Science is about corroborating empirical evidence, even in academic business research journals

Corroboration of empirical insights is critical to theory development, developing generalizations from empirical findings, verifying the validity and reliability of findings, delimiting the scope of empirical findings, and increasing scientific rigor. Despite the widely acknowledged role of replication, corroboration, and synthetization in building scientific knowledge, few elite and top tier marketing and business journals seriously consider for publication papers attempting to reproduce the empirical insights of previously published studies. Consequently, a majority of the top marketing peer-review literature consists mainly of single research endeavors or multiple intra-studies within a single main study (or series of studies) with the result being that the published evidence is built largely on unverified and potentially tenuous findings. This special issue of the Journal of Business Research consists of thirteen articles that use different types of replication research procedures to independently attempt to corroborate previously reported marketing studies that display evidence of representing significant, relevant, theoretical and managerial contributions. We offer introspection on how corroboration fits with other movements in the statistical community to promote a better literature.