The nature and origins of impactful research in marketing

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article (1) explores the nature and origins of “high impact” (i.e., highly cited) articles in marketing, (2) argues that a major factor is that highly cited articles frequently are the result of their authors’ executing time-consuming, research programs, rather than simply working on individual articles that appear to be immediately publishable, (3) develops a “six-stage model” of programmatic research, and (4) illustrates the six-stage model by means of the author’s “marketing theory” research program.