“Generative AI, Synthetic Data, and Synthetic Respondents in Marketing Research”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Generative AI, Synthetic Data, and Synthetic Respondents in Marketing Research”

Journal: International Journal of Research in Marketing
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 31 May 2026

Overview

This special issue, in collaboration with the Marketing Science Institute (MSI), investigates how Generative AI (GenAI), synthetic data, and synthetic respondents are reshaping the empirical foundations of marketing research. It seeks to balance the opportunities for increased research scalability and insight generation with critical questions regarding accuracy, validity, generalizability, and the role of synthetic agents in marketing knowledge development.

Key Research Themes

• Empirical Accuracy: Evaluations of synthetic data precision, confidence levels, and benchmarking studies comparing synthetic outputs against real-world consumer datasets.

• Methodological Innovation: New frameworks for generating and validating synthetic data, including techniques for uncertainty quantification, model calibration, and statistical generalizability.

• Consumer Behavior & Personalization: Applications of synthetic respondents in targeting, personalization, and simulating complex human decision-making processes.

• Experimental & Causal Inference: Methodological developments for incorporating synthetic or hybrid datasets into experimental designs, causal inference, and field-testing environments.

• Theoretical Implications: Conceptualizing how synthetic reconstructions of human behavior influence the development of marketing theory and knowledge.

Submission Details

• Submission window: Open now until 31 May 2026.

• Submission portal: http://www.editorialmanager.com/ijrm

• Special Instructions: All submissions must demonstrate empirical rigor and conceptual clarity. During the submission process, you must select the Article Type “SI: Synthetic” to ensure the paper is correctly routed.

Guest Editors

• Tulin Erdem, New York University

• Koen Pauwels, Northeastern University

Why This Issue Matters

As GenAI continues to transform marketing, the International Journal of Research in Marketing—the official journal of the European Marketing Academy—seeks to position itself at the forefront of this shift. This special issue aims to set the methodological standards for "synthetic" marketing research, ensuring that practitioners and academics alike can navigate the potential and pitfalls of AI-augmented insight generation with empirical rigor.

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