Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser

Review of emotions research in marketing, 20022013

Sanjaya S. Gaur n, Halimin Herjanto 1, Marian Makkar
AUT School of Business, AUT Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Wellesley Campus,
WY Building Level 4, 120 Mayoral Drive, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 18 March 2014
Received in revised form
6 August 2014
Accepted 6 August 2014
Available online 3 September 2014

Study of emotions has been an important area of research for past several decades. Since emotions play
an important role in purchase decisions, this area has particular importance for marketing scholars.
In this study, we review the emotions research conducted within the marketing eld between 2002 and
2013. Within the broad domain of emotions, this study focuses on social/personality issues, cognitive
factors, the development of emotions and their interactions with other consumption factors. We found a
total of 340 emotion-related articles, published in 19 marketing journals. There was a gradual increase in
number of articles published every year with the trend peaking in 2009, 2010, and 2011. The review of
extant literature offers interesting insights into emotion-related research, and helps in identifying clear
directions for future studies.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Emotions
Consumer behavior
Marketing

1. Introduction
Study of emotions has been a thriving area of research within
the psychology domain for long. Psychology scholars have found
that emotions have a vital role in determining peoples' behaviors
and actions (Carlson et al., 2007). In more recent years, this topic
has been taken up by many applied disciplines, including marketing (Solomon, 2008). In the marketing discipline, scholars argue
that the constitutional character of emotions is very relevant and
evident in human consumption. However, the extant literature on
emotions is limited in explicating different dimensions of emotions as they relate to consumer decision making (Erevelles, 1998).
We review the extant literature to take a stock of what we know.
In an effort to develop a nuanced understanding of the importance of emotions for consumer behavior, scholars in the marketing
discipline have developed theoretical models by borrowing theories
on emotions from disciplines such as psychology and sociology
(Huang, 2001). Researchers have also focused on specic areas of
emotions in marketing such as its measurement (Bellman, 2007),
causes and consequences (Penz and Hogg, 2011), functions (Eyal
and Fishbach, 2007), coping mechanisms (Bee and Madrigal, 2007)
and communication (Landwehr et al., 2011). Despite these efforts,
study of emotions in the marketing discipline is only in the
preliminary stages (Holbrook and OShaughnessy, 1984; Bagozzi
et al., 1998; Huang, 2001). Given the signicance of emotions for
n

Corresponding author. Tel.: 64 9 9219999x5465; fax: 64 9 9219629.

E-mail addresses: sgaur@aut.ac.nz (S.S. Gaur),
hherjanto@mckendree.edu (H. Herjanto), mmakkar@aut.ac.nz (M. Makkar).
1
Present address: McKendree University, Lebanon, IL 62254, USA.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.08.009
0969-6989/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

marketing research, it is important to determine its current status,

trends, patterns, and development.
Erevelles (1998) rst provided a review of emotions in the
marketing discipline. However, this study had a limited scope as
it focused solely on the concept of affect. It is also a bit outdated as
there have been several theoretical and methodological advances in
recent years. We extend Erevelles' (1998) study by examining the
current research trends in emotions research in the marketing
literature and presenting its latest ndings. Based on this review,
we provide directions for future research so that studies on
emotions can help expand our understanding of its role in marketing. This study investigates and discusses the trends in emotions
research in connection with journal information, author and article,
the nature of the research, data collection methods and statistical
analysis. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First,
denitions of emotions and emotion-related research in marketing
are presented. Second, the methodology adopted for this research,
measurement descriptions, and an explanation and justication for
article extractions are presented. Last, results, discussion, conclusion, limitations, and future research scope conclude this paper.

2. Background
Human beings are considered as unique and complex creatures.
According to Turner (2007), one reason for their complexity and
uniqueness is the fact that they are highly emotional animals
(p. 1). That is, human beings are able to experience and express
different emotions, and more interestingly, they can interpret
complex emotional states in others. Based on their emotions,

918

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

and to integrate these characteristics to existing emotions theories. The preceding discussion clearly shows that despite the
importance of emotions, the study of its role in marketing is still in
its infantile stages. More importantly, the call for further examination of this phenomenon is very broad and varied.
In order to help identify and narrow down the research gap,
this study utilizes content analysis to offer the latest updates on
emotions studies in marketing literature by revealing the current
trends in the eld. We focus on journal information, author
information, article research information, research type and
research methods, and cover ve key sub disciplines of marketing:
marketing; advertising; consumer behavior; consumer psychology
and retailing. In brief, there are two main research questions that
this study attempts to answer:
Research Question 1: How often are emotion-related articles
published in major marketing journals?
Research Question 2: What is the status of authorial, topical
and methodological emotion-related research in marketing
literature?

people form or reject social connections, and develop, maintain, or

avoid their commitments to social structures and cultures. For this
reason, emotions play an important role in every dimension of
human activity within society.
Several studies (Holbrook and OShaughnessy, 1984; Bagozzi
et al., 1998; Huang, 2001) conrmed that emotions play a critical
role in determining consumers' behaviors. According to Holbrook
and OShaughnessy (1984), investigating emotions assists advertising
agencies and salespeople in recognizing the different aspects of
clients' emotions and consequences of these in the decision making.
Bagozzi et al. (1998) refreshed the exploration of the role of emotions
in marketing and found that previous studies on emotions provided
inconclusive ndings. According to them, these inconclusive ndings
were due to a lack of consistency in emotions terminology. For
example, terms such as affect, feelings, mood, and emotions
are frequently used interchangeably. According to Bagozzi et al.
(1998), emotions can be identied throughout businesses, especially
in marketing. To them, emotions inuence individuals' information
processing, mediate responses to persuasive appeals, measure the
effects of marketing stimuli, instigate goal setting, affect goaldirected behaviors and serve as ends and measures of consumer
welfare. Therefore, appreciating the role of emotions clearly helps
marketers gain insight into customers. Bagozzi et al. (1998) also
believe that marketers still know too little about the role of emotions
in marketing behavior. They argue that there are numerous questions
yet to be answered such as the function of emotions in inuencing
salespersons' and managers' behaviors, when emotions are functional or dysfunctional or customer satisfaction as a unique phenomenon or a subcategory of positive emotions.
More recently, Huang (2001) re-investigated the theory of
emotions in marketing. In her view, marketing scholars have not
fully identied the specic characteristics of emotions. Because of
this reason, the author appeals to future researchers to investigate
the characteristics of emotions that specically relate to marketing

3. Method
The initial search for literature was based on the keyword
emotion in Google Scholar, covering the period 20022013.
According to Norozi (2005), Google Scholar helps investigators
broaden research scopes by offering immediate and large coverage
to a variety of academic journals with fewer biases in journal
selection. The articles were screened for the keywords in the title,
abstract and the keyword list. First step in article extraction
generated more than 750 published research articles. Full
texts of published research articles were then examined to exclude
those that were not associated with emotions. The nal
review produced 340 relevant published research articles from

Table 1
Publication trends (journal and year).
Journal

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Marketing
Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
International Journal of Research in Marketing
Journal of Marketing Management
European Journal of Marketing
Australasian Marketing Journal

0
0
1
0
0
0
0

0
0
1
1
0
0
0

0
0
1
1
0
0
0

0
2
0
0
0
0
0

3
0
0
0
0
0
0

1
3
0
2
1
3
1

1
0
2
0
2
0
0

1
3
1
0
0
0
1

Advertising
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Advertising Research
International Journal of Advertising

0
1
0

0
0
0

1
1
0

0
1
1

1
5
1

0
0
1

1
0
0

Consumer behavior
Journal of Consumer Research
Advances in Consumer Research
Journal of Consumer Marketing
Journal of International Consumer Marketing
Journal of Consumer Behavior

3
0
0
1
3

2
2
0
1
0

2
3
0
0
1

7
18
0
1
1

5
5
0
0
1

3
10
0
1
1

Consumer psychology
Psychology & Marketing
Journal of Consumer Psychology

1
1

3
0

1
2

0
4

1
1

Retailing
Journal of Retailing
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

0
0

0
0

1
1

0
0

1
1

2010

2011

2012

2013

Total

1
5
1
0
4
2
2

1
4
1
1
1
2
2

1
5
1
1
0
1
0

0
1
1
1
0
2
0

9
23
10
7
8
10
6
73

12.33
31.51
13.70
9.59
10.96
13.70
8.22
21.47

1
1
0

0
2
0

4
0
0

1
2
3

2
1
0

11
14
6
31

35.48
45.16
19.35
9.12

4
7
1
0
2

5
17
0
1
0

6
25
0
0
1

8
0
1
0
1

4
0
0
0
1

2
0
1
1
4

51
87
3
6
16
163

31.29
53.37
1.84
3.68
9.82
47.94

3
3

2
4

2
3

3
1

3
1

3
3

4
2

26
25
51

50.98
49.02
15.00

0
0

0
0

3
2

0
3

2
2

0
0

1
5

8
14
22

36.36
63.64
6.47

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

19 different marketing journals. The nal number of relevant

articles demonstrates that there are several articles that make
reference to emotions but do not have emotions as the main
research topic.
The selected research articles from 19 marketing journals were
subjected to content analysis for classication purposes. Content
analysis was chosen because according to Bryman and Bell (2003),
content analysis is an objective method of analysis that enables
researchers to analyze a large number of data with relative ease,
exibility and manageability. In addition, Weber (1990) argued that
content analysis is a useful technique that allows researchers to
learn, discover, and explain the focus of social attention such as
emotions. The selected academic journals were placed into ve
main marketing categories: marketing, advertising, consumer behavior, consumer psychology and retailing (refer Table 1 for the details
based on journal name). Appendix A provides a brief snapshot of
selected journals in terms of impact factors and year launched.
3.1. Measure
Each published article was coded for the journal name, year of
publication, author's name, author's organization, research topic,
research purpose, research and data collection methods and
statistical analyses techniques. The journal's name was coded to
generate information that could assist in identifying which marketing journals paid more attention to the subject and published
more emotion-related research articles. The year of publication
was also coded to aid in understanding how much attention was
dedicated to the topic at a particular point of time during 2002
2013. The author's name was coded to present details of those
actively focused on emotions research which can assist students
and academics seeking guidance regarding the topic as well as
help them identify potential networking opportunities. According
to Cho and Khang (2006), such information reveals similarities
or dissimilarities amongst authors with regards to emotionrelated research. The institution's name was also coded to provide
invaluable information concerning the organizations, universities,
or other higher education institutions that have actively investigated the topic and produced related articles. Cho and Khang
(2006) suggested that such information may help those seeking
employment or selecting an institution for study purposes.
The research topic was also included as it adds to the understanding of this study. The coding design of the research topic
was developed based on Lewis and Haviland-Jones' (2000)
Handbook of Emotions. All the research topics were classied
under following categories: (1) topics representing emotional
meaning, category, metaphor, schema, and discourse; (2) topics
explaining emotions, social models, the psychologists' point of
view, consumer behaviorists' point of view; (3) biological and
neuro-physiological approaches to emotion: emotions as a natural
occurrence within the mammalian brain; emotional network in
the brain; emotion and behavior genetics; (4) communication of
emotion: verbal and non verbal; (5) emergence and functions of
discrete emotions: motivational, organizational and regulatory;
(6) social/personal issues: gender, emotion, and expression; the
effect of emotions on consumption judgment and reasoning;
emotional expression in group; (7) cognitive factors: positive
emotion and decision making; cognitive and social construction
of emotion; emotion and memory; (8) development of emotions
and their interactions with other consumption patterns; (9) measurement of emotions and (10) others.
If multiple topics were discussed in one article, all those topics
were coded. Information provided by research topics offer invaluable understanding regarding areas that received more or less
attention whilst proposing a clear future research direction.
Furthermore, each article was coded based on its research

919

questions and hypotheses. This coding produced vital information

about whether the research attempted to explore, describe, or
explain the role of emotions in the marketing literature which
provides invaluable information for future emotions research.
Additionally, research methods such as observation, content analysis, interview, survey, and mixed methods showing the nature of
the research (qualitative versus quantitative) were coded to reveal
which methods were more commonly used to investigate the role
of emotions in the marketing literature. Lastly, articles were coded
for the statistical analyses technique chosen such as analysis of
variance (ANOVA), structural equation model (SEM) or regression.
This was done to gain an understanding of which statistical
analyses methods are widely utilized or infrequently used.

4. Results
Holsti (1969) argued that in order to achieve consistency
between two coders, inter-coder reliability and judgments need
to meet the minimum threshold of 85%. Holsti's coefcient of
reliability is widely used in other studies (Saransomrurtai, 2011).
Two authors of this study independently reviewed and coded 11%
or 32 randomly chosen published articles from 340 available
published articles. The reliability coefcient was found to be
satisfactory, and met Holsti's threshold. The year of publication,
authors' names, authors' afliations, and the nature of the research
(empirical or conceptual) had a 100% matching. The reliability
coefcient of the research topic category was 98%, the research
purpose was 96%, the research type was 98%, the data collection
method was found to be 100% and nally, the statistical analysis
was 100%. After both authors were satised with the result of the
coefcient reliability for the entire coding category, one coder
continued to review the remaining 308 articles.
4.1. Journal and year
After undergoing screening and elimination as described above,
340 articles were identied as emotion-related published articles.
15% of the articles (51 articles) were in the consumer psychology
category, 47% (163 articles) were in the consumer behavior category,
6% (22 articles) were in the retailing category, 9% (31 articles) were in
the advertising category, and 21% (73 articles) were in the marketing
category. Within the marketing category, Journal of Marketing
Research was the most productive contributor to emotion-related
research where 32% (23 out of 73) of articles discussed the role of
emotions in marketing. It was followed by 14% (10 out of 73) of
articles in Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, and Journal of Marketing Management. With regards to the
advertising category, 45% (14 out of 31) of articles appeared in
Journal of Advertising Research, 35% (11 out of 31) of articles in
Journal of Advertising, and 19% (6 out of 31) of articles in International Journal of Advertising were associated with emotions research.
Five journals contributed to 52% (150 out of 287 articles) of total
emotion-research related articles in the consumer behavior category.
Within this category, Advances in Consumer Research (ACR) was the
most active avenue in this eld (53%; 87 out of 163 articles). This was
followed by Journal of Consumer Research (31%) and Journal of
Consumer Behavior (10%). As for the consumer psychology category
is concerned, Psychology and Marketing Journal (51%; 26 articles)
and Journal of Consumer Psychology (49%; 25 articles) collectively
published 51 emotion-related articles, contributing 15% to the total
emotion-related research in this eld. Finally, results for the retailing
category produced eight articles (36%) in Journal of Retailing and 14
articles (64%) in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Service.
Table 1 shows the trend of emotion-related articles during 2002
2013. The highest number of articles (16%) appeared in 2010, while

920

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

Table 2
Top authors of emotion-related research.
Authors

Organizations

Name

Frequency %

Name

Bagozzi,
Richard P.
Dahl, Darren
Patrick,
Vanessa M.
Zeelenberg,
Marcel
Inman,
Jeffrey J.
Aaker,
Jennifer L.
Drolet, Aimee
MacInnis,
Deborah
Madrigal,
Robert
Pieter, Rik
Chang,
Chingching
Corfman, Kim
Dube Laurette
Garg, Nitika
Lau-Gesk,
Lorraine
Verbeke,
Willem
Williams, Patti

2.35 University of California

28

8.54

7
7

2.06 Tilburg University

2.06 University of Michigan

23
17

7.01
5.18

2.06 Columbia University

15

4.57

14

4.27

1.76 University of Southern

California
1.47 Northwestern University

13

3.96

5
5

1.47 Arizona State University

12
1.47 University of Pennsylvania 12

3.66
3.66

1.47 Erasmus University

11

3.35

5
4

1.47 University of Alberta

1.17 University of Pittsburgh

11
11

3.35
3.35

4
4
4
4

1.17
1.17
1.17
1.17

10
10
10
10

3.05
3.05
3.05
3.05

1.17 University of Texas

10

3.05

1.17 University of British

Columbia
University of Chicago

2.74

2.74

New York University

Stanford University
University of Minnesota
University of Oregon

Frequency %

the lowest number of articles (10%) appeared in 2011. On an average,

during the period of 20022013, four emotion-related articles were
published every year in the consumer psychology category. This is
followed by 14 articles in consumer behavior, two articles in
retailing and advertising and six articles in marketing. In summary,
Table 1 demonstrates that even though emotion-related articles
started appearing regularly by 2002, it was not until 20052006 that
emotions research gained momentum.
Table 2 demonstrates that the University of California, Tilburg
University and the University of Michigan were leaders in the
publication of emotions research, collectively contributing 21% to
the total number of articles published. Four of the 18 most
productive universities in emotion-related research, are located
outside the United States: Tilburg University and Erasmus University (The Netherlands) and the University of Alberta and the
University of British Columbia (Canada).

cognitive factors that were investigated 97 times (29%), and the

development of emotions and their interactions with other consumption factors which were discussed 81 times (24%). The least
trending topics included biological and neuro-physiological
approaches to emotions, emotions as a natural occurrence within
the mammalian brain, emotional networks in the brain and
emotion and behavioral genetics and others. Traditionally, these
topics have received maximum attention from the scholars in the
medical eld. Recently it has started gaining some attention from
marketing scholars too.
4.4. Research methods
Across the 19 journals, exploratory research dominated the
trend contributing to 66% (225 out of 340 articles). This was
followed by 29% (97 out of 340) articles with an explanatory
purpose and nally 5 (18 out of 340) articles with a descriptive
purpose.
During 20022013 the marketing category utilized quantitative
methods the most (54 times; 74%) followed by mixed methods
(9 times; 12%). Similarly, the advertising category conducted more
quantitative research with 21 articles (68%) which was followed by
ve articles (16%) in which qualitative methods were used. In the
consumer behavior category, the same trend was found with 79%
(128) articles using quantitative methods followed by 11% (18)
articles that used mixed methods. In the consumer psychology
category, 84% of emotion-related research was conducted quantitatively, whereas 12% of the articles used qualitative approach.
In the retail category, quantitative methods were employed by 82%
(18 out of 22) articles, while qualitative methods were employed
by 14% articles.
4.5. Data collection methods
With regards to data collection methods, survey method was
adopted in 69% articles in all categories, followed by mixed
methods in 10%, experiments in 8%, critique or essay in 4% and
interviews in 3%. Content analysis, secondary data, observation
and focus group methods of data collection portrayed the lowest
results barely reaching a 2% level.
A comparison of statistical analysis techniques was also investigated. As some articles employed more than one analytical method,
the total number of methods is greater than the total population
of 340 articles. This study classied 10 different statistical analysis
methods which included ANOVA (17.98%), regression (15.35%),
factor analysis (14.91%), correlation analysis (12.50%) and SEM
(10.96%) as the most popular analytical methods employed. However, MANOVA, T-test, ANCOVA, and others did not reach the 10%
threshold resulting in 3.29%, 1.97%, 2.41% and 7.02% respectively.

4.2. Authors and institutions

Amongst the contributing scholars, Richard Bagozzi from
University of Michigan was recorded as the most productive
author in emotion-related research. He published eight emotionrelated articles during 20022013. He is followed by Darren Dahl
of University of British Columbia, Vanessa Patrick of University of
Houston and Marcel Zeelenberg of Tilburg University. These
authors each published seven emotion-related articles. Finally,
the next most productive author was Jeffrey Inman of University of
Pittsburg who published six articles. Overall, these ve authors
contributed to 10% of the published articles.
4.3. Research topic
The three most investigated topics in this eld were social/
personality issues that were investigated 112 times (33%),

5. Discussion and conclusion

This study examined the trends in emotion-related research in
marketing during 20022013 and provided a robust analysis of
journals, authors, articles and the nature of the research, data
collection, and analytic methods employed. Our analyses offer
many directions for future research in the area of emotions in the
marketing discipline.
We found that during the rst three years (2002, 2003, and
2004) of the specied study period, research on emotions was
only moderately undertaken. In contrast, in 2009, 2010 and 2011,
emotion-related research increased signicantly which might be
due to marketing researchers increased awareness of the importance of this area (Huang, 2001). As pointed out by Carlson et al.
(2007), emotions are a crucial topic to be studied because it is an

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

important predictor of human behavior. Due to its importance, it is

imperative that marketing researchers continue investigating the
role of emotions in the future. Despite the interest, emotions
literature in 2012 and 2013 were slightly down from 34 articles in
2011 to 26 and 28 articles respectively. According to Ware and
Mabe (2012), one of the reasons of this decrease could be due to
the recent rise of new peer reviewed journals. Their study showed
that during 20112012 alone, new academic journals have
increased by approximately 3.5%. Due to this, it is reasonable to
say that in the last two years emotion researchers have more
options to publish their articles and do not solely focus on this
study's sampled journals.
Within the ve categories studied, emotion-related issues were
the least investigated in advertising and retail. In advertising, only
9% of published articles were related to emotions which conrm
Holbrook and OShaughnessy's (1984) view that advertising scholars have failed to recognize the importance of human emotions.
According to Mehta and Purvis (2006), this omission might be
due to advertising scholars having little consensus with regards
to how emotions work which inuences their ability to measure the
role of emotions in advertising, impacting the domain as a whole.
Despite this low interest in emotions research, this study revealed
that advertising scholars have begun to consolidate their differences
by prioritizing factors such as the effects of mood and emotions on
consumption judgment and reasoning, with the measurement of
emotions as the fourth most important topic of investigation. As
Holbrook and OShaughnessy (1984) suggested, emotion-related
research in advertising still seems to be in the developmental stage
but it is likely that advertising scholars will increase their investigation of emotions in the near future.
Although the role emotions play in retail has long been acknowledged, this study found only 6% of emotion-related studies in this
research area. This surprising result might be explained by the lack
of consensus about what constitutes emotions (Bagozzi et al., 1998),
which has created inconclusive and mixed interpretations and
ndings. Based on the parameters listed by Bagozzi et al. (1998),
this research can be considered a true representation of emotionrelated research issues. Even with a broader denition of emotions,
the percentage of relevant studies in retail has remained low.
Despite this poor result, scholars in this domain have investigated
a decent number of emotion related topics prioritizing the following
issues: social/personality issues (gender, emotion, and expression;
the effects of mood and emotions on consumption judgment and
reasoning; and, emotion expression in groups), cognitive factors
(positive affect and decision making; cognitive and social construction in emotions; emotion and memory) and the development of
emotions and their interactions with other consumption factors.
This effort is a positive sign for emotion-related research in the
retail category.
In sum, although emotions has been recognized as a strong
predictor of human behavior (Carlson et al., 2007), this study
revealed that only 340 out of 14,321 or 2.37% of available research
articles were related to emotions during the study period. This low
percentage, according to Edwards et al. (2002), may be due to the
complexity of emotions studies and its recognition and interpretation, denition and measurement. In sum, Hogan and Kwiatkowski
(1998) stated that these complexities discourage researchers to
study this area, yet studying emotions should not come to a halt
but should be encouraged. In order to get a better understanding
of it, researchers not only have to provide full attention to the
dynamic structure of human emotions (Frijda et al., 1991) and
provide a sensible explanation of how it emerges, advances and
adapts (Adolphs, 2010), but they need to integrate it into the
existing knowledge to enable development of new concepts and
theories (Adolphs, 2010) that might not be explicated by current
information.

921

The study also identied that Bagozzi, Dahl, Patrick, Zeelenberg, Inman, Aaker, Drolet, MacInnis, Madrigal and Pieters are the
most productive emotions researchers. Among 328 universities,
North American universities dominated emotion-related research.
They were followed by European universities, Asian universities,
Australian and New Zealand universities, Middle Eastern universities and South American universities. This study revealed a
global spread of emotion-related research. This information can
help students and scholars who are seeking guidance, choosing
research partners and universities, and designing their research.
Additionally, this study will encourage researchers to continue
investigating emotions as well as encouraging those inactive
universities to participate in this research trend.
The study indicated that during 20022013, emotion-related
research had a variety of interests in a range of topics. Amongst
these topics, marketing scholars concentrated on social/personality
issues, cognitive factors and the development of emotions and their
interactions with other consumption factors. We can assume that
these three top emotions topics were an attempt to respond to
Bagozzi et al.'s (1998) invitation to investigate the implication of
emotions on consumers' behavior. Although impacts and results of
these popular topics are not questioned, however it would be
enlightening to see if these topics can be compared with previous
studies in the area and whether past ndings are in line with current
ones. Comparison between emotions studies during different time
frames may help researchers appreciate the history of this area and
more importantly will strengthen basic concept of emotions that
may help researchers develop new thoughts, ideas and approaches
to study emotions, which ultimately may reveal new results.
Findings from this study also show that during this period most
of the research was exploratory. According to Malhotra (2004),
exploratory research is vital but more suitable for creating theory.
The result of this study indicated that more explanatory and
descriptive studies are needed. This is particularly relevant to the
marketing category which resulted in few emotion-related research
(Huang, 2001). Across all categories, the study demonstrated that
quantitative research was more popular in emotion-related research,
followed by mixed methods research and qualitative research. This
nding is consistent with Clasen's (2004) comparison study on
research perspectives. He found that most empirical and comparative studies employed a quantitative research perspective (70% of
emotion-related articles) with 7% using qualitative methods and 10%
using mixed methods. In sum, emotions studies during 20022013
were leaning toward quantitative research. As pointed by Walden
et al. (2003), relying on one specic type of research method may be
problematic and risks overlooking true outcomes. Using different
research methods, such as qualitative can provide new information
that quantitative cannot address. Hence, in order to contribute
positively to emotions studies, researchers are encouraged to create
a balance by approaching the research using qualitative and mixed
methods. Numerous scholars (Myer, 2010; Bryman and Bell, 2003)
argued that qualitative research offers advantages such as the
possibility to see the problem in question from the participants'
point of view whilst gaining an in-depth understanding of the
context in which the study is conducted. However, qualitative
research also carries some disadvantages such as generalization
issues (Myer, 2010) and subjectivity, replication difculties and lack
of transparency (Bryman and Bell, 2003). This may be the reason
why quantitative methods were more likely used.
As for mixed methods, some authors (Sharp and Frechtling, 1997)
found that it generates better data collection and provides sharper
and more robust ndings. However, Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003)
noted that mixed methods potentially generate confusion between
the description of data analysis and result interpretation, different
typologies used and inconsistent design labeling. These disadvantages may explain why research using mixed method is limited.

922

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

Furthermore, this study also showed that a relatively high

proportion of research studies using the survey method were
recorded in this study (68.80%) while the use of experiment,
combined methods, critique or essay, and interviews were moderate. Conversely, the employment of content analysis, secondary
data, observation, and focus group were limited across the years.
These results are closely related to the fact that most of the articles
were quantitative in nature. In terms of statistical analysis methods, advanced methods such as ANOVA, regression, and SEM were
frequently used. It can be assumed that marketing scholars used
these methods to ensure that their ndings were robust and valid.
Other less advanced statistical methods, such as factor analysis,
correlation, and others (F test, covariance analysis, etc.) were
moderately utilized. Despite their strong empirical results, a
balance between empirical and conceptual studies is still needed.
It is crucial to stress conceptual theory building as an ongoing
process in which innovative and visionary thinking must be
regarded as a crucial factor (Ekstrom, 2003).
5.1. Limitations
Like any research project, the present study has several limitations. Firstly, this research examined 19 marketing journals, thus
the ndings cannot be fully generalized to the wider world of
marketing literature. Results are also limited to ve marketing
categories, thus they may not be applicable to other categories
such as Internet marketing which make the ndings limited to offline marketing. Although the present study provides invaluable
insight into emotion-related research in the marketing sphere,
there is still a need for further research inquiries and empirical
studies to offer a better understanding of its issues. Future studies
that replicate this research's aims may nd it worthwhile to focus
on greater numbers of journals and articles, specically journals in
advertising, retail and other marketing categories (e.g., Internet
marketing) that may offer a different view of emotion-related
research. In addition, future research could also choose to focus
on primary as well as secondary emotions. According to Parrott
(2004), secondary emotions are exclusive to human beings that
produce different behavioral outcomes (Tangney et al., 2007). Thus,
the inclusion of secondary emotions in future studies may extend
our understanding of the role of emotions in consumer behavior.

important trends in emotions research. Specically, we identied

ve topical areas marketing, advertising, consumer behavior,
consumer psychology and retailing in which scholars have done
emotions related research. Within these domains, we identied the
extent of investigation, which helps scholars identify the unexplored areas for future research. We also identied the key
publication outlets to help scholars target their studies at the right
journals. With respect to the research topics, we identied social
personality issues, cognitive factors and the development of emotions and their interactions with other consumption factors as the
most studies research topics. Even within these domains, there are
many opportunities to further explore the importance of emotions
for different sectors and outcomes. With respect to methods, most
studies use quantitative methods in which data is usually collected
using surveys. Given the latent nature of emotions, survey is
probably the most suitable research methodology. However, there
may be some aspects of emotions which could only be captured
using mixed methods including experiments or simple observations
of the subjects. The unexplored research topics along with variety of
available methods offer many avenues for future academic research.
We hope that our study assists students and scholars seeking
guidance, selecting research partners and universities, and designing future emotion-related research.
With respect to managerial insights, we hope to sensitize
managers about the importance of emotions through this review.
Given that this area is not well researched, managers often ignore
human emotions. This is despite the fact that many studies have
shown human emotions as very reliable predictors of consumer
behavior. We identied the areas such as advertising and retailing
in which there are limited number of studies. Even though there
may be few studies, managers need to pay attention to emotion
research given its importance for human behavior. In this review,
we have provided a brief summary of the key trends and identied
the sources and scholars who are active in this area. Managers
could meticulously review this study or contact the right set of
scholars to gain further insights (for example, by organizing
specialized training programs) into human emotions.

Appendix A
See Table A1.

6. Conclusions
This study included 340 emotion-related articles from 19
different marketing journals published during 20022013. Based
on an analyses of these articles, this research provides the most
comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of trends in emotionrelated research. Our analyses reveals that human emotions are
one of the most reliable and valuable predictors of human
behavior (Carlson et al., 2007). Yet, human emotions have not
been fully investigated within the marketing discipline. This could
be due to a lack of agreement on the terminology needed to study
emotions. Marketing scholars also show uncertainty on how
emotions work, the amount of inuence emotions have, and
how best to measure the effectiveness of emotions (Bagozzi
et al., 1998; Mehta and Purvis, 2006). In other words, this study
conrms Hogan and Kwiatkowski's (1998) view that emotions is a
complex phenomena to be studied. The ndings show that
recently marketing scholars signicantly increased their focus on
emotions. The ndings also show the need for scholars to
investigate other issues relating to emotions in marketing, such
as the association between emotions and behavioral genetics.
This study makes important contributions for academic research
as well as practitioners. For academia, this study identies the

Table A1
Journal proles.
Journal

Impact factor

Launch year

Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Research
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
International Journal of Research in Marketing
Journal of Marketing Management
European Journal of Marketing
Marketing Science
Australasian Marketing Journal
Journal of Advertising
Journal of Advertising Research
International Journal of Advertising
Journal of Consumer Affairs
Journal of Consumer Research
Advances in Consumer Research
Journal of Consumer Marketing
Journal of International Consumer Marketing
Journal of Consumer Behaviour
Psychology and Marketing
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Journal of Retailing
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

3.368
2.254
2.57
1.781
n.a.
0.781
2.201
n.a.
1.016
1.788
2.311
1.047
3.542
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
0.746
1.309
2.73
1.152
n.a.

1936
1963
1978
1984
1984
1967
1981
1992
1972
1960
1981
1957
1974
1969
1983
1988
2001
1983
1992
1924
1993

S.S. Gaur et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 917923

References
Adolphs, R., 2010. Emotion. Curr. Biol. 20 (13), 549552.
Bagozzi, R.P., Gopinath, M., Nyer, P.U., 1998. The role of emotions in marketing.
J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 27 (2), 184206.
Bee, C., Madrigal, R., 2007. Coping with mixed emotions. Adv. Consum. Res. 34,
447448.
Bellman, S., 2007. Theory and measurement of type 1 and type 2 emotions. Aust.
Mark. J. 15 (1), 1422.
Bryman, A., Bell, E., 2003. Business Research Methods Project Research Book, 2nd
ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Carlson, N.R., Heth, D.C., Miller, H., Donahoe, J.W., Buskist, W., Martin, N.G., 2007.
Psychology: The Science of Behavior, 6th ed. Pearson, USA.
Cho, C.H., Khang, H., 2006. The state of Internet-related research in communications, marketing and advertising: 19942003. J. Advert. 35 (3), 143163.
Clasen, J., 2004. Dening comparative social policy. In: Kenneth, P. (Ed.), A Handbook of Comparative Social Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton, MA,
pp. 91102.
Edwards, J., Jackson, H.J., Pattison, P.E., 2002. Emotion recognition via facial
expression and affective prosody in schizophrenia: a methodological review.
Clin. Psychol. Rev. 22 (8), 12671285.
Ekstrom, K.M., 2003. Revisiting the family tree: historical and future consumer
behavior research. Acad. Mark. Sci. Rev. 1, 129.
Erevelles, S., 1998. The role of affect in marketing. J. Bus. Res. 42 (3), 199215.
Eyal, T., Fishbach, A., 2007. Affect as a cue for self control. Adv. Consum. Res. 34, 484.
Frijda, N.H., Mesquita, B., Sonnemans, J., Van Goozen, S., 1991. The duration of
affective phenomena or emotions, sentiments, and passions. In: Strongman, K.
T. (Ed.), International Review of Studies on Emotion, vol. 1. Wiley, Chichester,
pp. 187225.
Hogan, D., Kwiatkowski, R., 1998. Emotional aspects of large group teaching. Hum.
Relat. 51 (11), 14031417.
Holbrook, M.B., OShaughnessy, J., 1984. The role of emotion in advertising. Psychol.
Mark. 1 (2), 4564.
Holsti, O.R., 1969. Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Addison-Wesley, Reader, MA.
Huang, M.-H., 2001. The theory of emotions in marketing. J. Bus. Psychol. 16 (2),
239247.

923

Landwehr, J.R., McGill, A.L., Herrmann, A., 2011. It's got the look: the effect of
friendly and aggressive facial expressions on product liking and sales. J. Mark.
75 (3), 132140.
Lewis, M., Haviland-Jones, J.M., 2000. Handbook of Emotions, 2nd ed. The Guilford
Press, London.
Malhotra, N.K., 2004. Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 4th ed. Pearson
Education, New Delhi.
Mehta, A., Purvis, S.C., 2006. Reconsidering recall and emotion in advertising.
J. Advert. Res. 46 (1), 4956.
Myer, M.D., 2010. Qualitative Research in Business & Management. Sage, London.
Norozi, A., 2005. Google Scholar: the new generation of citation indexes. LIBRI 55,
170180.
Parrott, G.W., 2004. Appraisal, emotion words, and the social nature of self
conscious emotions. Psychol. Inq. 15 (2), 136138.
Penz, E., Hogg, M.K., 2011. The role of mixed emotions in consumer behavior.
Investigating ambivalence in consumers' experiences of approach-avoidance
conicts in online and ofine settings. Eur. J. Mark. 45 (12), 104132.
Saransomrurtai, C., 2011. Converting a Social Network Into a Brand Network: How
Brand Prole on Facebook is Used as an Online Marketing Communication Tool
(Unpublished thesis). Marketing Department, Auckland University of Technology,
New Zealand.
Sharp, L., Frechtling, J.A., 1997. Introduction to mixed method evaluations. In:
Frechtling, J.A., Sharp, L. (Eds.), User Friendly Handbook for Mixed Method
Evaluations. Diane Publishing, USA.
Solomon, R.C., 2008. The philosophy of emotions. In: Lewis, M., Haviland-Jones, J.M.,
Barrett, L.F. (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed. The Guilford Press, New York.
Tangney, J.P., Stuewig, J., Mashek, D.J., 2007. Moral emotions and moral behavior.
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 58, 345372.
Tashakkori, A., Teddlie, C. (Eds.), 2003. Major Issues and Controversies in the Use
of Mixed Methods in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Handbook of Mixed
Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks,
CA, pp. 3050.
Turner, J.H., 2007. Human Emotions: A Sociological Theory. Routledge, New York.
Walden, T.A., Harris, V., Catron, T., 2003. How I feel: a self report measure of
emotional arousal and regulation. Pscyhol. Asses. 15, 399412.
Ware, M., Mabe, M.M., 2012. The STM Report. An Overview of Scientic and
Scholarly Journal Publishing (3rd eds). International Association of Scientic,
Technical and Medical Publishers, The Netherlands.
Weber, R.P., 1990. Basic Content Analysis, 2nd ed. Sage, Newbury Park, CA.