Marketing Journal Coauthorships: An Empirical Analysis of Coauthor Behavior

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the bargaining behavior of coauthors in multiauthored marketing papers. The literature argues that the order of author names sends a signal about their relative contribution to the article, and the signal is muted when the names are in alphabetical order. In addition, other things being the same, the literature also stipulates that alphabetization increases with article quality. The authors examine these hypotheses with publication data from a set of marketing journals during 1991-2000. The findings suggest that signaling is more important for less known authors, authors from less prestigious schools, for articles published in lower-rated journals, and when there are more coauthors.

International Business Research: Coauthorship Patterns and Quality

“…Second, the alphabetical order variables (in Models 2 and 4) are not significant, which is different from findings in Brown, Chan, and Chen (2004) and Brown, Chan, and Lai (2006). The authors' results imply that the alphabetical order of author names is not important in explaining quality in IB research.…”

“…Thus, all coauthors are likely to agree on alphabetical order of their names because all coauthors contribute more or less equally. Brown, Chan, and Chen (2004) and Brown, Chan, and Lai (2006) provide evidence to support a positive association between alphabetical name order and quality of finance and marketing articles. In some nonbusiness disciplines, coauthor name ordering has also received considerable attention.…”

“…Several studies have documented this trend in economics (Engers, Gans, Grant, & King, 1999;Joseph, Laband, & Patil, 2005), in finance (Brown, Chan, & Chen, 2004), and in marketing (Brown, Chan, & Lai, 2006). An increased alphabetical ordering of coauthor names is also evident.…”

A Study of Journal Publication Patterns of Marketing Faculty

“…We observe that among doctoral and nondoctoral faculty, there is a sharp decline in the number of sole-authored articles starting in the late 1980s. This is consistent with the findings of Brown, Chan, and Lai (2006). Second, nondoctoral faculty are more likely to have sole-authored articles than are doctoral faculty, with this difference increasing through to the present day.…”

Coauthorship Practices, Motivations, and Ethical Applications in Clothing and Textiles Research

“…It assists in the regulation of scientific activity by ensuring accountability and responsibility. Because of the importance of publishing for academic researchers, there has been an increasing trend toward coauthorship across a variety of academic disciplines, such as business and marketing (Brown, Chan, & Lai, 2006;Manton & English, 2007), economics (Rath & Wohlrabe, 2016), and the social sciences (Henriksen, 2016). Coauthorship is a form of collaboration in which two or more authors contribute to a publication (Katz & Martin, 1997).…”