Descriptive analysis

Assessing the quality of research and synthesizing and reporting the findings using a variety of methodologies are challenging tasks (Macpherson & Holt, 2007). Thus, to minimize subjective interpretation biases and ensure a high-quality review, the independent academic researcher again read all the selected articles and independently analyzed all the elements included on the data extraction form. The individual assessments were then combined and synthesized. If there were disagreements (which is natural), the issue was resolved with dialogue. With the resulting classification and information, the researcher

47 was able to construct a map of prior research in the domain in terms of frequency, density, and emerging patterns and preferences.

This systematic review had no time delimiters, but approximately 74% of the selected articles had been published during the last decade, and half, 90 (50%), had been published during the last five years (see Figure 2.2.), indicating that this is a growing area of research.

Figure 2.2.: Evolutionary development of the cause-related marketing literature

Notes: This figure illustrates the number of CRM studies published every year since the first publication in 1988. The results for the year 2014 are not representative because the review included articles published before the writing of this work (February 2014). From March

0 5 10 15 20 25

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Number of publications

Time

48 2014 onwards, this research applied a narrative review methodology for reasons explained in the next chapter.

The research had also been published in a wide variety of publications (79 journals). Table 2.4 shows that the Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing accounts for the largest single portion, with 16 articles (9%), followed by the International Journal of Nonprofit &

Voluntary Sector Marketing, with 10 articles (6%). Other journals that featured significantly in the review included the European Journal of Marketing (8), the Journal of Business Research (8) and the Journal of Business Ethics (7). All other articles are distributed over a range of marketing, general management, social science, and international business journals.

Table 2.4: Journals with the most publications of CRM studies

Publication Outlet No. of

Articles

Weight (%)

49

The largest share was accounted for by empirical papers (81%). Conceptual papers - those papers that develop a conceptual framework (Imenda, 2014) - comprised the smallest share at 9 (5%), and 6% of the selected papers (11) were narrative literature reviews. No systematic reviews or meta-analyses were found.

In terms of the methods employed in the research, quantitative methodologies were used in 78% (113) of the empirical studies, whereas qualitative methodologies comprised only 11%

Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing 16 8.9%

International Journal of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Marketing 10 5.6%

European Journal of Marketing 8 4.4%

Journal of Business Research 8 4.4%

Journal of Business Ethics 7 3.9%

Journal of Advertising 6 3.3%

Journal of Consumer Marketing 6 3.3%

Sport Marketing Quarterly 6 3.3%

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 5 2.8%

International Journal of Advertising 4 2.2%

Journal of Marketing Communications 4 2.2%

Journal of Product & Brand Management 4 2.2%

Journal of Consumer Psychology 4 2.2%

American Business Review 3 1.7%

International Journal of Research in Marketing 3 1.7%

Journal of Brand Management 3 1.7%

Journal of Marketing Management 3 1.7%

Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice 3 1.7%

Journal of Retailing 3 1.7%

Psychology & Marketing 3 1.7%

Journal of Marketing 3 1.7%

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 3 1.7%

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 2 1.1%

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 2 1.1%

Journal of Promotion Management 2 1.1%

Journal of Services Marketing 2 1.1%

Marketing Intelligence & Planning 2 1.1%

Total Quality Management & Business Excellence 2 1.1%

Journal of Marketing Research 2 1.1%

Management Science 2 1.1%

50 (16) of the sample. A small portion of studies, 11% (16), used mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. The sample sizes in the studies were considerably different, with as few as 40 survey respondents (Bester & Jere, 2012) and as many as 3021 (Youn & Kim, 2008). The majority of the quantitative studies reported surveys with between 100 and 500 respondents. In terms of interviews, the studies’ sample sizes also differed to a significant degree, with as few as 11 interview respondents (Scott & Solomon, 2003) and as many as 160 (Liston-Heyes & Liu, 2013). Another characteristic of these empirical studies was the samples used: a large percentage (42%) was students who had completed a questionnaire or had been placed in experimental settings. Actual participants were used in 69 studies (48%), and 12 studies (8%), the smallest portion, used mixtures of students and actual participants. Three studies did not indicate the subjects who had been chosen for the sample. In terms of sector, there was an appreciable bias toward manufacturing, with 30%

(44) of studies. In addition, a large portion of studies, 30% (43), reported on multiple sectors. Furthermore, and despite the changing structures of developed economies, it is concerning that only 30 studies (21%) reported solely on the service sector. Twenty-eight studies (19%) did not indicate their industrial focus. Table 2.5 summarizes the industries that were studied by the empirical articles.

Table 2.5: Industries analyzed by 145 empirical articles Industry Focus

51 reviewed examined CRM in 26 economies, with the most studies, 79 (52.3%), coming from the USA, followed by 12 from the UK (7.9%), 9 from Taiwan (6%), and 8 from Germany (5.3%). In terms of geographic region (continents), North America and Europe received the

52 most attention, with studies from the UK and Germany being most common in the latter,

followed by Asia, where

studies of Taiwan

dominate. The least

frequently studied

continents were

Australia/Oceania and Africa. No CRM study was identified as coming from South America. Meanwhile, only four studies (2.8%) from among the selected empirical papers were conducted with study populations from different economic contexts (e.g., Jae-Eun &

Johnson, 2013; La Ferle et al., 2013), and another 3 studies gave no indication of their geographic coverage. To identify any interesting degrees of influence in terms of research approaches, correlation analyses between locations and methodologies were conducted.

The outcome confirmed that research out of the USA is significantly different compared with that from Europe, with North America tending toward quantitative methods (86.3%) and Europe toward a more even distribution between quantitative (59.4%) and qualitative (28.1%) approaches. In the same vein, Asia tends toward quantitative methods, with these studies comprising 84.2% of its overall output (16 studies) and only one study adopting a qualitative approach. Only two studies had adopted a mixed-methods approach. Of the 4 multi-country studies, 3 adopted quantitative approaches, and 1 used mixed methods. With regard to Africa and Australia/Oceania, it is clear that no generalizable conclusions can be extracted because each comprised only 2.1% of the sample.

Table 2.6: Distribution of studies by region and level of development

Country No. of

articles

Weight (%)

53 Notes: This table illustrates the number of instances countries

appeared in the empirical studies reviewed. Because multiple countries often appear in a single study and are counted each time they appear, the totals are greater than the number of individual empirical studies reviewed.

Finally, table 2.7 below presents an analysis of the countries in which all 402 authorships of the 180 selected articles were located, with the most contributions by far coming from the USA at 189 (47%), followed distantly by the UK with 38 authorships (9.5%), and Canada with 25 (6.2%).

54 particular study may have more than one author.

55 Mapping the field in CRM research by means of descriptive analysis is an important first step toward seeing all the parts of the fragmented literature combined. To understand how they fit together to form a whole, a thematic analysis follows in the next section.