Sep

27

Back and Forth Along the ‘Citation Trail’

September 27, 2006 |

An essential part of the research process involves following the ‘citation trail’. Traditionally, that has meant tracking down the sources that have been cited in bibliographies of relevant articles. This path leads backwards in time to articles that form the foundation for ideas expressed in the initial article. The Ebsco Business Source Premiere database, not only shows us the path backwards to locate an article’s antecedents, but the path forward in order to see how the article has helped advance the research.

Take, for instance, Susan Fournier’s article on brands and relationship theory as cited in Ebsco’s Business Source Premiere:

Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. By: Fournier, Susan. Journal of Consumer Research, Mar98, Vol. 24 Issue 4, p343, 31p, 1 chart, 1 diagram, 6 graphs; (AN 349797)


Among the 150-plus citations in Fournier’s bibliography are the following:

Aaker, Jennifer ( 1997 ) , ‘‘Dimensions of Brand Personality,’Journal of Marketing Research, 34 ( August ) , 347 – 357.

Belk, Russell W. ( 1988 ) , ‘‘Possessions and the Extended Self,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 15 ( September ) , 139 –168.

Fırat, A. Fuat and Alladi Venkatesh ( 1995 ) , ‘‘Liberatory Post-modernism and the Reenchantment of Consumption,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 22 ( December ) , 239 – 267.

Holt, Douglas B. ( 1995 ) , ‘‘How Consumers Consume: A Ty-pology of Consumption Practices,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 22 ( June ) , 1 – 16.
——— ( 1997 ) , ‘‘Poststructuralist Lifestyle Analysis: Conceptualizing the Social Patterning of Consumption in Productivity,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 23 ( March ) , 326 –350.

Schouten, John ( 1991 ) , ‘‘Selves in Transition: Symbolic Consumption in Personal Rites of Passage and Identity Construction,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 17 ( March ) , 412 – 425.
Thompson, Craig ( 1996 ) , ‘‘Caring Consumers: Gendered Consumption Meanings and the Juggling Lifestyle,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 22 ( March ) , 388 – 407.

Sheth, Jagdish and Atul Parvatiyar ( 1995 ) , ‘‘Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Antecedents and Consequences,’’ Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, New York: Holt.
23 ( Fall ) , 255 – 271.

Going back through all of these sources is illuminating and time-consuming. Often you will find it to be a circuitous path complete with twist and turns and obstacles and distractions. I have gotten lost on numerous occasions and was completely unaware that I was lost until I realized why I had wandered down this ‘citation trail’ in the first place.

Now, thanks to advances in information technology, Ebsco allows us to take the trail forward in time. This path leads to articles that have cited our original source article. In this case Ebsco informs us that, since Fournier’s article was published in 1998, there have been 184 articles added to their database that cite the Fournier article.

Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. By: Fournier, Susan. Journal of Consumer Research, Mar98, Vol. 24 Issue 4, p343, 31p, 1 chart, 1 diagram, 6 graphs; (AN 349797)
Times Cited in this Database(184)

So, with the click of the mouse, I get a chance to see how others have incorporated Fournier’s information into their articles. Out of the 184 citations I narrow the field to 33 articles that, based on their abstracts, seem relevant to my area of interest. Examples would include:

Title: A Fuller Understanding of Product and Brand Relationships: Antecedents, Dimensions, and Consequences.
Authors: Irwin, Julie R.
Source: Advances in Consumer Research; 2001, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p42-42, 1p

Title: Brand personality: Exploring the potential to move from factor analytical to circumplex models.
Authors: Sweeney, Jillian C., Brandon, Carol
Source: Psychology & Marketing; Aug2006, Vol. 23 Issue 8, p639-663, 25p

Title: Utility, cultural symbolism and emotion: A comprehensive model of brand purchase value.
Authors: Shu-Pei Tsai
Source: International Journal of Research in Marketing; Sep2005, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p277-291, 15p

Title: The Development of Self-Brand Connections in Children and Adolescents.
Authors: Chaplin, Lan Nguyen, John, Deborah Roedder, Iacobucci, Dawn, Peracchio, Laura
Source: Journal of Consumer Research; Jun2005, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p119-129, 11p, 2 charts

Title: Reframing the Embodied Consumer as Cyborg: A Posthumanist Epistemology of Consumption.
Authors: Giesler, Markus, Venkatesh, Alladi
Source: Advances in Consumer Research; 2005, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p661-669, 9p, 1 diagram

Title: The Collective Consumer-Brand Relationship.
Authors: Kates, Steven M.
Source: Advances in Consumer Research; 2003, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p159-159, 3/5p

12 of the cited articles are already in my own database. This is not surprising since I most likely learned of the Fournier article by having seen it referenced in one of the these articles. Included in this group are:

Title: Us Versus Them: Oppositional Brand Loyalty and the Cola Wars.
Authors: Muniz Jr., Albert M., Hamer, Lawrence O.
Source: Advances in Consumer Research; 2001, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p355-361, 7p, 1 chart

Title: Building Brand Community.
Authors: McAlexander, James H., Schouten, John W., Koenig, Harold F.
Source: Journal of Marketing; Jan2002, Vol. 66 Issue 1, p38-54, 17p, 4 diagrams

Title: Consumer–Company Identification: A Framework for Understanding Consumers’ Relationships with Companies.
Authors: Bhattacharya, C. B., Sen, Sankar
Source: Journal of Marketing; Apr2003, Vol. 67 Issue 2, p76-88, 13p, 2 diagrams

Title: Rethinking the Origins of Involvement and Brand Commitment: Insights from Postsocialist Central Europe.
Authors: Feick, Lawrence, Coulter, Robin A., Price, Linda L.
Source: Journal of Consumer Research; Sep2003, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p151-169, 19p, 1 diagram

Title: Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research.
Authors: Arnould, Eric J., Thompson, Craig J.
Source: Journal of Consumer Research; Mar2005, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p868-882, 15p, 1 chart

Title: Individual and neo-tribal consumption: Tales from the Simpsons of Springfield.
Authors: Cooper, Steve, McLoughlin, Damien, Keating, Andrew
Source: Journal of Consumer Behaviour; Sep2005, Vol. 4 Issue 5, p330-344, 15p, 1 diagram

A third group of articles reveals my penchant for straying from the beaten path in order to find perspectives that might lead to new insights. This group includes:

Title: Vegetarianism: Toward a Greater Understanding.
Authors: Janda, Swinder, Trocchia, Philip J.
Source: Psychology & Marketing; Dec2001, Vol. 18 Issue 12, p1205-1240, 36p, 5 charts, 2 diagrams

Title: Exploring Origins of Involvement: Understanding the Relationship Between Consumer Motives and Involvement with Professional Sport Teams.
Authors: Funk, Daniel C., Ridinger, Lynn L., Moorman, Anita M.
Source: Leisure Sciences; Jan-Mar2004, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p35-61, 27p

Title: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neural Dissociations between Brand and Person Judgments.
Authors: Yoon, Carolyn, Gutchess, Angela H., Feinberg, Fred, Polk, Thad A.
Source: Journal of Consumer Research; Jun2006, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p31-40, 10p, 2 diagrams, 1 graph

This is proving to be a very useful tool. While Ebsco doesn’t provide this information for all of its citations, the articles for which this information is available gain a very valuable dimension.

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