Is Marketing Losing its Identity? A Bibliometric Review

Marketing researchers have the responsibility to promote their field of study, developing models and tools, and suggesting best practices that favour marketing practitioners as well. In this sense, both current practices and consumer behavior are investigated. However, consumer behavior should not be seen as a whole on itself. Based on this issue, we investigated the publication in marketing in Brazil. Through a desk research using bibliometric analysis techniques over 520 journal issues and 28 conference proceedings were analyzed. In order to evaluate the evolution of the publication in marketing, we selected the two oldest management journals (RAUSP of FEA/USP and RAE of EAESP/FGV) and the three main national events in the area (SEMEAD, EnANPAD and EMA). Papers published between 1947 and 1976 in RAUSP were analyzed in printed editions. The others were obtained through the website of the events and of the journals. In all, 2,715 marketing articles were identified. We noticed that there is a growing concentration of studies on consumer behavior. Other authors point to this situation, stressing that excessive focus on consumer behavior might reduce studies on strategy and decision making. Thus, the results suggest that marketing scholars rethink the scope of the field and their research activities, strengthening more applied studies to the reality of managers.