the context from which JMTP emerged. Tlie original founders of JMTP were four marketing faculty at then. Georgia Southern College, Jim Randall, Morgan Miles,.
A SHORT NOTE ON POKER, PUBLISfflNG, & WORKING LIKE MAD NOT TO PERISH: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE JOURNAL OF MARKETING THEORY AND PRACTICE
E. James Randall Georgia Southern University
Michael J. Dorsch Clemson University
Morgan P. Miles Georgia Southern University
"(T)he nexus of opportunity and enterprising individuals is critical to understanding entrepreneurship" (Venkataraman 1997: 123). "(T)he field involves the study of sources of opportunities; the process of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities, and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them" (Shane and Venkataraman 2000: 218).
The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice's incoming editor Greg Marshall kindly asked for a short discussion on the creation and evolution of JMTP which the authors suggest can be best understood through the lens of
entrepreneurship. The founding of JMTP could be considered a case study of academic entrepreneurship. Venkataraman's (1997) notion that entrepreneurship involves the nexus of some type of entrepreneurial Fall 2005
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opportunity and enterprising individuals exactly describes the context from which JMTP emerged. Tlie original founders of JMTP were four marketing faculty at then Georgia Southern College, Jim Randall, Morgan Miles, Jerry Wilson, and Dave Good who played poker on a regular basis during the late 1980s and sought a project that might absorb excess time and personal financial resources. Each of the founders contributed $200.00 and with those funds, a call for papers for the first AMTP meeting in Hilton Head, and a listing in the Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice was founded. The academic entrepreneur who was able to see an opportunity that no one else perceived at the time was Jim Randall. Jim had previously established the National Conference of Selling and Sales Management and through that experience was able to perceive a latent need for a more managerially focused general marketing journal. In addition, he developed the managerial capabilities to create and manage a professional association. The need for a more applied, but academically creditable mid-level general marketing journal was being reinforced by the rapid escalation of publication pressures in accredited business schools. Faculty who were affiliated with institutions with an exclusive focus on teaching, were being told by their deans and department heads that it was very important for them to publish one of two "peer reviewed" journal articles within in a five year period for accreditation purposes. The convergence of increasing pressure to publish and the lack of a mid-level, managerially focused, creditable peer reviewed journal created this unique entrepreneurial opportunity. Additional opportunities arose though the creation of a series of special issues of JMTP. Some of the special issue editors approached us with an interesting topic, others we suggested and sought out special issue editors to work, but all were timely, relevant and interesting. At that time the structure and strategy of AMTP and JMPT wer« highly entrepreneurial and flexible to be able to exploit emerging opportunities such as a special issue on TQM and marketing. Logistics and Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Marketing, and E-Commerce. Jim Randall was the enterprising individual who was both able to perceive the opportunity and envision a mechanism to exploit this emerging opportunity. Jim forged an' entrepreneurial team to assess the value and feasibility of the opportunity to create a mid-level, managerially relevant, and academically creditable marketing journal. This strategic assessment of the potential subscription base, paper fiow and the resources needed to establish JMTP suggested that the journal (like most academic journals) would need some type of long term organizational financial support.
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Like any new venture, resource issues were a major constraint for JMTP. Jim and David Good's (a member of the founding team) experience with the National Conference of Selling and Sales Management provided insight into a source of both financial and intellectual resources. JMTP would be funded by the creation of an association, the Association of Marketing Theory and Practice (AMTP), with an annual meeting that could generate revenues sufficient to publish the journal Conferences would be held in desirable South Atlantic beach locations such as Hilton Head, Savannah, and Charleston. The conference culture was crafted to be friendly and developmental in spirit and very quickly AMTP became an attractive conference to attend. AMTP members automatically received a membership to JMTP, were often invited to join JMTP's review board, and many had the opportunity -if their paper was selected as a "best-in-track" paper - to enhance and expand the paper - working with reviewers and the editorial team, and to subsequently publish the conference presentation and proceeding as an article in the JMTP. The entrepreneurial partnership between Jim and Morgan was a very effective synergy with one complementing and supporting the other. Jim was the brawn and everyday detail person, creating calls for papers, creating and maintaining the data bases, and leading tiie efforts to publish JMTP and the management of AMTP. Morgan was the brains that worked with articles once the reviews were in. He had a broad knowledge of marketing and a focus in the field that helped enhance the quality of JMTP. Not alone in these efforts, many maiketing scholars took a risk to submit manuscripts and publish articles in JMTP. There are also many excellent scholars who have worked as reviewers for over thirteen years. While many entrepreneurs have no exit strategy and "hang-in-there" too long, Jim and Morgan constantly sought to include new scholars in the AMTPIJMTP conununity. AMTP is running independently and Tom and then Mike did simply outstanding jobs as JMTP editors. During the past thirteen years, the JMTP continually worked to enhance its reputation in the academic community by working with authors to enhance the quality and contribution of their research efforts. To this point in time, JMTP contributed 400 articles written by 808 authors to the body of knowledge of marketing. Each of the previous JMTP editors along with a team of dedicated reviewers (both ERB and ad hoc reviewers) provided detailed and constructive feedback to prospective authors. In essence the JMTP editorial team assumed a mentoring role to help authors improve the rigor and craftsmanship of their manuscripts. These collaborative efforts have enabled the JMTP to evolve and enhance its stature in the Marketing discipline. For example, during the past three years, submissions to the JMTP have steadily increased by a total of 157%. In addition, the JMTP is receiving an increasing
number of national and international submissions. Submissions from institutions that place greater emphasis on research are also increasing. Moreover, publishing in the JMTP is becoming increasingly competitive. We believe that this trend will continue and that the JMTP will continue to grow in stature. Recent changes in the JMTP are expected to further energize its reputation. In particular, we believe that the JMTP will benefit greatly from the leadership of Greg Marshall, the new editor, M.E. Sharpe, the new owner, and its affiliation with the Society for Marketing Advances. This developmental philosophy was critical to the success of both AMTP and JMTP. For example, when selecting the review board for JMTP, seasoned academics were often combined with a liinited number of high potential junior scholars with the hope that the experience would help develop these high-potential scholars into solid contributors to both AMTP and JMTP. More recently, we have expanded the use of ad hoc reviewers as another way to introducing the JMTP to the broader academic community. These dedicated scholars willingly provided their expertise to fiirther enhance the quality of JMTP articles and their
support of the Journal is very much appreciated. Thankfully, this approach to journal development and management has woriced very well, with a large and diverse group of marketing scholars benefiting from the creation of AMTP and JA^P. Since JMTP has been acquired by M.E. Sharpe and is being affiliated with the Society of Marketing Advances in 2005, the financial aiid time constraints of the early years of JMTP are but a memory. AMTP will continue as an independent professional marketing association with its annual conference, and subscription to JMTP. It has truly been a joy to be part of the founding of this entrepreneurial organization. We extend our best wishes to Greg during his tenure as editor of JMTP, M.E. Sharpe, and the Society for Marketing Advances. We are excited about JMTP's potential and look forward with pride to its continued development as a respected marketing journal. We are fortunate to have been a part of this adventure. Poker anyone?
REFERENCES
Venkataraman, S. (1997), "The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research: An editor's perspective", in J. Katz & R. Brockhaus (eds.). Advances in Entrepreneurship, firm emergence, and growth 3: 119-138. Greenwich, CT: JAl Press.
Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. (2000), "The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research". Academy of Management Review. 25(1): 217-226.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY E. James Randall (D.B.A. University of Memphis) is a Professor of Marketing at Georgia Southern University. His research interests are in the area of sales and sales management.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHH Michael J. Dorsch is an Associate Professor of marketing at Clemson University. Professor Dorsch earned his Ph.D. He was the Editor of the Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice from 2003 to 2006. Professor Dorsch's research has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, among others. His research interests relate to relationship marketing, services, and marketing research methods. Professor Dorsch has also garnered four outstanding reviewer awards while an Editorial Review Board member of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the Journal of Business Research. He is also an ad hoc reviewer for several marketing journals.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Morgan P. Miles (D.B.A. Mississippi State University) is Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge's Judge Institute of Management Studies and Professor of Marketing, Georgia Southern University. His research interests include environmental/green marketing, marketing and stakeholder management, corporate entrepreneurship, and the marketing/entrepreneurship interface. Professor Miles works in the areas of marketing, strategy, and corporate venturing.
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