Reflections on the 40th Birthday of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

Abstract

The Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M or the Journal hereinafter) was founded by Tom Kinnear of the University of Michigan in 1982 with the publication of its predecessor, Journal of Marketing & Public Policy. After the American Marketing Association (AMA) raised some concern about potential confusion with the Journal of Marketing, the Journal bore its current name from 1983 onward. The 1982 volume contained 14 articles, and the Journal was an annual publication until 1990, when it became semiannual, and in 2018 it became a quarterly publication. For a detailed review of the founding, see “In the Beginning: The Founding of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing” (Kinnear 2011). One of the major reasons for the introducing the journal was that public policy interest by marketing academics was increasing at that time. Several marketing scholars, including Bill Wilkie, Gary Ford, Ken Bernhardt, Pat Murphy, Debra Scammon, and Josh Wiener, visited as consultants or worked at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the other agencies in 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, the four editors who succeeded Kinnear all spent time at the FTC, and Kinnear did serve as a consultant to the FTC and later as a member of the National Advertising Review Board (Murphy and Wilkie 2013).These policy-oriented academics not only were major contributors to the Journal but also played an instrumental role in starting the AMA’s Marketing and Public Policy Conference and Marketing and Society Special Interest Group (Wilkie 2014). These activities were instrumental in generating interest in marketing issues related to public policy and articles for the Journal. In commemorating the 30th anniversary of JPP&M, the first seven editors reflected on their time at the helm of the Journal. Looking back at JPP&M’s early years, Kinnear noted some policy-oriented trends including children and the elderly, the environment (e.g., ecologically concerned consumers, energy use and efficiency), product liability, food labeling, and regulatory impacts on marketing (Kinnear 1982, 2011). It is interesting that many of these trends are still with us with slightly different emphases (e.g., climate change). One historical point is that the Journal appeared during the early years of the Reagan Administration, whose hallmark was deregulation. However, there was considerable academic momentum that had been building during the more activist 1970s, especially at the FTC. See Wilkie and Moore’s (2011) commentary on JPP&M’s role in advancing the study of marketing and society after 30 years. One of the topics that the current editors asked us to answer was what obstacles arose and needed to be overcome in the early years of the Journal. There were two significant ones. First was financial and administrative support. In these regards, credit is due to Alfred Edwards at the University of Michigan’s Division of Research at the Graduate School of Business Administration (now the Ross School) for support in underwriting the Journal and providing ongoing funding. At Michigan and Notre Dame, a cadre of graduate students provided the necessary person power to handle the flow of manuscripts. The administrations at both schools at the departmental and college levels were very supportive of our efforts. The second significant obstacle was to secure high-quality submissions and recruit a distinguished editorial review board. The early years required a hands-on approach by the editors to secure needed manuscript flow and quality. Both of us solicited contributions from noted scholars and encouraged reviewers to be supportive in their approach (Kinnear 2011; Murphy 2011). To have staying power, the Journal needed to be accepted as a viable outlet by both prospective authors and the academic administrators who would evaluate an author’s work. One method of increasing manuscript flow during the Murphy tenure was the institution of special issues (Murphy 1988) (more on special issues subsequently). That first reference to potential special issue papers mentioned the AIDS crisis, liability of cigarette manufacturers, and other health issues. In his 1989 editorial, Murphy (1989) added topics related to the environment, international trade, mergers, and technology on