A Review of Internet Marketing Research Over The Past 20 Years and Future Research Direction
A Review of Internet Marketing Research Over The Past 20 Years and Future Research Direction
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Table III.
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Table III.
Reviewof internet
marketing
research
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Table III.
JRIM
7,3
176
search engine research, virtual worlds/online games, internet education, and a plethora
of social media/networks topics. Conversely, topics that have gone quiet include:
online auctions, privacy, customer relationship marketing, and consumer internet
search. It should be noted that while these are the current trending and going quiet
topics, the list tends to change rapidly in this quickly evolving research eld. Note that
our analysis for trending and going quiet is reective of the past two years
(2011-2012) compared to the preceding six years (2005-2009). This is the spirit of whats
hot right now.
Study limitations
While the study provides insight into the past and hopefully future of internet
marketing research, there are some limitations that need to be mentioned. First, while
the business source premier database is robust, it does not contain all marketing
journals. As such, the study is limited to those marketing journals included in the
database. Second, while we attempted to be exhaustive in including search terms, it is
likely that articles were not included due not being recognized using the search terms
we employed. Third, we did not include non-marketing journals in the database. This
could have led to some biases in the results. Finally, it is possible that we made
categorization errors when classifying nearly 2,000 articles.
Conclusion
While the data itself is interesting, it is important to step back and view these results in
terms of the future of the internet and internet marketing research. First, this review
clearly demonstrates that the marketing research eld is reactive to what is going on in
the marketplace. As the use of internet has evolved, internet marketing research has
followed. The most obvious example of this is the growth in the use of the internet as a
social network. As more people have joined one or more social platforms and used the
internet to communicate with friends, family, and other consumers, marketing scholars
have responded by quickly making this one of the most researched areas in all of
marketing. This is a positive phenomenon, indicating that marketers are working to
stay current in this quickly evolving eld.
Second, the acceptance of internet marketing as a eld of marketing is evidenced by
the ever widening array of journals that are publishing internet marketing articles, the
quality of these journals, and the expanding variety of marketing topics published.
Together these trends create vast opportunities for creative researchers to build their
own unique research streams. Moreover, the growth of internet focused journals like
Trending Going quiet
Social media marketing strategies Online auctions
Online communities Privacy
Product rating/evaluations Customer relationship marketing
Internet education Internet international marketing
Virtual worlds/online games Protability
Online survey issues Consumer internet search
Using online data
Search engines
Table IV.
Trending internet
marketing research topics
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the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing,
Journal of Internet Commerce, International Journal of Internet Marketing and
Advertising, Internet Research, among others, further highlights the increasing
prominent place internet marketing has in scholarly endeavors. Although our review
focused only on marketing journals, these research opportunities are readily available in
non-marketing journals as well.
Interms of gaininga thoroughunderstandingof anyspecic areas of internet marketing
we need to reviewthe literature in these internet specic journals. Apartial list of journals
that contain signicant numbers of internet marketing articles are shown below:
.
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications.
.
International Journal of Electronic Commerce.
.
International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management.
.
Internet Research.
.
Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice.
.
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research.
.
Journal of Interactive Advertising.
.
The International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising.
.
The International Journal of Online Marketing.
.
The Journal of Interactive Marketing.
.
The Journal of Internet Commerce.
.
The Journal of Internet Marketing.
.
The Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.
It should be noted that not all of these internet and interactive journals are contained
in all of electronic databases. In some cases it will be necessary to go directly to their
web sites to determine what has been published. This is critical since these journals are
publishing much of the cutting edge research in internet marketing. For example, of the
43 articles published in the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing since 2010,
23 are in trending areas, suggesting that this is a journal that is publishing in the
fastest growing internet marketing topic areas.
Third, while most of the articles we reviewed had some mention of marketing
implications, one clear trend in the internet marketing literature is an increase in articles
that are centrally focused on strategic aspects of the internet, such as articles
investigating how to use social media to increase sales and brand equity. There were
105 such articles in 2005-2007 and 192 such articles in 2010-2012; an 83 percent increase.
internet marketing research continues to mature, movingawayfromdescriptive types of
studies and towards research related to improving the effectiveness and efciency of
marketing efforts and understanding howand why consumers use the internet. Editors
and reviewers are pushing internet researchers to take a more pragmatic approach to
their research. This applied focus closely ties it to the practice of marketing, bringing
practitioners and academics closer together. This is clearly demonstrated at the Direct
Marketing Associations Annual Exhibition and Conference (the largest annual
convocation of internet marketers) and their Annual Direct Marketing Educators
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Research Summit, where internet practitioners and academics in the eld get a chance
to share research ndings, data and interests.
While the primary purpose of this literature reviewwas to identify where the internet
marketing literature has been, it is equally important to explore the future of this
research area. Recall that the original purpose of the World Wide Web was to build a
network for researchers at various universities and think tanks to share information and
create a research community. The evolution of the internet back to a social network
where individuals can share information and communicate with friends, family, and
other consumers is still evolving. In fact, the pace of change and the future evolution is
still in question. Marketers and consumers are still experimenting with their usage of the
internet. As many marketers are still trying to gure out howto incorporate the internet
into their business model and marketing plans, more research is needed to help
marketers sort this out. From the consumer standpoint, we nd that smart phones are
creating a new, more mobile internet. This allows consumers to stay connected nearly
24/7, and means the internet is likely to pervade the average persons life even more in
the future. The importance of the internet and internet marketing research along with
the many questions facing its future continues to grow.
After reviewing the internet marketing literature for the past eight years and the
related popular press, there appears to be four major research areas that are likely to
grow in importance. First, there continues to be a concern by consumers pertaining to
trust and privacy on the internet (Peltier et al., 2009). This includes trust in the safety and
reliability of internet transactions as the efforts of scam artists becoming increasingly
sophisticated. There is also an issue of trust and privacy concerning users of social
media platforms such as Facebook. The most recent case concerning instagrams picture
sharing controversy demonstrates that privacy and trust as it applies to social networks
and platforms is an area that needs more work. This makes the recent reduction in
internet privacy studies somewhat puzzling. We still see this area as underdeveloped.
More research dealing with nature of trust and its impact on internet usage is needed.
The second area of future research is the issue of howconsumers will use the internet
for purchasing-related activities in the years to come. We believe the key to this research
area is mobile internet access. Just look around you. Everyone is xated on their smart
phones and tablets. With the ability of on the go consumers to instantly access product
reviews, compare prices, andorder products we believe there is a needfor research inthis
area. This need extends to all forms of mobile communication platforms as they arise
and academicians have already noticed the need for research in this area (Dix, 2012).
The third area of internet research that appears to be underdeveloped is in the area of
business to business internet research. While the majority of the internet commerce is
still business to business, there is very little being written inthis area. Specic topics that
might be addressed include the internet as part of the supply chain, business to business
relationship building, use of the social media in business to business marketing,
improving service via the WEB, and identifying effective ways to integrate the internet
into business to business communications.
Next, we were surprisedbythe general lackof internet analytics-related studies. As the
amount and sophistication of internet-related analytics has increased it seems that there
would a major jump in articles studying both the usefulness of the data, and the impact
that it has on the adaptive marketing strategies available for internet-based marketers.
Given the importance of customer data, sophisticated research in this area is warranted.
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Fifth, without question the need for social media and network marketing research
will continue to grow. While this topic area provides many research opportunities, it
does require that researchers keep up with the work being done. In just the last two years
more than 190 articles just in marketing journals have been published in this area. This
is the fastest evolving area of all of marketing. We need to go beyond user demographics,
perceptions and attitudes, and usage research to better understand the role that social
media plays in the integrated marketing communications mix, developing effective
communication strategies and tactics, and creating and nurturing customer engagement
(Schultz and Peltier, 2013).
Finally, we continue to believe the most interesting internet marketing questions are
strategy related (Schibrowsky et al., 2007). The past 20 years of the evolution of the
internet begs the question, Where is the internet headed? Will it continue to evolve as
social medium or will it evolve into something completely different? If history is any
indication, one thing is for sure; it will not be the same as it is today. It is likely that the
instant access via mobile technologies like smart phones, tablets, and other devices will
greatly impact the future of the internet and the future of the internet marketing
research. Our number one recommendation is to observe what is happening in terms of
internet usage and then research that area.
Summary
In conclusion, we think the real value of this literature reviewis in the eye of the beholder.
Readers will get the most value from this study if they spend some time reviewing the
tables and drawing their own conclusions. The continued growth in the internet
marketing literature seems secure. Even after 20 years the internet is still in its infancy in
terms of how it will be integrated to ones daily life. As this evolution continues, so too
will the need for more creative internet marketing research. We believe the best research
is yet to come and we encourage the brightest and best researchers to explore its current
usage and evolving future.
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