Journal of Historical Research in Marketing

Call for Papers Special Issue on:
‘Historical Perspectives on Non-western Markets and Consumer Cultures’

The Journal of Historical Research in Marketing invites submissions for a special issue focused on ‘historical research on non-western markets and consumer cultures’. Although marketing scholarship asserts the importance of understanding alternative historical contexts in order to broaden our conceptual understanding of markets, marketing and consumption practices, and consumers, currently histories related with the western and developed contexts are dominating the field. Few studies aim to understand alternative geographies and periods where markets, marketing and consumption practices, and consumer cultures form and transform under different contextual characteristics such as alternative cultural foundations, social structures, economic systems, politics and governmental structures, technologies, and moralities co-constituting consumer subjects, market institution, exchange systems, marketing practices such as advertising, retailing, or branding. Historical investigation of geographies other than the west would be a tool to generalize or modify current theories of marketing. Such a perspective is also useful to generate new conceptualization of the marketing phenomena.

For more than a decade the centre of the global economy has been shifting from the developed regions to the developing/emerging economies. Since marketing scholars’ main interest is in western contexts, contemporary marketing theories were developed according to western contextual specificities such as western modernization and capitalism. In order to understand marketing and consumption phenomena in emerging economies, it is necessary to see the specific cultural foundations and institutional formations of a specific non-western context under which marketing phenomena forms. Historical perspectives will help marketers to illuminate present non-western markets and consumer cultures.

Another interesting perspective in understanding non-western markets and consumption is to see the regional, inter-regional and global interactions among western and non-western contexts. The nature of these interactions, the power dynamics among the interacting parties (individuals, communities, or institutions) constitute novel forms and meanings of products, new marketing and consumer practices, new consumer subjectivities and market processes.

For this special issue of JHRM, specific topics might include but are not limited to historical perspectives on:

·         How did markets in non-western contexts form or transform?

·         How did consumer cultures in non-western contexts or transform?

·         How did non-western consumer subjectivities form or transform?

·         What are the contextual specificities that constitute the markets, consumer cultures, and consumer subjectivities that constitute or co-constitute the markets, marketing practices and consumption?

·         What are the moral, ideological discourses that are active in the construction of markets, marketing practices, consumption practices?

·         What are the power dynamics that operate within these societies, markets, or communities that shape the non-western marketing phenomena such as new product development, distribution, retailing, advertising and promotions, branding, etc

·         Interactions of western and non-western contexts and their role in the constitution of hybrid forms of markets, marketing and consumption practices and consumer subjectivities would be interesting to study.

The submission deadline for this special issue is November 15, 2017 with an expected publication date of August 2018. If you are unsure of the suitability of your topic or have questions regarding a submission, please contact the special issue guest editors Eminegül Karababa, Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration, Middle East Technical University, at eminegul@metu.edu.tr , or Jonathan Schroeder, William A. Kern Professor in Communications, School of Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology, jesgla@rit.edu.

How to submit to the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing

Submissions for this special issue of JHRM should be made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access is available on the journal’s ScholarOne site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhrm. When prompted for “type of issue”, please select the special issue on non-western markets and consumer culture. Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre: http://msc.emeraldinsight.com/.