Meta-analysis on Studies of Deviant Marketing Behaviors: Past, Present and Future

In recent years, one emerging area of interest for researchers has been the study of deviant behaviors in marketing. The objective of this article is to provide an in-depth understanding of the progress in marketing deviant behavior studies by conducting a comprehensive review of scientific articles in this field, utilizing text-mining methodologies.

We identified a total of 103 articles spanning the period from 1997 to 2021 through searches conducted on respected databases like Science Direct, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, Pro Quest, Sage, and Scholar. These searches were conducted using keywords such as "deviant behaviors of marketing" and "Marketing Deviance." Through a multi-stage screening process involving the examination of titles, abstracts, and keywords, our research team identified and selected a total of 72 articles pertinent to the subject of deviant behaviors in marketing for further text-mining analysis. Then, pre-processing of data was performed, and using cluster analysis, 6 optimal clusters were obtained according to Davies Bouldin index. Using the multi-attribute decision-making technique (SAW: Simple Additive Weighting), the most important roots were ranked in each cluster. Data were analyzed by RapidMiner and Matlab software.

The findings revealed a growing interest in researching deviant behaviors in marketing, particularly in recent years. The analysis generated clusters of topics, including Job and Corporate Identity, Customer Orientation and Service Orientation, Consumer Behavior, Sales States and Behaviors, Marketing Interactions, and Neutralization Techniques. It is predicted that in the future years, research on marketing deviant behaviors will increase, and continue its upward and increasing trend. The analysis of the paper trends indicates that between 1997 and 2013, the majority of articles primarily emphasized the significance of consumer behavior in the context of marketing deviant behaviors. Considering that marketing deviant behaviors have a notable impact on consumer behaviors, and consumers possess the potential to influence other customers, communities, and businesses, many researchers have previously introduced the concepts of marketing deviant behaviors and their effects on various aspects of consumer behavior. The observed trend underscores the prevalence of deviant behaviors within the marketing domain. This trend has evolved from initially introducing consumer behavior in marketing, shifting towards customer orientation and service orientation, and ultimately making its most significant contribution to the understanding of sales states and behaviors. Given this trend, we can predict the future path of marketing deviant behaviors toward the investigation of sales states and behaviors.

This study highlights marketing deviant behaviors' categories and orientations and provides a roadmap for future inquiry on marketing deviant behaviors. Marketing deviant behaviors need to be properly managed by the organizations and managers. This study offers insight to managers by clustering techniques about the trend of marketing deviant behavior research. By recognizing the contexts and major aspects of deviant behaviors in the organization, managers can take better and more effective steps to control and manage these behaviors.