Perspectives: Replication is more than meets the eye

Abstract

Drawing on recent research and debates in social sciences, this paper situates replication in an advertising research context. We clarify the role of replication in the field and outline the challenges inherent in replication studies in advertising research. We further elaborate on how researchers should engage in replication research to increase the truth value of advertising research while overcoming the obstacles to replication research. Finally, we discuss how advertising scholars, reviewers, and editors can facilitate replication research to reduce the share of false-positive results and accumulate knowledge in the discipline. We see replication as critical in advertising research, given the high variability of experimental factors and the applied nature of the field. Therefore, a better understanding of replications and the challenges of advertising research should inspire scholars to engage in more replication attempts and reviewers and editors to consider it for publication.