The overarching role of international marketing: Relevance and centrality in research and practice

Classic business literature asserts the central role of marketing as foundational to the existence of organizations, and further notes that marketing must permeate all areas of a business enterprise. Leveraging this premise, we examine marketing scholars’ contributions to the international business (IB) literature – specifically notable works in exporting and market entry. Despite the overarching role of marketing in business, our systematic examination of published works in JIBS identified only 11 marketing contributions among the top 100 most frequently cited publications. More recent Web of Science data for the most cited contributions since 2015 demonstrate a decline in the number of international marketing (IM) and IB-related contributions by marketing scholars. Our goal in this editorial is to re-emphasize marketing’s critical importance and centrality in IB research, especially with reference to its dominant role in such areas as exporting and market entry decisions, customer acquisition, and relationship management. This special issue is intended to highlight IM and to motivate more contributions by IM scholars, as well as to call for greater integration of marketing thought in IB research.