Journal of Retailing 85 (4, 2009) 502–503
Editorial
Reflections from the Past Quarter Century: Introduction
Keywords: Reflections; Insights; Genesis
Along with former Journal of Retailing editor Dhruv Grewal,
we co-chaired a Special Session at the 2009 American Mar-
keting Association’s Winter Educators’ Conference featuring
previous JR editors and their reflections on the JR. Their remarks
appear in this special section of the JR. Among the former editors
who contributed to this section are Avijit Ghosh (1985–1991),
Charles A. Ingene (1992–1996), Louis P. Bucklin (1997–2001),
and the team of Dhruv Grewal and Michael Levy (2002–2006).
We add our own reflections to those of this distinguished group.
Elizabeth Hirschman (1980–1983) was unavailable to provide
her reflections on her tenure as JR editor. Sadly, we were not
privy to the experiences and insights of the late William Darden
(1983–1985).
This section begins with Sam Craig’s history of the Journal
of Retailing (Craig, 2009). He recounts the genesis of the JR and
its early years. He also explains the transition of the JR into the
“modern” era (i.e., after 1980) and how JR’s subsequent editors
helped shape the Journal’s evolution.
Avijit Ghosh identifies pricing and promotion, retail store
choice and location models, and store patronage and shop-
ping behavior as the major themes of articles published during
his tenure at the helm of JR (Ghosh, 2009). He also pub-
lished two of the most highly cited JR articles (Parasuraman,
Berry, and Zeithaml 1991; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry
1988).
Charles A. (Chuck) Ingene provides a more detailed account
of JR’s history (Ingene, 2009). In addition, he gives a personal
account of his appointment as JR editor and some of the tac-
tical steps that he took to help elevate the JR’s status. It was
Chuck Ingene who broadened JR’s scope to include services
marketing, distribution channels, and analytical models of retail
phenomena.
Louis P. (Pete) Bucklin reviews his tenure as JR editor through
a seriocomic allegory (Bucklin, 2009). In it, he recounts his
experiences with bandersnatches, toves, jabberwocks, and the
like who populated his world of retailing researchers and JR
reviewers.
Dhruv Grewal and Michael Levy identify the growth of the
internet and e-commerce, branding and customer loyalty, service
0022-4359/$ – see front matter © 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of New York University.
doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2009.10.001
success strategies, and behavioral issues in pricing and patronage
as the key themes emerging from their tenure as JR co-editors
(Grewal and Levy, 2009).
Current JR co-editors Rajiv Dant and James R. (Jim) Brown
critically review three common metrics for gauging a journal’s
impact: (1) self-reported publication anatomy, (2) key informant
perceptions, and (3) citation analysis. They then report a citation
analysis of Journal of Retailing articles, indicating the impact of
JR articles upon retailing and marketing scholarship (Dant and
Brown, 2009).
In total these editors represent nearly 25 years of experi-
ence husbanding the Journal of Retailing. We hope that readers
will find their experiences and insights both enlightening and
entertaining. We also hope that readers will develop a deeper
appreciation of the role of the JR in their scholarly lives and
will continue to utilize its articles in their own research. We also
hope that researchers will consider the JR as their first choice
for submitting retailing related research.
References
Bucklin, Louis P. (2009), “Through the Looking Glass,” Journal of Retailing,
85 (December).
Craig, C. Samuel (2009), “Leading the Way: Reflections on the Editors of the
Journal of Retailing,” Journal of Retailing, 85 (December).
Dant, Rajiv P., James R. Brown (2009), “A Journal of Retailing Retrospective
Based on ISI Web of Knowledge and Emergent Research Streams,” Journal
of Retailing, 85 (December).
Ghosh, Avijit (2009), “Transition and Transformation: Journal of Retailing
1985–1991,” Journal of Retailing, 85 (December).
Grewal, Dhruv and Michael Levy (2009), “Emerging Issues in Retailing
Research,” Journal of Retailing, 85 (December).
Ingene, Charles A. (2009), “From before the Beginning . . . to Beyond the End-
ing: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Journal of Retailing,”
Journal of Retailing, 85 (December).
Parasuraman, A., Leonard L. Berry and Valarie A. Zeithaml (1991), “Refinement
and Reassessment of the Servqual Scale,” Journal of Retailing, 67 (Winter),
420–5.
, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry (1988),
“SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perc,” Jour-
nal of Retailing, 64 (Spring), 12–40.
 Editorial / Journal of Retailing 85 (4, 2009) 502–503 503

James R. Brown ∗ ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 304 293 3053;

College of Business & Economics, West Virginia University, fax: +1 304 293 5652.
P.O. Box 6025, Morgantown, WV 26506-6025, United States E-mail addresses: j.brown@mail.wvu.edu
Rajiv P. Dant 1 (J.R. Brown),
Price College of Business, The University of Oklahoma, 307 rdant@ou.edu (R.P. Dant)
West Brooks, Norman, OK 73019-4001, United States 1 Tel.: +1 405 325 4675; fax: +1 405 325 7688.