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Editors do not usually own their journals, but they may aid their birth and certainly have a role to play in the nurturing and development of them. As Marketing Intelligence & Planning (MIP ) enters its 26th year, the three people who have looked after MIP reflect on its past, present and future. We begin with a few words from the Founding Editor - Professor Michael John Thomas.
Michael Thomas - Editor, Vols 1-20
Nearly, 30 years ago, I had a dream. Having worked in America in the 1960s, and seen the eclectic nature of the contents and readership of the Harvard Business Review , I asked myself if we could not have a similar vehicle in the field of marketing. Marketing and Marketing Week served their audiences well, but academics never wrote for them. I believed, and still believe to this day, that marketing academics have a responsibility to speak to the real world of marketing, to reveal their research findings to that world in language that is convincing to the world of practitioners, to test their own abilities to demonstrate that their research has practical value and application. The tradition of many of our "business" journals is to write for fellow academics, to impress peer groups in academe, and to increase one's publications list for purposes of promotion. Relevance to the world of decision making is usually a secondary consideration at best for both writers and editors. Thus, was sown the seed of the journal that is MIP .
I was delighted when MCB agreed to take my proposition seriously. Gordon Wills had both feet on the ground, and shared some of my views on the preciousness and frequent irrelevance of much academic journal material. MIP was launched and the subscription list soon revealed that companies were buying into it - the journal had something to say to them. At the same time, MIP was high on the citations listings, so academics too were using the journal. MCB has transformed itself into Emerald Group Publishing Limited, with a stable of publications second to none. I believe that MIP is regarded as one of the jewels in the crown. The past is merely prologue however. Let us move forward.
Keith Crosier - Editor,...