Theme of the special issue

Attention is the ultimate scarce resource in today’s overcrowded markets. Understanding how to attract, retain, guide consumer, investor, and employee attention is paramount for business success and ultimately for its survival. Although its role has always been acknowledged, only recently has marketing research begun to delve deeper into the central role that attention plays in cognitive, affective, and choice processes. Even now, marketers still acknowledge the necessity of capturing attention, but new studies since the turn of the century have shown that attention serves much broader roles. It plays an active role in shaping consumer behaviour and we are only now beginning to understand the fundamental nature of these processes, in a large part due to the application of eye tracking to measure attention. Understanding the connection between attention and action is becoming even more important as our computers, phones and other devices are equipped with eye tracking hardware and it will become increasingly possible to measure consumers attention in naturalistic settings. In this special issue, we wish to advance our understanding of consumer attention to marketing stimuli, such as advertisements, shelves, websites, and billboards, and the relation between attention patterns to these stimuli and subsequent action.

We invite submissions that fall within the following topic areas:

·         Applications and case studies of eye tracking in the study of consumer behaviour towards visual marketing stimuli.

·         Methodological innovations in the use of eye tracking in marketing. 

·         Reviews and meta-analysis on eye tracking in marketing.

·         Studies integrating eye tracking and other neural or physiological measures to understand consumer behaviour.

·         Theoretical studies advancing new theories or models of eye movements in consumer behaviour.

Additional information

Inquiries should be sent by email to the coordinating JBR Guest Co-Editor Jacob L. Orquin (jalo@mgmt.au.dk). Manuscript submission for the review process will be handled via the Elsevier Editorial system at the following website: www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-research/call-for-papers. When preparing your submission, please check the JBR website for guidelines on style and paper length: www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-business-research/0148-2963/guide-for-authors.

Submission deadline:                1 August 2018

First revisions due:                   1 November 2018

Final revisions due:                   1 April 2019

Expected publication date:        1 June 2019

Guest co-editors

Michel Wedel, University of Maryland

Rik Pieters, Tilburg University

Jacob L. Orquin, Aarhus University

Editor in chief: Anders Gustafsson