Empirics First
Introduction
Special issue of the Journal of Marketing; Deadline 1 Feb 2026
INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING RESEARCH
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals
Posted by: Michelle Kritselis
Call For Papers
Journal of Marketing: Special Issue on Empirics First
Special Issue Editors: Marc Fischer, Kelly Haws, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, and Harald van Heerde
The Journal of Marketing is pleased to announce a special issue on Empirics First. Empirics-first (EF) research is grounded in a real-world marketing phenomenon that involves obtaining and analyzing data and producing valid marketing-relevant insights without necessarily developing or testing theory (Golder et al. 2023). The approach lends itself well to todays environment, with newly emerging data sources and marketing phenomena that can reveal novel insights and research questions.
Empirics first does not mean empirics only. The EF approach serves theory development by starting with data in novel domains, domains untethered to existing theory, or domains with multiple relevant and possibly conflicting theories. Throughout, attention is paid to the existing literature, with an eye toward generating new theory, concepts, constructs, and conceptual frameworks, as well as uncovering empirical regularities and providing guidance to marketings stakeholders.
The goal of this special issue is to publish top-quality research addressing important marketing issues using rigorous EF approaches. Importantly, unlike theory-first (TF) research, which has a linear, deductive template followed by many scholars in the strategy and consumer research domains, empirics first does not follow a linear pathway. Instead, it is guided by substantive research questions rather than by hypotheses, leading to deep real-world insight, careful probing of new phenomena, and high relevance to marketing stakeholders. The special issue aims to showcase how EF approaches can be leveraged for important knowledge advancement across all domains of marketing, including consumer research, strategy, and quantitative research, by generating marketing-relevant insights across a range of substantive topic areas.
Full information is here:
/2025/04/14/call-for-papers-journal-of-marketing-special-issue-on-empirics-first/