EDITORIAL A tribute to forty years of top-level marketing research G. Tomas M. Hult & O. C. Ferrell Received: 19 October 2011 /Accepted: 19 October 2011 /Published online: 10 November 2011 # Academy of Marketing Science 2011 Abstract This issue marks the beginning of the 40th volume of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. The thicker-than-usual issue is designated as the 40th Anniversary Issue of the Journal. To commemorate the Journal’ s anniversary, the collection of cutting-edge and innovative research articles in this issue addresses all of the broad topics in marketing (i.e., marketing strategy, consumer behavior, modeling, public policy, and methods/ methodology) to exemplify the breadth of the Journal’ s scope. In this spirit, our introduction to the 40th Anniversary Issue briefly provides (1) an overview of JAMS and some tidbits about the Journal, (2) a section on the impact of JAMS, (3) a description of the 11 articles in the issue, and (4) some concluding thoughts. Overall, JAMS has had remarkable impact in the field of marketing for four decades, escalating in the last two decades to become a top tier journal for the marketing professorate. By some accounts, some 500 of the roughly 1,500 JAMS articles published to date have made a remarkably high impact in the field of marketing (and social sciences). The incredible slate of authors contributing to the Anniversary Issue is a testament to the Journal’ s standing in the field. Keywords Anniversary issue . Journal history . Journal impact . Strategy . Consumer behavior . Public policy . Modeling . Methodology An overview of JAMS Happy 40th anniversary to the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science! With this first issue of 2012, the Academy of Marketing Science begins its 40th year of publishing JAMS (now together with Springer). Owned by AMS, which started in 1971, JAMS was conceptualized in 1972 and began publishing its first volume in 1973. As Peterson (1992, p. 295), the fifth editor of JAMS, commented two decades ago in an earlier anniversary issue of JAMS, 40 years is, “by any reasonable standard, a long time.” His remarks were of course tied to the 20th anniversary, but the 40th anniversary simply crystalizes the importance of the Journal and the sustained influence it has in the field of marketing. In fact, for at least the last 20 years, JAMS has held a strong position with marketing academics as a top 5 journal perceptually (e.g., Hult et al. 1997, 2009; Luke and Doke 1987) and, more recently, has elevated its standing to #2 (after Journal of Marketing) in the latest Thomson Reuters ranking. The standing of JAMS and its positioning as a breadth journal with (perhaps) a stronghold in managerially relevant marketing research have created and filled a unique and important segment of marketing scholarship. As such, Harold Berkman’s initiative to start JAMS (and the G. Tomas M. Hult is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and O. C. Ferrell is the Vice President of Publications for the Academy of Marketing Science. AMS is the owner of JAMS, and Springer is its publisher. G. T. M. Hult (*) The Eli Broad Professor of Marketing and International Business, The Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA e-mail: hult@msu.edu O. C. Ferrell University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Bill Daniels Professor of Business Ethics, Anderson School of Management, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA e-mail: OCFerrell@mgt.unm.edu J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2012) 40:1–7 DOI 10.1007/s11747-011-0294-x