The evolution of marketing research topics in developing countries over the decade: evidence from the Middle East

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue XI, November 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

The evolution of marketing research topics in developing countries over the decade: evidence from the Middle East 

Ghaith M. Al-Abdallah

American University of Madaba, Jordan

Marketing and business research topics vary between the different regions of the world, while developed and well-developed countries are leading the world scientific research, developing countries need to focus on research relevant to their situation. This, in many cases, means doing research that has been already covered in developed countries. While the genuine (new-to-the-world) level of such research may not be high, the contribution to the theoretical and practical knowledge about developing countriesis very important. Many elite journals do not understand this point clearly, and some of them would reject a research from a developing country because it has been covered in developed ones. However, the results obtained from such research may not be the same, not to mention that the interpretation of such results could be very different. Accordingly, researchers in developing countries may end up repeating some to the examined topics in developed countries but with special focus on their own markets macroenvironment and special circumstances, this would provide insightful understanding of these markets even if the topic itself is not considered new in the academic community. Therefore, the leading research topics covered in developing countries during the past decade are very different from the one covered in developed countries. In this editorial we will go through the main trends that dominate the marketing research in developing countries in the Middle East. We will follow my colleagues and I research of active and contemporary topics in the Middle East starting 2010 till the end of 2020.

As the markets were recovering after the 2008 crises, and with the support of international funds, examining the feasibility of establishing new business was an important topic to address, a good example on this trend would be Abou-Moghli & Alabdallah (2012)study entitled “Market Analysis and the Feasibility of Establishing Small Businesses”.

After that, an emerging topic at early 2010 started to rise; internet adoption and internet implications on different aspects of business became the main trend in scholarly research, a good example of the most read papers on ResearchGate would be “The Effect of Promotional Mix on Internet Adoption in Jordanian Small and Medium Enterprises” (Alabdallah&Abou-Moghli,2012) and “Internet Marketing Research and Competitive Advantage” (Al-Abdallah, 2014)which was discussed in the International Conference for Academic Disciplines at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy and “The Impact of Internet Marketing Research on Achieving Competitive Advantage” (Alabdallah, 2015).Another example is “The Effect of Customer-Company Relationship on Internet Adoption in Jordanian Small and Medium Enterprises” (Al-Abdallah, 2013)which was discussed at the Second International Conference on Global Business Environment, International Foundation for Research and Development, Bangkok, Thailand which

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