMR and book publisher deadline throughout his career, usually beating the deadline by several weeks. As editor of JMR and in these other capacities, Gil was always fair, objective, and constructive—you just trust the man. Colleagues throughout the field obviously feel the same—he has won every American Marketing Association award; then, the association even named an award after him, and he won that award as well. On a more personal note to which few of us would be privy, Janet mentioned that Gil also achieved that seemingly elusive work–life balance—to be there for his wife and five children. In closing, of Gil Churchill, I can think of no better suited expression than this: Gilbert Churchill is both a gentleman and a scholar. REFERENCES
Aaker, David and Rick Bagozzi (1979), “Unobservable Variables in Structural Equation Models with an Application in Industrial Selling,” Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (May), 147–58. Churchill, Gilbert A., Jr. (1979), “A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs,” Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (February), 64–73. Fornell, Claes and David F. Larcker (1981), “Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error,” Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (February), 39– 50. Oliver, Richard L. (1980), “A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 17 (November), 460–69.
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