First Insights in Retailing: A new section in the Journal of Retailing

First Insights in Retailing: A new section in the Journal of Retailing

by Katrijn Gielens

Why?

With disruption being layered upon disruption, change in retail and channel practices is taking place at an unprecedented speed. Yet, knowledge evolves at a much slower speed. For a good reason, one may argue. Academic research needs and will always need rigor. In a field like marketing, rigor often relates to the quality and validity of the data that can be used, whereby quality and validity may require time. Still, faster, new insights on the evolutions raging through the retailscape are needed. First Insights serve as a steppingstone to build a body of research in new domains or domains that need to be revisited. The main aim is to produce valid and relevant marketing insights without necessarily developing or testing theory.

What?

First Insights papers are firmly embedded in an ‘Empirics First’ approach.[1] This implies that First Insights studies are resolutely rooted in a real-world marketing phenomenon or observation. The approach requires obtaining and analyzing data, which result in valid marketing-relevant insights without necessarily developing or testing theory.

The main aim is geared towards discovery and relevance, allowing researchers to open a new path and address new questions. Ideally, First Insights papers explore a new terrain that are not easily obtained through conventional hypothesis testing.

Data can be generated through experiments, surveys, and/or observation. So, both readily accessible archival sources and new datasets can be used. Given the novelty of the topics explored, data may be less expansive in scope or length, but what is required is that they set the stage for deeper knowledge. This can take place in many shapes and forms.

Ultimately, what is required is that First Insights research allows us to see how a certain effect may play out, but also that it is not simply due to the idiosyncrasies of a specific (narrow) setting. Please note, that non-significant results matter as well in this context. So, researchers are invited to share all results. Data validation is important and model-free evidence needs to be provided.

The ultimate litmus test to evaluate First Insights papers is that results are insightful and that effect sizes are economically, managerially or socially meaningful and that the results can offer managerial, public policy, and/or consumer advise, or inform any other relevant stakeholder.

How First Insights are expected to generalize to other contexts or situations (e.g., across countries, industries, organizations, consumer segments, variations of phenomenon) is an important discussion point. Boundary conditions are therefore not simply the last line of a limitations section. Their discussion should offer clear insight in how the knowledge base can grow.

How?

The aim is to keep the review process short and limited in scope with two reviewers and one round. Some of the main parameters that will be used to evaluate manuscripts are related to the novelty of the topic and the relevance to one or more stakeholders. Also important is that a solid case can be made for the wider generalizability of the insights, but no empirical testing is required. Even with more limited data, thorough and valid analyses are required, most of which can be reported in Web Appendices. The articles should be to the point and relatively short in nature using a limited number of references. Technical discussions can be referred to Web Appendices.

When submitting, authors have to indicate that the paper is a submission for the First Insights track. They can select “First Insights” as an option in the Manuscript Central when uploading the manuscript.

To guarantee speed to publication, the paper will be either conditionally accepted or rejected after the first round. This requires authors to submit as polished a work as possible in their initial submission. The Editor will make the final decision without additional reviewer input after the authors revise the paper. For a select number of papers a resubmission option may still be offered, if the paper is sufficiently promising but some further revising is deemed necessary.

[1] Golder, P. N., Dekimpe, M. G., An, J. T., van Heerde, H. J., Kim, D. S. U., & Alba, J. W. (2022). Learning from Data: An Empirics-First Approach to Relevant Knowledge Generation. Journal of Marketing.