William L. Wilkie is the Nathe Professor of Marketing (e-mail: wwilkie@ nd.edu), and Elizabeth S. Moore is the Notre Dame Associate Professor of Marketing (e-mail: emoore@nd.edu), University of Notre Dame. As Thomas Kinnear describes in his opening essay, the first issue of Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPPM it was intended that this journal would be first-rate right from the beginning. For example, among the institutions represented on the small original editorial board were Berkeley, Yale, Harvard (two members), Michigan, Florida, the Federal Trade Commission, Texas, American, North Carolina, Wisconsin (two members), and two Canadian universities. The focus was clearly and narrowly delineated as directed only to the intersection of marketing and public policy; for example, papers on social marketing and not-for-profits were excluded from consideration. The creators planned to publish only one issue per year, but it would be strong and, in addition to competitively submitted papers, would also include invited work from leading experts in this specialized area of the marketing field. After more than a quarter century, the journal has evolved and grown. As explained in the essays, it has expanded its original strict focus on public policy to become a centerpiece for the broader recognized subfield of marketing and society. Some 600 articles have been published in JPPM it is the primary publication for policy makers in government and not-for-profits seeking understanding of particular issues involving consumers, marketing, and competition. Each academic area relies on the key elements of its academic infrastructure—an association, a conference, and a journal—to facilitate the development of contributions to knowledge. This infrastructure allows scholars to not only disseminate their work to others but also meet others with common interests and learn from them and their work. This structure allows scholars to plan extended research undertakings confidently with the knowledge that there are institutional entities that will welcome our efforts. In the case of the marketing and society subfield, the creation of JPP&M in 1982 began this process of infrastructure development for the subfield. (This was followed by the initiation of the Marketing & Public Policy Conference and the formation of the American Marketing Association’s “Marketing and Society Special Interest Group” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.) Thus, thanks to the continuing presence of JPP&M, researchers interested in studying the impacts marketing is having on the world have had a venue in which to pursue this significant area of scholarship for almost 30 years. However, all has not been smooth sailing, and JPP&M has actually been more important than many of us may have realized during this period—a point we take up in the following section.
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