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INTEREST CATEGORY: SECTORS
POSTING TYPE: Journal News

Author: Rita Kottasz

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Philanthropy for philanthropy’s sake

1 IT IS HIGH TIME…

Contributors and readers of academic journals benefit greatly from editorial guidance which seek to articulate the philosophical and intellectual foundations of their activities, synthesise the evolution of disciplines, outline changes in the publishing landscape and/or make clear the criteria that are applied to submission decisions (e.g., Bies et al.,��; Hager,��; Hockerts & Searcy,��). It is high time then that the editorial board of the Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing (Wiley) introduces and outlines its plans and direction primarily for the benefit of communities who have a vested interest in matters of philanthropy, for potential contributors and the journal’s readership. Who should carry on engaging with the journal and why?

In this editorial, I will explain the reason behind the journal’s title change, the scope and breadth of the journal, our alignment with AACSB’s recommendations to focus on practice-driven initiatives and impact and finally, our quest to pave the way for responsible, rigorous, and methodologically sound research in philanthropic studies.

2 AN EVOLUTION IN THE FIELD, A CHANGE IN TITLE

JPM’s predecessor, the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing (IJNVSM) was founded by eminent scholar Professor Adrian Sargeant in 1996. A change in title from IJNVSM to JPM in 2021 reflects an evolution in the field. Philanthropy is no longer the preserve of the non-profit and voluntary sectors and is not exclusively practiced at ‘sector’ level. Philanthropy in its broadest sense (giving, benevolence, welfare, altruism, prosocial behaviour and ‘doing good’) is playing a leading role in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social purpose endeavours of a spectrum of organisations including multinational corporations (e.g., Cha & Rajadhyaksha,��), social enterprises (e.g., Lall & Park,��), arts organisations (e.g., Pressgrove et al.,��) charities (e.g., Cnaan et al.,��) and public and governmental institutions (e.g., Sokolowski,��).

The word ‘marketing’ in the title of the journal is often what puzzles people. The scope and breadth of marketing is misunderstood by most, even by academics working in business schools. However, marketing does not only entail advertising and sales, but all the practices undertaken by organisations that bring customers, donors, beneficiaries, funders, policymakers together, with a proposition or an offer, that creates value for all (O’Reilly et al.,��). Marketing is a critical interface between an organisation and society and is responsible for much research insight into stakeholder attitudes and behaviours, can have a valuable input into organisational strategies, creation of brands, and helps design ways for networks to engage meaningfully with an exchange that is on offer. Numerous journals exist and dedicate themselves to scholarship in marketing, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,��European Journal of Marketing,��Journal of Marketing. Marketing by its very nature is interdisciplinary (underpinned by theories in sociology, psychology and economics) and its ultimate purpose is to foster relationships, and to help create, communicate, and deliver value for invested stakeholders (Grewal et al.,��). For the purposes of JPM, marketing is seen as a tool that endeavours to create, communicate, and deliver value in the aid of philanthropic practice.

JPM is an interdisciplinary journal, focused on advancing philanthropic research, publishing papers that endeavour to solve genuine societal problems and papers that promote ‘doing good’. Within this remit, we welcome corporate, public sector, and third sector perspectives on philanthropy, voluntary action, and civil society across the globe., JPM is keen to hear the voices of a diverse range of actors: individuals and organisations working within the fields of corporate social responsibility, social service, voluntary action, public administration, non-profit management, philanthropic studies, sociology, political science, and legal studies; they all have a hand in shaping philanthropy (Bekkers,��).

We face volatile times and philanthropy is only going to grow in practice (D’Alleva Valas,��) and as a discipline. And with our newly appointed regional associate editors based in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, we are hoping to grow our reach in regions that we seldom hear from, especially the global south. We can sit back and accept inequality in our societies, poverty, corporate mismanagement, and the chaos that embroils our planet. Or we can try and play a part in ‘doing good’. A sense of urgency that comes with the havoc and turbulence that is apparent in today’s societies also means that this is not a time to compete, but a time to come together and collaborate. We need to foster philanthropic communities and promote the work of journals where similar ‘topics of concern’ and discussions are taking place: Nonprofit Management and Leadership,��Journal of Business Ethics,��Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,��Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organisations, and so on. There is space for us all. Engagement with JPM should come from those who are genuinely interested in helping shape philanthropic thinking and philanthropic practice.

3 ALIGNING WITH AACSB’S RECOMMENDATIONS

It is widely recognised that business and management journals are not focusing enough on outcomes that are relevant to issues central to business and society today (Akmal et al.,��; Tourish,��). I would like to highlight that many of JPM’s initiatives are closely aligned with AACSB’s recommendations and guidelines for best practice in academic business publishing. We are actively encouraging contributions that bridge the practitioner and academic divide and are focused on impact. We have recruited a Practitioner Editorial Board who vet Call for Papers and ensure that special issues resonate with the world of philanthropy outside of academia. Our Twitter and LinkedIn pages ensure that we reach the widest possible “general audience” who can gain access to our research outputs in a digestible format. Practitioner Points are a new feature integrated into our research articles. JPM has also been increasing its number of open access articles using transformational agreements with institutions which facilitate this process (Hinchliffe,��). This avoids the issue of high subscription costs restricting access to academics and broadens the possibility for impact in practice.

4 INNOVATIVE PRACTICE-BASED INITIATIVES

Our new practice-based initiatives provide a solution to several of the issues highlighted by AACSB’s recent article “The Problem with Research Journals” (Akmal et al.,��). By calling for shorter papers which are directly relevant to practitioners and opinion leaders, we avoid the unwieldy length of articles criticised by AACSB. Further, the recommendation by Akmal et al. () that various types of submission are promoted is fulfilled by our new suite of Call for Papers: a call for Opinion Pieces, Practice Papers, Dialogues and Preliminary Communications.

Preliminary Communications (PC) are essentially registered reports tied to our Academic-Practice Partnership (APP) scheme. The aim of the APP is to partner academics with philanthropic organisations who collaborate to find solutions to practice-based problems. The idea is that at the start of an APP initiative, stakeholders write a PC which sets out clearly defined research aims and desired outcomes to improve the impact of the research on practice. By promoting and facilitating APPs and affiliated PC, JPM is taking an innovative step forward in ensuring that academic business publishing is insightful, impactful and transparent. This is a pioneering model which other business and management publications could follow.

�ճ����Dialogues Special Issue Series has been created to help stimulate discussion and debate around trending themes pertinent (primarily) to the third sector and philanthropy-based activities. Our first Dialogues paper series is being produced in collaboration with the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP) . The plan is that these dialogic exchanges will have relevance and utility to everybody who has an interest in shaping philanthropic practice. We are keen to foster contributions from outside the academy, engaging practitioners and minimising any avoidable gatekeeping in relation to publishing in academic outlets (Akmal et al.,��). Dialogues special issues centre around a central pillar article which provides a provocation, an injunction, a polemic for the reader to reckon with! Respondents to the central pillar article are invited to (respectfully) offer their critical reflections, highlighting lines of agreement, outlining points of discord, and diagnosing potential means to reconcile any divergent views. The final response from the central pillar author will then briefly reflect on these commentaries and propose a future research/practice agenda.

5 DORA AND GENUINE RESEARCH IMPACT

In June 2023, JPM will receive for the first time in its history, an impact factor (IF). An impact factor is the average number of citations received by articles published in the journal within a two-year window. Only journals in the Clarivate Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) or Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) have an Impact Factor. Although receipt of an IF will strengthen the JPM brand, an impact factor (or any other citation-based journal metric for that matter) is an imperfect measure of research quality. Any one metric only tells a part of the story of a journal’s quality and impact. Each metric has its limitations which means that it should never be considered in isolation.

In their reflection on Business and Management submissions to the UK research assessment (the Research Excellence Framework), Blackburn et al. () found that citation indices and journal quality lists “…do not correlate with the peer assessment of research quality” (p.14), a conclusion which chimes with the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Wiley, and JPM by affiliation, has endorsed DORA and has become an official signatory, thereby helping to pave the way for more responsible ways of measuring quality content (Riboni,��). Since its conception in 2012, DORA has developed into a worldwide initiative covering all disciplines and its aims have informed discussions of, if, and how far metrics are used in research assessment, for example in the Harnessing the metric tide report (Curry et al.,��). DORA’s overarching goal is to shift emphasis away from journal-based metrics, toward article-level metrics for a broader, more equitable view and assessment of research impact. JPM is adopting initiatives such as CRediT, Scite, and Altmetric, and are formally committing to the further development of metrics that measure not only citation value but other levels of impact, including usage, re-use, reproducibility, peer review assessment, geographic reach, and public recognition via references in media outlets. Most of these indexes help evaluate journals for inclusion and international diversity, assess compliance with conflict-of-interest best practices, support transparency in peer review, and provide important quality control measures beyond citation counting (Riboni,��).

Other areas where JPM is planning to contribute is to do our very best to provide quality outputs that scholars and practitioners in the field can trust, reflecting a broader concern about the state of and usefulness of management research (e.g., Tourish,��). Professor Rene Bekkers et al. () are leading the way on a global meta science project Transparency in Non-profit and Philanthropy Research, which aims to make the reporting of philanthropic studies rigorous and methodologically sound, see:  JPM will follow closely the guidelines and principles outlined by this work.

6 IN SUMMARY THEREFORE…

The abovementioned initiatives and JPM’s genuine effort ‘to do good’ is what will drive the journal forward. More than ever, we need to help the third sector advance their marketing and fundraising expertise, and we need to contribute to shaping the corporate social responsibility agenda, much of which is not being done particularly responsibly! Let us also foster socially responsible consumption, and let us persuade people to buy into causes and acts of philanthropy. Keep your submissions coming. We have several special issues in the pipeline on topics including: ‘elite philanthropy’, ‘political activism meets philanthropy’, ‘gaming, children and CSR’, ‘Mr Beast and effective altruism’, ‘philanthropy for social impact’ and more. In short, the plans for JPM are incredibly simple: we are looking for rigorous novel and impactful insights that are written by individuals who are passionate about philanthropy and want to leave their mark by ‘doing good’.

Let us create, communicate, and deliver value in the name of philanthropy.

REFERENCES

Akmal, A., Gauld, R., and Podgorodnichenko, N. (2022). The Problem with Research Journals, AACSB International (AACSB), May 30, available at

Bekkers, R. (2022). The State of Research on Philanthropy in Europe in 2022, June 15, available at

Bekkers, R., Cleveland, W., Gomez, L.T., Ugazio, G. Erlandsson, A., Hung, C.K., Heiss, A., Mawanda, J., Furneaux, C., Shekhtman, L. , O’Mahony, A., McDonnell, D., Chapman, C.M., Nowakowska, I., Fiennes, C., George, L., Khan, S., Feldman, G. , Matilda, A., Van Matre, J., Meier, D., Ma, J., Santamarina, F., Bushe, J. and Kottasz, R. (2022). Transparency in Non-profit and Philanthropy Research, available at

Bies, A., Phillips, S., and Guo, C. (2019). From the Editor’s Desk. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 48(5), 907-909.

Blackburn, R., Dibb, S., and Tonks, I. (2023). Business and Management Studies in the United Kingdom’s 2021 Research Excellence Framework: Implications for Research Quality Assessment. British Journal of Management, available at

Cha, W., and Rajadhyaksha, U. (2021). What Do We Know ���������t Corporate Philanthropy? A Review and Research Directions. Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility, 30(3), 262-286.

Cnaan, R., Choi, D., Kang, C., Song, J., Almog-Bar, M. and von Schurbein, G. (2023). The People Behind the Scenes: Episodic Volunteering at Fundraising Events. Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, available at

Curry, S., Gadd, E and Wilsdon, J. (2022). Harnessing the Metric Tide: Indicators, Infrastructures and Priorities for UK Responsible Research Assessment, Report of The Metric Tide Revisited Panel, December 20, ISBN 978-1-7397102-1-7, available at 

D’Alleva Valas, K. (2022). Three Trends Shaping Philanthropy in 2022, Forbes, March 31, available at

de Ruyter, K., Keeling, D. I., Plangger, K., Montecchi, M., Scott, M. L., and Dahl, D. W. (2022). Reimagining Marketing Strategy: Driving the Debate on Grand Challenges. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(1), 13-21.

Grewal, D., Hulland, J., Kopalle, P. K., and Karahanna, E. (2020). The Future of Technology and Marketing: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 1-8.

Hager, M.A. (2015). Editor’s Notes. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 25(4), pp. 343-348, available at

Hinchlifee, L.J. (2019). Transformative Agreements: A Primer, The Scholarly Kitchen, April 23, available at

Hockerts, K., and Searcy, C. (2023). How to Sharpen Our Discourse on Corporate Sustainability and Business Ethics: A View from the Section Editors. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-11, available at

Lall, S. A., and Park, J. (2022). How Social Ventures Grow: Understanding the Role of Philanthropic Grants in Scaling Social Entrepreneurship. Business and Society, 61(1), 3-44.

LePere-Schloop, M., and Nesbit, R. (2023). Disciplinary Contributions to Nonprofit Studies: A 20-year Empirical Mapping of Journals Publishing Nonprofit Research and Journal Citations by Nonprofit Scholars. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 52(1), 68S-101S.

O’Reilly, D., Larsen, G and Kubacki, K (2014). Marketing Live Music. In: Burland, K and Pitts, S Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience. London: Ashgate/SEMPRE.

Pressgrove, G., Waters, R.D., Darrah, A. and Troy, C. (2023). Examining the Intersection of Cutlure and Stewardship: Assessing How the Most Visited Art Museums Promote Their Philanthropic Mission. Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, available at

Riboni, F. (2022). Endorsing DORA for Responsible Research Assessment, May 18, available at

Sokolowski, S. W. (2013). Effects of Government Support of Nonprofit Institutions on Aggregate Private Philanthropy: Evidence from 40 Countries. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 24, 359-381.

Tourish, D. (2019). Management Studies in Crisis, Cambridge University Press

The authoritative version of this document can be found at