The 2016 Global Marketing Conference (GMC) will be held in Hong Kong, on July 21– 24, 2016. This year¡¯s conference theme is, ¡°Bridging Asia and the World: Global Platform for Interface between Marketing and Management.¡± For more information about the 2016 GMC, please visit the following web site (http://gammaconference.org/2016/). A special Conference track on Marketing and Anthropology offers an exciting opportunity to answer calls for research that puts consumers back into the research process (e.g., Denzin, 2001). 

Marketing Anthropology Research (MAR) offers a unique vantage point for contributing to the discipline of marketing research. MAR embraces adherence to several central propositions including the following viewpoints. Advances in theory in the field of marketing research require accurate and deep explication of naturally occurring thinking, assessments, communications, and behavior of consumers (see Woodside and Martin, 2015). MAR recognizes the severe limits in asking questions and encourages advancement of methods beyond scaled response metrics. MAR researchers are historically and locally situated within the phenomena studied. They recognize that research methods are not neutral in their effects on theory creation and testing. Consumer research joins the research and researched (see Denzin, 2001). Rather than adopting a net effects standard on the influence of individual independent variables, MAR researchers more often embrace a gestalt recipe perspective – both in crafting and testing theory. MAR researchers are bricoleur, piecing together data from multiple sources. 

The literature identifies at least five branches of MAR. Interpretive Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) research recognizes consumer culture derives from a social arrangement between lived culture and social resources. CCT examines issues relating to relationships among consumers¡¯ individual and collective identities in areas including product symbolism, rituals, and consumer product/brand stories (e.g., Arnould and Thompson, 2005; Arsel and Thompson, 2011). Unobtrusive field experiences are a second branch of MAR. This branch posits that controlled experiments and actual behavior often differ significantly (Levitt, List, and Reiley, 2010). Field studies collect data in-situ that examines people as while they are in the act of being consumers to better understand their decision making processes and motivations (Ariely and Simonson, 2003; Lee and Ariely, 2006). Even less obtrusive is participant observation research. This third MAR branch views the researcher(s) as watching and interpreting consumer behavior. Observation research assumes people would act differently if they realized that someone was studying their behavior. Data rely on etic interpretations of consumer behavior (Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf, 1988; Bowen, 2002). Participatory Action Research (PAR) represents the fourth MAR branch. PAR assumes consumer involvement in the research process helps to improve their overall welfare. This approach assumes the study group¡¯s active participation increases trust and improves information quality (see Whyte, 1989). Social change issues such as purchasing affordable health insurance offer fertile ground for using PAR in consumer research (Ozanne and Saatcioglu, 2008). In-situ long interviews represents MAR¡¯s fifth research branch. Respondents sharing narratives of their experiences provide rich data because the information most accessible if collected as stored in the mind (see Schank, 2000). Unstructured or semi-structured long interviews (McCracken, 1988) helps to release information that is often stored unconsciously (Zaltman, 2003). These thick descriptions provide deep insights on actual thinking, evaluations, and behavior of consumers (Martin, 2010; Woodside, 2010).

All submissions, reviewing and notification will be conducted electronically through email. If you do not receive confirmation of your submission within seven days, please contact the track chairs. Please submit manuscripts in an MS WORD document in Times New Roman 12- font. Submissions should have page numbers and be limited to 20 pages of text in length. References and citations should follow the Journal of Business Research style. Please place all tables and figures at the end of the manuscript (following the references). The manuscripts title page should include the corresponding author¡¯s name, affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address. Names and contact information for other authors should be included as well. Submissions will be evaluated by a double-blind review process. Information identifying the submission authors should only be listed on the title page. ONLY selected GMC conference papers from research reports presented at the 2016 Global Marketing Conference in Hong Kong will be considered for a special edition of the Journal of Business Research on Marketing Anthropology Research. 

Conference submissions should be sent to both track chairs/guest editors. Authors may contact the track chairs with inquiries relating to the issue. 

Professor Drew Martin, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 200 West Kawili Street, Hilo, Hawaii 96720-4091, USA,drmartin@hawaii.edu, Tel: +1-808-974-7553, Fax: +1-808- 974-7685.

Professor Arch Woodside, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA,arch.woodside@bc.edu, Tel: +1-617-552-3069, Fax: +1-617-552-6677.