Editorial: Introductions to the new editorial team and our ambitions for QMR

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal (QMR) has an established reputation as a place for rigorous research in marketing and consumption. QMR papers demonstrate cutting-edge thinking paired with robust application of qualitative research, often with practical relevance to emerging marketing and consumption and related policy fields as well as contributing important theoretical advances. As editors of QMR we are constantly impressed by the volume and quality of manuscripts we are sent, and by the commitment and attention to detail provided by our editorial board and host of reviewers. Our heartfelt thanks go to the academic community for supporting this important project that contributes to the advancement of qualitative research in marketing and consumption.

Since Fiona Spotswood took over as editor, we have introduced two new Associate Editors, Ariadne Kapetanaki and Anoop Bhogal-Nair. In this editorial, we first introduce ourselves to the readership of QMR as well as set out our ambitions for the future of the journal:

Fiona Spotswood is based at the University of Bristol Business School. Her research sits at the intersection of social marketing, transformative consumer research and interpretive consumer research. She draws on theories of practice in her research, focusing mainly on women’s experiences with sport and physical activity, which she explores through ethnographic as well as interview methods. Her research focuses on the disruption of persistent practices and the role of marketing in shaping women’s relationships with a lifelong love of sport and exercise. Her work is driven by a desire to shape public institutions, shared practices and women’s experiences in sport.

Ariadne Kapetanaki is based at the University of York, School for Business and Society. Her research is interdisciplinary and focuses on social marketing for behaviour and social change, consumer vulnerability, as well as on ethical and sustainable consumption. She is mainly interested in food consumption, practices and policies. Research with societal impact is at the core of Ariadne’s projects, and she often engages in ethnographic research and visual methods to explore consumption-related phenomena.

Anoop Bhogal-Nair is based at the Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University. Her research investigates how individuals negotiate and consume both their sense of physical being and their self-identity within the spaces they occupy. To date her work has examined the experiences of Indian women, religious minorities and marginalised and disenfranchised groups, focusing on the challenges, threats and opportunities individuals experience in their lives. Through transdisciplinary enquiry, much of her research work aims to promote positive social impact through an active engagement with key stakeholders and the broad wellbeing agenda. As an advocate of co-creation and empowerment-based methodologies, Anoop engages in the use of novel and unconventional methods to act as vehicles for voice.

It is traditional for new editorial teams to scope out their ambitions. We are committed to continuing the traditions of originality, significance and rigour that QMR is known for, but perhaps to focus on a few areas that we see as increasingly important for the field. QMR is a broad reaching journal that has been proud to publish work from scholars across the globe on contemporary subjects exploring aspects of branding, luxury consumption, consumer experiences, behaviour and social change, business-to-business marketing, marketing communications, social media and artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, entrepreneurship and innovation. We would like to continue our commitment to being a home for critical research across a wide range of cultures, traditions and contexts. This commitment also includes supporting authors in framing their research for a global audience.

The global marketplace is rapidly changing, and it is unsurprising that there is a growing focus of studies exploring the disruptive and innovative potential of AI and digital technologies. For example, the forthcoming special issue on the Phygital explores these advancements from different methodological and theoretical standpoints. Phygital combines the features of physical places and digital spaces, a new and evolving consumption context. We welcome research that tackles this rapidly shifting digital marketplace, and we see QMR as playing an important role in fostering conversations about considering the ethics, implications and possibilities for the future of AI. Digital devices, technologies and capabilities are more than a context and require conceptual work to unravel their implication for marketing and consumption.

Consumption is changing, both in its scale and in the way consumers interact with social-ecological and geo-political crises and political agendas. We are interested in sharing research that seeks to understand and theorise consumption in new and rapidly changing contexts: warzones, poverty, climate change, immigration and pandemics. We are keen to champion research that explores the experiences of vulnerable, under-represented and often overlooked consumers in these contexts and beyond, as well as research that continues to progress our understanding of novel ways of consuming and experiencing value through services, products and experiences. Across marketing and consumption scholarship there has been an upturn in interest in the disruption and transition in consumption, particularly in relation to sustainability and wellbeing, and QMR welcome this research.

Consumers and markets are at the heart of marketing, and we are interested in publishing rigorous research from across the globe that seeks to explore the internationalisation of markets; changing consumer behaviours; consumer inequality, exclusion and vulnerability; power, conflict and coercion in marketplaces and marketing; and market transition. Again, we are particularly, although not exclusively, interested in environmental, political, business or community disruption and contexts that shape the flow and trajectory of consumption and markets. The vital ingredient is that research advances our understanding of the discipline across complex contexts, but also allows for a development of the discipline through critical engagement with social challenges, upholding QMR’s commitment to responsible management goals.

Marketing and consumption researchers have a strong tradition of working closely with policy, public sector and industry partners; producing theoretically and empirically rigorous accounts of consumption and marketing phenomena that can help shape future structures, policies and projects, and the lives of consumers. We are ambitious to expand our publication of research that seeks to foster societal impact, through the lens of transformative consumer research, social marketing, critical social marketing or any other impact-oriented approach. We are keen to present research that adopts novel and transdisciplinary approaches in addressing some of society’s most challenging issues.

QMR is also known as a repository of research exploring rigorous, broad and progressive qualitative methods. We value a range of methodological traditions, as long as they are qualitative; reflective thematic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, semiotics and grounded theory, phenomenology and psycho-analysis are all welcome. We also continue to welcome papers exploring innovative qualitative methods, grounded in prior work and pushing the imaginations of readers and provoking new trajectories of empirical practice. Particularly, we are interested in exploring new arts-based methods, visual methods, co-creation and collaborative methods, disruptive methodologies and digital methods (e.g. digital storytelling). We also welcome research that tackles challenging ethical questions in qualitative research, an integral part of our field. We welcome scholarship that addresses methodological myopia through advancing our understanding of decolonised methodologies, indigenous methods and non-extractive approaches in engaging with marginalised and/or disenfranchised groups.

QMR has a proud traditional pluralism, recognising the value that a range of traditions bring to our understanding of consumers, markets and marketing. We regularly publish studies with theoretical roots in cultural studies, economics, sociology as well as psychology. We are excited by trends in marketing and consumption research that embrace beyond-human perspectives, drawing on theories of practice, assemblage and new materialism. The role of bodies, materials and the digital in shaping consumption – market interactions is an exciting area that we would like to explore further in QMR.

Finally, we are committed to supporting new and emerging scholars as they embark on an academic career. Early career research is welcomed and we encourage authors to consider the following principles of academic writing: (i) to ensure that clarity of thought is presented in the manuscript, in other words, ensuring that points are clear and easy to comprehend; (ii) to ensure that the research is grounded in the latest conversations in marketing and consumption research; (iii) to ensure theoretical as well as substantive contributions are clearly articulated; (iv) ensure that the methodology is rigorous and complete; and (v) commit to potential revisions of your manuscript. Further submission guidance is available on the website.

Reviewing is as much a part of academic life as research and writing and must never be undervalued by our community. Rather, quality reviewing should be celebrated, and new reviewers mentored in their craft. We plan to host workshops with ECRs to discuss reviewing, as well as academic writing, and are committed to providing opportunities for new reviewers to become established contributors to QMR. As such we have launched an Early Career Editorial Board as a complement to our standard Editorial Board. We extend a warm welcome to new members of both of these boards and thank you for supporting QMR as it moves into its next era, under our stewardship.