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2015 Winner of the Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact

The European Marketing Academy (EMAC) and the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2015 Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact:

Utpal M. Dholakia, Richard P. Bagozzi, and Lisa Klein Pearo, A Social Influence Model of Consumer Participation in network- and Small-Group-Based Virtual Communities. International Journal of Research in Marketing, Volume 21(3), pp 241-263, 2004.

Abstract:

We investigate two key group-level determinants of virtual community participation—group norms and social identity—and consider their motivational antecedents and mediators.

We also introduce a marketing-relevant typology to conceptualize virtual communities, based on the distinction between network-based and small-group-based virtual communities. Our survey-based study, which was conducted across a broad range of virtual communities, supports the proposed model and finds further that virtual community type moderates consumers’ reasons for participating, as well as the strengths of their impact on group norms and social identity. We conclude with a consideration of managerial and research implications of the findings.

This award is given annually to papers published in IJRM in recognition of their exceptional contributions in academic marketing research by demonstrating long-term impact.

A 4-member Award Committee, formed by the IJRM editors and the EMAC VP of Publications, managed the nomination and selection procedure. For this year, the committee is composed of Kusum Ailawadi (Chairperson), David Godes, Leonard Lee, and Aric Rindfleisch.

The following criteria are used to determine the winning paper: (1) the paper’s ISI citations; (2) the votes it receives from the IJRM Editorial Board (from two rounds of voting), and (3) the paper’s quality, as assessed by the award committee’s in-depth reading the paper.

Papers eligible for this award are published in IJRM 10 to 15 years prior to the year the award is being presented. For 2015, these are papers from 2000 to 2005. Past winners of this award, papers authored or co-authored by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp or by any of the current IJRM Editors are not eligible. Nominations are first solicited from EMAC members and IJRM Board members. These papers, with their latest ISI and Google Scholar citations, form the first-round ballot from which IJRM Board members vote for up to 5 papers. The ten (10) papers with the most votes then form the shortlist for the second-round of voting from which IJRM Board members choose only one (1) paper. The award committee then assesses these papers in terms of the three criteria named above. Given these criteria, there is room to deviate from mere vote tallying, but the deviation needs to be clearly argued, and rather exceptional. There can also be two winners in exceptional cases (not more than once every 3 years on average).

Statement on the winner of the 2015 Jan-Benedict Steenkamp award for long-term impact:

This year’s award was reviewed by a committee of four Area Editors representing the three key domains of Consumer Behavior, Strategy, and Modeling. The committee thanks everyone for voting and commenting on the eligible papers. As usual, two rounds of voting by the IJRM Board members were followed by committee deliberation.

The procedure for this award is as follows:

1. Nominations are invited from EMAC and IJRM Editorial board members. Past winners, papers authored or co-authored by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, and by any of the current IJRM Editors are not eligible. This year, we received nominations for 54 papers.
2. The nominated papers comprise the first ballot from which the IJRM editorial board could vote for up to 5 papers; self-voting is not allowed. The ballot includes links to each paper and its cumulative ISI citations and Google Scholar citations up to January 1 of the current year.
3. The resulting ten papers that receive the most votes in the first round make up the ballot for the final round of voting in which the editorial board can choose only one (1) paper. This year, 11 papers progressed to the final round (there was one tie).
4. After receiving the votes, the committee then deliberates on the winning paper guided by the following criteria: (1) the votes received from the IJRM Editorial Board, (2) its ISI and Google Scholar citations, and (3) its quality, as assessed by the committee’s in-depth reading. Given these criteria, there is room to deviate from the mere vote tallying, but the deviation needs to be clearly argued, and rather exceptional. There can also be two winners in exceptional cases (not more than once every 3 years on average).

Based on the votes, the citations and the committee’s quality assessment, the winner is "A Social Influence Model of Consumer Participation in network- and Small-Group-Based Virtual Communities" by Utpal M. Dholakia, Richard P. Bagozzi, and Lisa Klein Pearo, published in 2004 (Volume 21, Issue 3).

This paper offers a comprehensive typology for why individuals participate in virtual communities, distinguishing between individual motives and social influences for participation, and also distinguishing between “small-group based communities” whose members identify primarily with specific individuals or groups of individuals and “network-based communities” whose members identify primarily with a venue. The authors lay out a carefully conceptualized model of virtual community participation, allowing for the impact of individual motives on participation to be mediated by social influence variables, and allowing for the type of community to moderate the impact of both individual and social influence variables. The model is tested using survey data gathered from regular participants at seven different virtual communities, three that are more network-based and four that are more small-group-based. The paper offers important guidance for how the two types of communities can more effectively deliver the value that their participants seek. The paper received the first place in votes from IJRM board members by a very wide margin. Its impact is evident in not only the quantity but also the breadth of its citations. It had close to 300 ISI citations and over 1000 Google Scholar citations as of January 2015, and it has been referenced not only in most of the major marketing journals but also in management, operations, information science, and computer engineering journals.

We congratulate the authors for receiving this award.

Kusum Ailawadi
David Godes
Leonard Lee
Aric Rindfleisch

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