Journal of Marketing Behavior publishes theoretically grounded research into human behavior in the marketplace. First, papers should make theoretical advances by offering and empirically testing new behavioral theory or extending or integrating extant theory. Second, papers should focus on behavioral outcomes more than on psychological processes. Third, behaviors should translate into clearly detectable choices. Fourth, JMB construes the marketplace broadly, not only in terms of monetary exchanges between firms and customers but also in terms of non-monetary choices and preferences (e.g., political or religious beliefs and choices; cultural exchanges of stories and ideas; etc.).
Methodologically, the focus is on experimental or quantitative analyses of behavioral data, either in the lab or in the field, although the journal also welcomes qualitative and ethnographic methods to shed light on interesting phenomena. In particular, JMB encourages field tests and applications of underlying theory. Short of presenting actual field data, authors should at least describe implications of their theories for real behavior in the field so that it is readily apparent how these theories matter as determinants of real-world behavior.
Both the substantive and methodological orientation of JMB point toward research that combines questions and theories from economics, social psychology, and/or behavioral decision research, with the clear objective of uncovering and explaining behaviorally relevant phenomena. While such research appears across a wide variety of journals in marketing and consumer research, JMB will provide a focused outlet for this research.