HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE FACTORY APPROACH MODEL: QUANTITY VERSUS QUALITY IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETING PUBLICATIONS?

This study investigates the phenomenon that new authors, as compared to established authors in the academic area, follow the factory approach in their international marketing publications. The study uses a convenience sample of 51 authors in international marketing from 12 countries who publish ten papers or more per year in Scopus outlets. The findings reveal that academics who publish these papers in Scopus produce a considerable number of self-citations per year, meaning that their publications are boosted numerically by themselves, and therefore their contributions may not be so significant. This study contributes to international marketing because some authors, who are called “factory authors”, use other authors to get published in high-level Scopus journals and publish as many as ten or more papers per year and accumulate good papers and citations. The study discusses the implications and limitations of the study and future research.