jim-workflow

JIM Workflow Router (jim-workflow)

Overview

Router skill for manuscripts aimed at the Journal of International Marketing (JIM) — the American Marketing Association's specialist top journal for international marketing, published quarterly by SAGE (ISSN 1069-031X print / 1547-7215 online; founded 1993 by S. Tamer Cavusgil). Editor-in-Chief: Ayşegül Özsomer (Koç University), in office since 2024 — re-check the masthead on ama.org before relying on it (checked 2026-07-16). Submission runs through ScholarOne (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ama_jim), review is double-anonymized, the abstract cap is 200 words, and the whole manuscript — title through print appendices — must fit 50 formatted pages.

What makes JIM unlike its AMA siblings (JM, JMR, JPP&M) is a single gate every paper must clear: the international dimension has to be the theoretical engine, not the setting. Crossing a border must change the theory — through cultural, institutional, or economic variation across countries — and the empirics must earn cross-national comparison, usually via multi-country data with measurement invariance evidence. A solid domestic study relabeled "…in emerging markets" is the house desk-reject.

When to trigger

• A user asks "where do I start?" or "what's next?" on a JIM-bound project
• A draft is stuck and nobody can name the binding constraint
• The team is debating JIM vs. JIBS, International Marketing Review, or Journal of Marketing
• A decision letter from JIM has arrived and revision work needs sequencing
• Someone proposes adding a second country "for the reviewers" — a routing question in disguise

Routing table

Symptom	Route to
Unclear whether the question is genuinely international	jim-topic-selection
Culture/institutions invoked but not theorized; mechanism vague	jim-theory-development
Cannot state what the paper adds to the international marketing conversation	jim-literature-positioning
Country sampling, translation, invariance plan, or design unsettled	jim-methods
MGCFA, multilevel models, or multi-country panels need running/reporting	jim-data-analysis
Contribution reads as "we replicated X abroad"	jim-contribution-framing
Exhibits sprawl past the 50-page cap or hide the cross-national result	jim-tables-figures
Prose is fine English but not JIM's voice; abstract over 200 words	jim-writing-style
Ready to build the ScholarOne package	jim-submission
Waiting on / anticipating the editorial process	jim-review-process
Revising against a JIM decision letter	jim-rebuttal

Default order

1. jim-topic-selection — verify the border-crossing is doing theoretical work
2. jim-theory-development — theorize the cross-national mechanism a priori
3. jim-literature-positioning — stake the claim in the international marketing canon
4. jim-methods — design the multi-country study: sampling, translation, invariance plan
5. jim-data-analysis — invariance tests, multilevel/SEM estimation, country effects
6. jim-contribution-framing — the theory payoff plus the cross-border managerial payoff
7. jim-tables-figures — invariance table, country descriptives, model figure, page budget
8. jim-writing-style — 200-word abstract and intro written last
9. jim-submission — ScholarOne two-file preflight
10. jim-review-process — calibrate expectations while under review
11. jim-rebuttal — after the decision letter

Loop back freely: a failed scalar-invariance test at step 5 often forces a return to step 4 (or even step 2, if only partial invariance survives and the theory leaned on mean comparisons).

Entry point by archetype

Archetype	First hard question	Enter at
Multi-country consumer survey	will the scales pass invariance across these countries?	jim-methods
Cross-cultural experiment	is culture manipulated/measured, or just implied by location?	jim-theory-development
Export / entry-mode secondary data	does the panel identify anything beyond correlations?	jim-methods
Global branding / GCC study	globalness theorized or asserted?	jim-theory-development
Meta-analysis of international effects	country-level moderators coded a priori?	jim-literature-positioning
Short Insight paper (<4,000 words)	is one sharp finding enough to stand alone?	jim-contribution-framing

Minimal decision snippet

if decision_letter:              -> jim-rebuttal
elif submitting_this_week:       -> jim-submission
elif exhibits_or_page_budget:    -> jim-tables-figures
elif estimation_or_invariance:   -> jim-data-analysis
elif design_or_sampling:         -> jim-methods
elif contribution_fuzzy:         -> jim-contribution-framing / jim-literature-positioning
elif mechanism_untheorized:      -> jim-theory-development
else:                            -> jim-topic-selection

Anti-patterns

• Sending a single-country paper to JIM because the sample "happens to be foreign" — the classic desk reject
• Treating culture as a post-hoc explanation for a surprise result instead of a hypothesized construct
• Polishing prose or exhibits while the invariance evidence is still unsettled
• Confusing JIM with JIBS (general international business) or IMR — the boundary is a positioning task, not a coin flip
• Citing the editor, portal, or page limits from memory instead of re-checking ama.org / the SAGE author page

Output format

【Target】Journal of International Marketing (JIM)
【Archetype】multi-country survey / cross-cultural experiment / export panel / global branding / meta / Insight
【International engine】what the border-crossing does for the theory (one line)
【Bottleneck】topic / theory / positioning / design / analysis / framing / exhibits / style / submission / revision
【Next skill】<one jim-* skill>
【Fact status】volatile facts (editor, limits, portal) verified 2026-07-16 or flagged re-check