Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: A Strategic Vision for Rigor, Relevance, and Inclusivity

We are thankful to serve as Coeditors in Chief for the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M), a journal with an important legacy and wide-reaching impact based on the tireless work and solid foundation of the previous editors: Tom Kinnear, Pat Murphy, Michael Mazis, Debbie Scammon, Craig Andrews, Joel Cohen, Ron Hill, Dave Stewart, Scot Burton, Pam Scholder Ellen, and Josh Weiner. We are tremendously grateful for the support we have received from the most recent editor team and from many of the past editors as we move into this editorial role. Building on this foundation, we embark on the implementation of our strategic vision for JPP&M, which we describe as Marketing and Public Policy Impact Through Rigor, Relevance, and Inclusivity. This vision is informed by our own experiences with JPP&M, as authors, reviewers, associate editors, and guest editors. We both share a deep appreciation for this Journal’s aims and scope and strongly believe it is a natural home for topics that “make a difference.” In our conversations with other scholars about the Journal, it is clear that JPP&M occupies a special place in the academic publishing hearts of scholars around the world. This affinity is solidly grounded in the Journal’s history (for an overview of JPP&M’s early history, see Sprott and Miyazaki [2003]) and also derives from JPP&M’s historic focus on issues at marketing’s interface with society (Wilkie and Moore 2003, 2011). Indeed, although marketing scholarship has become increasingly narrow in some ways, JPP&M has maintained its connection to the big picture by publishing marketing research that offers policy, ethics, wellbeing, and societal implications. This deliberately broad focus not only allows JPP&M to serve as an umbrella for varied marketing research but also provides us a natural platform through which to welcome new and diverse scholarship to the Journal. We believe that the turbulent reality in which we live makes the need for the type of research JPP&M publishes more critical than ever. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, we were living in a time characterized by a dynamically shifting marketing and societal landscape. Political, regulatory, and market-based institutions are beset by unprecedented volatility and unpredictability. So too, can today’s consumers be seen as at once more empowered and yet more vulnerable than ever. On all these fronts, JPP&M embraces scholarly contributions that are rigorous, relevant, and inclusive. We welcome your best work on these topics. In the sections that follow, we provide greater detail on our vision for the Journal. We begin with a brief overview of JPP&M’s proud history. Herein, we acknowledge the Journal’s strong foundation and document its evolution. We then transition to our vision for the Journal, which is inspired by the past but is forward-looking in nature. We outline what we view to be pressing strategic opportunities for the Journal, but also more broadly for our field, as examined through the lens of our Marketing and Public Policy (MPP) community. Next, we expand on what it means for research to be rigorous, relevant, and inclusive. We conclude with thoughts for the future as we embark on our editorial term.