Marketing Professionals’ Perceptions of Marketing Journals/Publications

This survey of marketing professionals’ readership and ratings of marketing-related journals/publications was conducted to compare their reading behavior and opinions with those from past surveys of marketing academics. Although many professionals do read the academic journals and rate them much like academics, most professionals read more frequently and rate more highly marketing-related news publications than the journals academics tend to esteem. This information should be useful for business schools wishing to encourage marketing faculty to place more emphasis on applied research and is indispensable for journal editors who wish to disseminate knowledge effectively to practitioners. Key word: Journal ranking, marketing publications, readership, marketing practitioner, marketing academics. INTRODUCTION Marketing educators have been surveyed about how they quality rate or prestige rank marketing journals/ publications (Bauerly and Johnson, 2005; Hans and Pieters, 2003; Becker and Browne, 1979; Browne and Becker, 1991; Easton and Easton, 2003; Guidry et al., 2004; Hofacker et al., 2009; Hult et al., 2009; Hult et al., 1997; Luke and Doke, 1987; Mort, et al., 2004; Polonsky and Whitelaw, 2006; Steward and Lewis, 2010; Theoharakis and Hirst, 2002). These studies refer to the fact that marketing academics are judged for tenure and promotion, at least in some ways, based upon the quality or prestige of the journals in which they publish. Since academics do judge other academics, it is understand-able that academics would be the subjects used in such studies. Most of the highly rated marketing journals, such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, in the editorial mandates or directions for submission, indicate that information published should be of use to marketing practitioners. Since marketing research and