1.0 Objectives and Hypothesis
The Journal of Services Marketing has been identified as a useful approach when it comes to issues related to marketing because of its practical’s views. The content and analysis used has seen it being applied in other literature works and its adoption to corporate organizations. The main purpose of this journal was to establish the major trends in services marketing for a period of 11 years between the years of 1998-2008 (Nel, 2010)
In order to achieve its objectives fully, this research journal was able to comprise various studies done in the past as a basis of forming a clear understanding of the services in marketing. This was followed by a clear methodology which analyzed the coding of papers used in gathering data. Therefore the journal uses the set methodology used similarly by West (2007) in his analysis of the International Journal of Advertising. This method was chosen simply because all the comprehensive and methodological concepts used here favored this particular journal and was similar.
This journal research showcases a representation of a number of journal papers written by top authors in the great field of services and marketing. It has been able to use over 417 articles which have been categorized and analyzed as per the author’s number of articles and the previews for each category. Through this, it has been able to identify the need for authors to collaborate and partner with each other as a way of building the industry. Another reason is for the fact that throughout this co-authoring, the quality of research will greatly improve as seen in the 11 year period.
In that case, it has been able to succeed in its objective of showing the benefits of authors’ partnership in writing more articles that are aimed at showcasing the importance of services and marketing to the corporate world. Managers and other business practitioners can use this findings as well as students for research and analysis critic.
2.0 Importance of the Issues to Marketing or Organizational Behavior Community
This journal offers a lot of justifiable criticism to the management of organizations and therefore plays an important part if well adopted by the practitioners and mangers. This is because of the diverse issues it has been able to raise that for a long time have remained to be ignored by some firms. A need for more literature materials those that are practical in every aspect of the business world (Nel, 2010)
One is the need for managers to ensure that they are able to initiate the necessary measures needed for tracking down the development of services and marketing. This would work well for organizations since most managers usually rely on the trends of marketing services but fail to understand the scholarly work done on the same field of commerce (West, 2007).
Secondly is that through marketing services, a lot of time can be saved since a manner that will not have to necessarily engage themselves in the countless statistical record preserved by the company? In the past this method has been sued as a way of getting advice on how to implement certain policies of the firm. The new method is now simpler and has been proven to be effective in many of the areas touching on services and marketing (Nel, 2010)
Another important element is the need for partnering between different authors in providing literature materials that are more detailed and more researched. This approach has seemed to work quite well in the past as the reliance of marketing literature to institutions has also grown considerably. It is through this information that can help shape the future of the corporate world in better management systems.
3.0 The Research Design, Sample and Materials Used
The Journal of Marketing Services has been able to use an appropriate design method which has facilitated the gathering of information, categorizing, analysis and the presentations of the findings. Importantly is tracing all the articles written in the period of 1998-2008 which were analyzed with their contributing authors.
This would look like a lot of work and therefore the team had to use some strategies to complete the project. This study took the objective approach method similarly to the one used by West (2007). This is because the different researchers in the articles analyzed used the same procedures, data and therefore it is very evident that they would be able to reach alike conclusions.
The method in this case was simple and direct and was aimed fulfilling the objectives of the journal by itself. It was based on analyzing the top performing authors, a categorization of their work, establishing their sampling methods and then analyzing all these findings. The results for this were to be presented in two categories the inputs and the outputs forms.
For instance in this case, a total of 417 papers were used in the part of the technique of data analysis. In order to accommodate all the information in one category, the researchers of this journal decide to use the spreadsheets as a way of entering all the important data into one easy to understand format (Nel, 2010)
In the topics classification, six selected authors were divided into two groups out of which, three authors were further categorized together. After each group had completed their assessment the results were compared to another group out of which various aspects were checked. A review of the consistency of each group was compared to another after completion. Further to that was the categorization of the topics since they were many and varied. This method proved cumbersome and unreliable since it translated to a lot of bulky information.
Another alternative approach was chosen that could be used to categories the information chosen which indicated the main categorize in a simpler manner than the latter. The team at this point had decided to settle on the Brown et al (1994) method of categorizing since it had an easier way of incorporating different topics and the fact that it had the a great understanding of the of scholarly trustworthiness (Nel, 2010)
A collection of twenty batches was collected and each of the two authors has their codes on the same twenty papers. This was so that the all the authors to be sampled in their methods and their analysis of the information used. Book reviews were left out of this study and analysis since only the papers were the focus of this study. Therefore the Journal of Services Marketing was based only on published papers struictly for the period 1998-2008.
4.0 The Key Results
A number of findings have been drawn from the Journal of Services Marketing and can be able to be adopted by organizations in solving some challenges they may have regarding the subject. In this case, the findings were presented in two sections the inputs and outputs. This classification was to make it easy for the understanding and relation between the authors and the articles under study. The inputs included the top performing authors as well as the quantity of the authors for each article. On the other side, the outputs were the analysis of the papers and several topics done by the authors. All these were for the period of 1998-2008 with a total of 417 published articles.
In the inputs part, it was agreed that a research without the analysis of the author would be termed as incomplete. There was a clear indication that the number of the authors per article had gradually increased thereby showing more authors moving away from the single-authored articles. This was a huge achievement since through the social networking and collaboration of authors; a lot of materials can be sourced and used to advance this field.
In addition to that, the quality of research has been another positive resultant that has helped shape the understanding of marketing services. This collaboration has been related to the way the US automotive engineers operate. Thus a clear indication that the in order for more growth and advancement to be realized, there needs to be such partnerships and collaboration which contribute positively to the overall research in this field (Nel, 2010)
The outputs category provided a better way in which the maturity of the authors and the type of papers can be well analyzed. Majority of the articles here used the empirical data collected in the course of the 11 year period. However, student’s samples have been criticized and not allowed to be used in this category. This however came with the exceptions that unless well justified, they can be used as an incorporation of the analysis. Another common concept identified form this articles is the use of surveys as one of the commonest ways in which the research has been conducted. In this case, a number of the researchers were found to constantly use the quantitative research in many areas of their writing though it was complimented by the qualitative analysis (Kassarjian, 1977).
In terms of analytical techniques, correlations and regressions were used mainly during that period contributing to around 27%. However this trend has considerably changed over the years with more researchers adopting new methods such as the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) among others. The same trend has been seen in the way authors have used the analysis of variance (ANOVA) in many of the research articles and journal published within this period of time (Nel, 2010).
Another notable element is the way the Journal of Marketing Services has been well structured in a way that it is open thus being able to cover a wide range of topics without specifically overlooking any aspect over the other. This research was used in this journal showed that it had mainly used mangers, students as the samples. Thereby the analytical method used in the paper mainly comprised the structural equation modeling and the analysis of variance (West, 2007).
These findings have showed a lot of potential for future researchers judging from the number of articles being published by a particular author per article. Therefore there is need for more co-authors coming together and publishing more articles that venture on the field of marketing services. Again the importance of having research networks has been seen as a key element that can greatly boost the works done by authors within a set time frame on marketing services (Brown, et al. 1994),
5.0 Strengths of the Study
This journal has been able to establish an important forum in which the analysis of authors in terms of their performances and impacts in the field of services marketing can be located. This marks an important step in research activities and the appreciation of inclusive writing on materials (Nel, 2010).
Through the inputs and outputs categorization of information, this journal has been able to highlight the information of an 11 year period easily and accurately. This is a positive method and can be used similarly in other works. In this case, it has been able to bring an overview on these works together complied as one with the aim of showing the benefits of co-authoring and partnering of authors in improving information on services and marketing (Nel, 2010).
This study has laid important aspects which future researchers could use in their future studies. Identifying the loop holes that exist between this research and what has been done by other researches. This brings into focus the need for future studies to evaluate on the most cited scholarly materials in this discipline and therefore investigate the reasons that have affected the popularity. This is important since, a lot of information drawn from this analogy that can help more researchers use the same principle that can help increase their potential from such principles.
6.0 Limitations of This Research Journal
Although this research has been able to capture a number of concepts regarding marketing and services, it has a few shortcomings. One is the fact that it has touched on only one of the services of the marketing journal and thus not been able to highlight adequately on other forms which would have been inclusive of this research. Again, the analysis done in this context is just for one single journal whereas one can be able to get more articles which have published in a single journal (Nel, 2010).
The research obtained from Journal of Services Marketing is incomplete since one would need to look into related articles which have a deeper look at the marketing services. This has initiated on the necessity of understanding the evolution of this vast area of study as well as its applications to the modern day business activities (Kassarjian, 1977).
It is through this venture that one can be able to clearly get a deeper and better understanding of marketing and services. Therefore, in getting the advancements that have taken place in the past and present, a wide-ranging of ideas and guidance can be provided that can help shape the future of this field (West, 2007).
The information used and related in this journal, has been strictly gotten from the English language. This has thus limited other ideas written in other languages that could have made a great contribution to that overall ideas conceptualization in marketing. It has also been noted that more articles written in other languages has increased considerably therefore begging the need for them to be included in marketing.
Another shortcoming of this journal is the fact that it has been able to only use data and scholarly materials from North America region only. This is rather discriminatory in terms of choosing principles from one region which unfortunately could have been compared and contrasts with other forms from Europe and Asia. These areas are potentially growing economies and could provide a better understanding of the trend markets and thus help shape the future (Nel, 2010).
7.0 Applications of this Research to Marketers and Organizational Practitioners
Marketers and other business practitioners can be able to draw a lot of information on this journal that can help steer their businesses into prosperity. One is the need for them to able to put concrete measures on the ways of tracking the developments of services and marketing at all times. Since this research was carried out specifically from the services and marketing area, there is need for other disciplines to incorporate their own information for a quicker and easier analysis of changes in the business world (Kassarjian, 1977).
This research has offered a less time consuming way of overlooking at the performances of literature material and statistics. This is because of its compilation of activities over a long period of time in a shorter version that represents detailed and comprehensive information too. Therefore, business practitioners can employ this use and be updated on the new materials, on which topic and by which author.
Again the same criteria can be used by individual corporations as way of establishing their growth and development over a certain period of time. Major contributions can then be related to the top performing departments in the firm that thereby instilling competition among the employees and heads of departments (Nel, 2010).
The Journal of Services Marketing can be adopted by the marketers as a way of establishing customers’ satisfaction and the quality of relationship which exists between the firm and the clientele. This is necessary if the firm aims at increasing sales and positive impacts to the society. Losing out on customers translates to a bad picture and brand of the company and therefore should not be overlooked.
Conclusion
The Journal of Services Marketing has been able to highlight a number of issues relating to organizational behavior that can greatly improve the way people look at marketing structures and functions. It offers a wide range of solutions for managers and the corporate activities. This is because of the compilation of information regarding different authors in the same with different ideas on the same subject (West, 2007).
Thereby it has established the need for co-authoring as way of increasing their depth on marketing data and analysis of marketing functions. Yet it has its strengths and weaknesses as seen in a number of cases and there is a need for future researches to help shape it further. This marks an important step in which students can employ its use in scholarly works as managers can try and identify on some of its principles.
References
Brown, S.W., Fisk, R.P. and Bitner, M.J. (1994), “The development and emergence of services marketing thought”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 21-41.
Kassarjian, H.H. (1977), “Content-analysis in consumer research”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 4 No. 1,pp. 8-18.
Nel D, Heerden G, Chan A, Ghazisaeedi M, Halvorson W, Steyn P. Journal of Services Marketing. Retrieved on 4th May 2014 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876041111107014
West, D. (2007), “Directions in marketing communicationsresearch: an analysis of the International Journal ofAdvertising”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 543-54.