Types of marketing: fad or a necessity?

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to analyse the spread of terms describing “marketing types” (e.g. services marketing) in the marketing and non-marketing literature and to determine whether the research into specific terms represents a fashion trend. Design/methodology/approach A total of 113 marketing terms were identified by content-analysing all the articles indexed in the web of science. These data were used to estimate a panel model, which predicted the number of articles that refer to a specific marketing type over a 20 years’ period. Findings The model estimation indicates that the “age” of a marketing term has a significant effect on the number of articles published using that term, after controlling for previous research. This effect is not significant for top-tier journals. Research limitations/implications Future research might undertake more comprehensive analyses by including other scientific outlets (e.g. white papers) and databases. Practical implications The results offer new insights for researchers interested in bibliometrics and knowledge diffusion. It warns practitioners and academia about a bias in favour of novel terms. Originality/value The paper demonstrates a “fad effect” that may undermine research into traditional marketing fields. It helps to identify past and current research priorities.