Editorial Marketing research in different settings Enrique Ortega ⁎ , Ladislao González Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Abstract This special issue of the Journal of Business Research deals with a wide range of marketing research subjects. The papers pertain to the marketing–sales relationship, sport participants' satisfaction, importance–performance analysis, country of origin, internet banking, tourism and travel, and management leadership style. The ten papers in this special issue were selected from the papers presented at the 8th International Forum on the Sciences, Techniques and Arts Applied to Marketing, Academy and Profession, held at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, November 24–25, 2005. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Marketing research; Marketing–sales relationship; Management leadership 1. Introduction The articles in this special issue of the Journal of Business Research include the best papers presented at the 8th Inter- national Forum on the Sciences, Techniques and Art Applied to Marketing, Academy and Profession, held at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, November 24–25, 2005. These articles cover a wide range of the different aspects of marketing research, such as the relationship between marketing and sales, the satisfaction of participants at sporting events, the graphic representation of multi-attribute models, the influence of the country of origin on consumer behavior, the identification of users of internet banking in the European Union, the impor- tance of the information available at tourism destinations, the relationship quality-satisfaction in the spa-tourism environment, the impact of the liberalization of air tariffs and the effects of the personal and cultural values in management leadership style. Notwithstanding the diversity of the subjects considered, the different articles all share the quantitative approach to empirical investigation. By favoring quantitative techniques over quali- tative ones in marketing research, these articles follow what is today the predominant methodological current in the USA and the majority of European countries. 2. Marketing–sales relationship Companies create superior customer value by offering them benefits that outweigh the costs they have to bear during the life cycle of the product or service. Superior customer value creates a competitive advantage if companies are able to financially benefit from the exchange in the long term. Successful com- panies create such value more efficiently and effectively than their competitors do (Slater and Narver, 2000). The companies' capacity to create superior customer value depends on their abilities to co-ordinate marketing and sales activities. By adopt- ing this perspective and elaborating on literature that deals with marketing capabilities and the marketing–sales relationship, Guenzi and Troilo proposed a model of antecedents to superior customer value creation. According to the authors, an effective relationship between marketing and sales, long-term orienta- tion, and sales people's customer-orientated selling all posi- tively impact superior customer value creation. In addition, Guenzi and Troilo's results suggest that superior customer value creation has a positive impact on market performance. 3. Sport participants' satisfaction Consumer satisfaction has received a lot of attention in marketing research because of its influence on consumer Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 95 – 97 ⁎ Corresponding author. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Departamento de Comercialización e Investigación de Mercados, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain. Tel.: +34 91 394 23 09; fax: +34 91 394 24 23. E-mail addresses: eortegam@ccee.ucm.es (E. Ortega), lgonzalez@eresmas.net (L. González). 0148-2963/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.10.006