In Search of Eminence: A Personal Brand-Building Perspective on the Achievement of Scholarly Prominence in Marketing

Abstract

In marketing, as in many other academic disciplines, new scholars are often taught a simple formula for the achievement of professional success: the single-minded pursuit of “A”-level journal publications. Although the goal of producing high-quality research that is ultimately published in top level journals is certainly worthwhile, the attainment of true prominence or “eminence” in the discipline may draw on a more complex formula. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the most prolific scholars may not always be the most eminent. Taking a personal brand-building perspective, this study examines a wide range of factors that may influence the attainment of scholarly eminence in the marketing discipline. Using a sample of 297 marketing academicians, this study finds that although a raw volume of publications influences eminence, publishing top-tier publications is even more significant. Perhaps most interestingly, this work highlights several different professional paths that can lead to scholarly eminence, including a tradeoff between publishing sole-authored pieces and “A”-level volume, and the eminence-enhancing effects of various professional activities. These findings suggest that a single-minded model of the path to scholarly eminence is supported but not necessarily complete.

Keywords

branding personal branding brand development eminence scholarly productivity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aaker, D.A. , & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). Brand leadership. New York, NY: Free Press.

Bakir, A. , Vitell, S. , & Rose, G. ( 2000). Publications in major marketing journals: An analysis of scholars and marketing departments. Journal of Marketing Education, 22, 99-107.

Broniarczyk, S.M. , & Gershoff, A.D. (2003). The reciprocal effects of brand equity and trivial attributes. Journal of Marketing Research, 40, 161-175.

Dobni, D. , & Zinkhan, G.M. ( 1990). In search of brand image: A foundation analysis. In M. E. Goldberg , G. Gorn , & R. W. Pollay (Eds.), Advances in consumer research (Vol. 17, pp. 110-119). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

Donner, A. ( 1986). A review of inference procedures for the intraclass correlation coefficient in the one-way random effects model. International Statistical Review, 54, 67-82.

Elsbach, K.D. , & Kramer, R.M. ( 2003). Assessing creativity in Hollywood pitch meetings: Evidence for a dual process model of creativity judgments. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 283-301.

Erdem, T. , & Keane, M.P. ( 1996). Decision-making under uncertainty: Capturing dynamic brand choice processes in turbulent consumer goods markets. Marketing Science, 15, 1-20.

Erdem, T. , & Swait, J. ( 2004). Brand credibility, brand consideration, and choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 191-198.

Feist, G.J. ( 1993). A structural model of scientific eminence. Psychological Science, 4, 366-371.

10.

Feist, G.J. ( 1997). Quantity, quality, and depth of research as influences on scientific eminence: Is quantity most important? Creativity Research Journal, 10, 325-335.

11.

Gale, B.T. ( 1992). Quality comes first when hatching power brands. Planning Review, 20(4), 4-10.

12.

Gorenflo, D. , & McConnell, J. ( 1991). The most frequently cited journal articles and authors in introductory psychology textbooks. Teaching of Psychology , 18, 8-12.

13.

Haggbloom, S.J. , Warnick, R. , Warnick, J.E. , Jones, V.K. , Yarbrough, G.L. , Russell, T.M. , . . . Monte, E. ( 2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century . Review of General Psychology, 6, 139-152.

14.

Hasselback, J.R. ( 2003). Prentice-Hall marketing faculty directory 2002-2003. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

15.

Keller, K.L. ( 1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57, 1-22.

16.

Keller, K.L. ( 1999). Managing brands for the long run. California Management Review, 41, 102-124.

17.

Keller, K.L. , & Aaker, D.A. ( 1992). The effects of sequential introduction of brand extensions . Journal of Marketing Research, 29, 35-50.

18.

Kirkpatrick, S.A. , & Locke, E.A. ( 1992). The development of measures of faculty scholarship. Group and Organization Management, 17, 5-23.

19.

Korn, J.H. , Davis, R. , & Davis, S.F. ( 1991). Historians’ and chairpersons’ judgments of eminence among psychologists. American Psychologist, 46, 789-792.

20.

LeBreton, J.M. , & Senter, J.L. ( 2008). Answers to 20 questions about interrater reliability and interrater agreement. Organizational Research Methods , 11, 815-852.

21.

Matson, J.L. , Malone, C.J. , González, M.L. , McClure, D.R. , Laud, R.B. , & Minshawi, N.F. (2005). Clinical psychology Ph.D. program rankings: Evaluating eminence on faculty publications and citations . Research in Developmental Disabilities, 26, 503-513.

22.

Matthiesen, I. ( 2005). The "HUGO BOSS" connection: Achieving global brand consistency across countries. Journal of Brand Management, 12, 325-338.

23.

McNally, D. , & Speak, K.D. ( 2002). Be your own brand. American Salesman , 47(7), 29-30.

24.

Park, C.W. , Milberg, S. , & Lawson, R. ( 1991). Evaluation of brand extensions: The role of product feature similarity and brand concept consistency. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 185-193.

25.

Rao, A. , & Ruekkert, R.W. (1994). Brand alliances as signals of product quality. Sloan Management Review, 36(Fall), 87-97.

26.

Rossiter, J.R. , & Percy, L. ( 1987). Advertising and promotion management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

27.

Scullen, S.E. , Mount, M.K. , & Goff, M. ( 2000). Understanding the latent structure of job performance ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 956-970.

28.

Seggie, S.H. , & Griffith, D.A. (2009). What does it take to get promoted in marketing academia? Understanding exceptional publication productivity in the leading marketing journals. Journal of Marketing, 73, 122-132.

29.

Shepherd, I.D.H. ( 2005). From cattle and Coke to Charlie: Meeting the challenge of self-marketing and personal branding. Journal of Marketing Management, 21, 589-606.

30.

Shrout, P.E. , & Fleiss, J.L. ( 1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability . Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420-428.

31.

Simonton, D.K. ( 2000). Methodological and theoretical orientation and the long-term disciplinary impact of 54 eminent psychologists. Review of General Psychology, 4, 13-24.

32.

Van Osselaer, S.M.J. , & Janiszewski, C. (2001). Two ways of learning brand associations. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(2), 3-24.

33.

Wernerfelt, B. ( 1988). Umbrella branding as a signal of new product quality: An example of signaling by posting a bond. Rand Journal of Economics, 19, 458-466.