Technology readiness in a B2B online retail context: An examination of antecedents and outcomes

This paper develops and empirically tests a model that examines the role of technology readiness (TR) in the business-to-business (B2B) context. The research investigates how retailers' TR, and its antecedents, impacts their evaluation of a credence based B2B service, namely web solution service providers (WSSPs). It responds to previous research calls by extending the TR construct from the business-to-consumer (B2C) perspective that is traditional in the extant literature into the B2B domain. The findings of a survey conducted with 133 firms in the retail industry are that TR is an important contributor to the eventual achievement of service quality and satisfaction. The contributions of this study are; first it develops and validates a measure of TR in a B2B context; second it investigates the antecedents of TR in this domain, demonstrating the impact of past inexperience, industry trust and switching costs on firms' level of technology readiness to adopt online operations; and third, it finds that service quality and satisfaction are outcomes of TR. The key management implication for WSSPs is the need to address the TR levels of existing and potential clients if they wish to deliver successful e-business solutions to them. Their clients' TR can be better managed by making the offering more easily understood, building relational rapport, reducing risk perceptions and adopting a client centric perspective throughout the process.     

A classification of business-to-business buying decisions: risk importance and probability as a framework for e-business benefits

Business-to-business (B2B) markets have been considered an attractive e-business venue for the realization of cost reduction and exchange creation utilities. However, as marketers have long argued, there are different types of buying situations, and the benefits sought in each may vary substantially. The present work builds on the thinking of previous industrial buying typologies by integrating perceived risk concepts into the business buying decision. Specifically, we develop a classification grid of industrial buying situations and then explicitly link likely e-business benefits to the various situations. The proposed framework holds implications for management and research related to supply chain relationships.     

Manufacturer–reseller e-business arrangements: The impact of inequity on relationship performance and the moderating role of dependence

Manufacturer–reseller e-business arrangements are changing the nature of channel relationships. When manufacturers supply e-business tools to their resellers, resellers may perceive that the benefits of technology are not shared equitably. This research explores this issue by examining two technology based antecedents of perceived inequity from the reseller perspective. We also examine the impact of perceived inequity on relationship performance, and the moderating role of reseller dependence on the proposed inequity–performance link. The results of the empirical test involving a sample of 224 resellers suggest that perceived inequity negatively impacts relationship performance, while reseller dependence plays a moderating role. Implications of these findings for researchers and managers are discussed.     

Brand relationships and brand equity in franchising

Previous research suggests that building brand equity enhances the competitive advantage of retailers in B2B markets. However, limited attention has been paid to the concept of brand equity in B2B retailing contexts, particularly in franchise channels. This study seeks to understand how brand relationships can be leveraged to enhance brand citizenship behavior and ultimately brand equity in franchise channels. Accordingly, this study explores franchisees’ perceptions of their franchise brands, leading to a new conceptualisation of ‘franchisee-based brand equity’. An interpretive research design is employed, comprising of semi-structured interviews with key informants. Findings suggest that franchisors play an important role in promoting brand citizenship behaviour of franchisees, which in turn enhances brand equity. The study provides insight on how to effectively manage brand relationships to enhance franchisees’ brand citizenship behaviour and brand equity. The concept of brand relationships has been discussed widely in consumer markets, but has received limited attention in B2B contexts. In response, this study provides new insight in B2B branding and specifically, in how brand relationships may enhance brand citizenship behaviour and brand equity in B2B markets.     

National culture and R&D and marketing integration mechanisms in new product development: A cross-cultural study between Singapore and New Zealand

The integration of R&D and marketing in new product development (NPD) is an important contributor to NPD performance. Of the mechanisms developed to aid functional integration, many have been developed in western cultural environments and may not have applicability in other national cultural settings. Using a sample of NPD workgroup personnel in New Zealand (NZ), the western cultural environment, and Singapore, quantitative and qualitative data have been used to measure national culture and determine the applicability of different organization integration mechanisms. Results show key differences between the two samples, indicating a link between formalization, centralization, role flexibility and interfunctional climate mechanisms with the Hofstede dimensions of Power Distance, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance of national culture. Managerial implications are that national cultural values and settings of the respondents are important when determining best integration mechanisms.     

Food insecurity,gender, and international migration in low- and middle-income countries

The determinants of migration have been widely studied but research has rarely addressed the roles of food insecurity and gender in the migration decision process. To address these gaps, we examine these relationships for 135,078 individuals across 94 low- and middle-income countries. We use a series of binary-choice models with sample selection and data from the 2014–2015 waves of the Gallup World Poll Survey, which includes the first global measure of individual-level food insecurity. Results, which are robust, indicate that food insecurity is an important determinant of both migration intentions and preparations, and the probability of migration intentions increase monotonically with the severity of food insecurity, and the probability of migration preparations decrease. These relationships also differ significantly by gender and level of gross national income. Evidence suggests a need for increased coordination between the international food security and migration policy agendas.     

The impact of e-business infusion on channel coordination, conflict and reseller performance

Manufacturer-reseller interactions are becoming more technology-enabled as channels of distribution increasingly utilize e-business tools on the Internet. This research examines the performance consequences for resellers as these technological advances are applied to distribution activities between channel members. Using a sample of 216 resellers of computer products, the research explores the impact of e-business tools in 2 areas of manufacturer-reseller interactions: supply tasks and demand tasks. The results suggest that e-business in supply tasks increases relationship coordination between manufacturer and reseller, whereas e-business in demand tasks increases coordination as well as conflict within the channel dyad. The increase of conflict constitutes a potential “dark side” of e-business in channel relationships that may provide an explanation for e-business implementation failures and negative returns on investment in technology.     

Brands: Just for consumers? Introduction to the special issue on B2B branding

Although there is significant interest in branding in a B2C context substantially less research has been conducted in B2B marketing. The research in B2B marketing is somewhat fragmented and a research agenda to develop coherent models and provide guidance to practitioners is required. Despite the disjointed nature of the research in this area, B2B branding has been found to convey a number of benefits e.g. conferring uniqueness. This special issue consists of eleven papers covering a range of topics including brand alliances, brand personality, brand equity and brand relationships, brand identity, corporate branding and social media.     

Communication in international business-to-business marketing channels: Does culture matter?

As business-to-business marketing channels become more international in scope, communication in channels occurs among a more diverse set of channel participants from different national cultures. Do such cultural variations influence channel communications and if so, how? This study examines these questions in international business-to-business marketing channels comprised of channel members representing different cultural contexts. The findings show that there is a relationship between culture and channel communication in international channels. This influence stemming from “cultural distance” may have significant implications as business moves into the E-commerce era of Internet-based B2B international channels of distribution.     

Technological advancements and B2B international trade: A bibliometric analysis and review of industrial marketing research

In the current business and political climate, deliberations concerning international trading agreements and their importance to B2B firms are increasing. Although the volume and value of international exchanges are growing, this study reveals that literature exploring issues concerning B2B international business, and particularly the role technological advancements play supporting B2B cross-border trade, is limited. This paper provides an overview of research contributions published in the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal in order to reveal the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps, and propose further research directions. Following a two-stage approach, we reveal that although ‘trade’ is at the heart of IMM research, there is a scarcity of empirical studies examining technological advancements and B2B international, as well as local, trade; some attention, however, has been placed on the exploration of B2B international trade issues. Building on our findings, we propose future research directions.     

Perceptions of Change in Business Relationships and Networks

Our research deals with the role of actors in change in business relationships and networks. In this study, we explore how cognitive elaboration of experience of a relationship affects the relationship development. The link between behaviors and cognitive elaborations has been the object of recent research in marketing, but little attention has been given to the issue of cognition and behaviors when actors interact in business relationships. Given the role of relationships and their dynamics for the development of business networks, we believe that the issue deserves more attention. Also, compared to the interest in the space dimension of business networks, i.e., network pictures, perceptions of time have been under-investigated. We report findings from 84 bilateral interviews with managers involved as customers or suppliers in 21 relationships with ICT Security at two points in time. We collected their interpretations and reinterpretations of past developments, outcomes, and desired outcomes of the relationships in which they were involved. Our data suggest that the link between managers' cognitive elaborations and relationship dynamics is less direct than commonly assumed. We argue that evolution of a relationship cannot be explained by individual interpretations of the parties involved in the relationship; a preliminary finding is that actors' intentions appear more to shape the interpretations, rather than the contrary.     

Unlocking the link between relationship duration and product De-listing in retail channels: The role of market orientation and brand diffusion

The literature on retailers' range rationalization is limited and focuses primarily on the consequences thereof from a consumer perspective. Drawing on the extant research on buyer-supplier relationships, brand management, and market orientation (MO) in business-to-business (B2B) markets, our research explores the antecedents of product de-listing in retail channels. It unlocks the link between relationship duration and product de-listing by examining the role of MO and brand diffusion. Using a combination of primary data with both objective and perceptual measures and proprietary objective data from a sample of suppliers to a large British supermarket, we find that the supplier's brand diffusion is an essential means of utilizing relationship duration between suppliers and retailers to reduce product de-listing in retail stores. Additionally, we find that MO plays opposite moderating roles in the links between relationship duration, brand diffusion, and product de-listing. It strengthens the negative influence of relationship duration on product de-listing, while it weakens the positive influence of relationship duration on brand diffusion. Our study contributes to research on marketing channels and B2B marketing by highlighting the limitations of relational view theory and unveiling the role of brand diffusion and MO in explaining the outcomes of buyer-supplier relationships in retail channels.     

Value creation in the relationship life cycle: A quasi-longitudinal analysis

Among the growing literature on value creation in collaborative buyer-seller relationships, most researchers examine relationship value at a single point in time. In the present research, we explore whether different stages of the relationship life cycle moderate the relative importance of value-creating dimensions. To shed light on the dynamic nature of value in B2B relationships, we present the results of a survey among purchasing managers using a quasi-longitudinal research design. Our findings confirm the moderating role of the relationship life cycle in value creation. More precisely, our results indicate that a key supplier's potential for value creation in customer's operations increases in relative importance as relationships move through the life cycle. In turn, supplier's capabilities to create superior value at the level of the customer's sourcing process display a decreasing role over the life cycle of a business relationship. No significant link was found in the present study between value creation through a supplier's core offering and different stages of a buyer-seller relationship.     

A literature review and future agenda for B2B branding: Challenges of branding in a B2B context

The existing body of research knowledge on brand management has been predominantly derived from business-to-consumer markets, particularly fast moving consumer goods and has only recently started to expand in other contexts. Branding in business-to-business markets has received comparatively little attention in the academic literature due to a belief that industrial buyers are unaffected by the emotional values corresponding to brands. This paper provides a critical discussion of the fragmented literature on business-to-business branding which is organized in five themes: B2B branding benefits; the role of B2B brands in the decision making process; B2B brand architecture; B2B brands as communication enablers and relationship builders; and industrial brand equity. Drawing on the gaps and contradictions in the literature the paper concludes by proposing an agenda for future research.     

Building B2B relationships via initiation contributors: Three cases from the Norwegian-South Korean international project business

Initiation is still an unclear phase of B2B relationship development. Here, we build on existing theoretical knowledge derived from relationship development, project marketing and international business literature. We use this to analyze three cases of business relationship initiations between Norwegian and South Korean actors in the shipping industry. By piecing together theoretical and empirical insights, we develop a dynamic model of the relationship initiation process that highlights the role of initiation contributors in international project business. The developed model reveals that multiple entities— such as contacts, rituals and standards—serve as initiation contributors. These trigger or facilitate the focal dyadic relationship initiation, while also preparing future initiations in the focal context. Thus, our key contribution is to bring processual and contextual dimensions to business relationship initiation. Our research also suggests practical insights as to which actors and entities suppliers need to mobilize, in order to initiate new business relationships in international project business contexts.     

Can systems integration lead to improved performance? The role of strategic alliances

Despite growing research attention to systemic products and systems integration, there is still a dearth of research on the performance benefits that firms can attain from increased systems integration capabilities. We address this research gap using a longitudinal sample of 245 first-tier automotive suppliers and find that an increased systems integration capability positively affects financial performance. By considering the crucial role of manufacturing alliances, we also find evidence that vertical alliances with buyers positively moderate the relationship between systems integration capabilities and performance, while horizontal alliances have a negative moderating effect. These results contribute to the dynamic capabilities literature by providing empirical evidence that systems integration capability is a relevant predictor of firm performance, and expands the current understanding of how system manufacturers should manage their business-to-business (B2B) relationships.     

Political hazards,experience, and sequential entry strategies: the international expansion of Japanese firms, 1980–1998

We find support for the role of experiential learning in the international expansion process by extending the stages model of internationalization to incorporate a sophisticated consideration of temporal and cross‐national variation in the credibility of the policy environment. Using a sample of 3857 international expansions of 665 Japanese manufacturing firms, we build on the concepts of uncertainty and experiential learning, to show that firms that had gathered relevant types of international experience were less sensitive to the deterring effect of uncertain policy environments on investment. One implication of our results is that research on international strategy should emphasize understanding the political institutions that constrain or enable political actors, just as entry mode research has done. A second implication is that research in the stages model of internationalization should give the same weight to the policy environment as a source of uncertainty to a firm, as it has given to cultural, social and market institutions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A service design perspective on the stakeholder engagement journey during B2B innovation: Challenges and future research agenda

Innovation in business-to-business (B2B) contexts deals with highly dynamic, complex, and heterogeneous constellations of stakeholders with a diversity of goals, motives, and capabilities that further challenge successful management of B2B innovation processes and outcomes. Complex challenges, such as sustainability and digitization trends, push these B2B firms to embrace new innovation methods that help them manage disruptive change. Service design thinking has emerged as an innovation management practice emphasizing a human-centered innovation process of user interactions, creativity, and learning mindsets. In this article, we aim to evaluate the challenges and develop a research agenda on how service design can effectively enable stakeholders' engagement during the B2B innovation process. We argue that to advance service design opportunities for stakeholder engagement, we need to address the unique complexities and challenges of stakeholder engagement during innovation from a systemic and dynamic process perspective. From a systemic perspective, we zoom in on the building blocks of stakeholder engagement and address multi-level stakeholder engagement platforms (i.e., innovation networks). From a dynamic process perspective, we treat stakeholder engagement as an emerging process and zoom in on the temporal and relational connections and hybrid orchestration to allow for both structural and emerging stakeholder engagement during innovation. We develop a stakeholder engagement journey in which we integrate service and innovation stages and propose how service design activities can support and facilitate the aforementioned challenges and complexities. Finally, we identify concrete research questions and, accordingly, develop a research agenda for future research on stakeholder engagement in B2B innovation trajectories.     

The interplays of coopetition,conflicts, trust,and efficiency process innovation in vertical B2B relationships

In this study, we examine the interplays among coopetition, conflicts, trust, and efficiency process innovation in vertical business-to-business (B2B) relationships. We posit that, in vertical B2B relationships, coopetition is positively associated with efficiency process innovation. Such association is also mediated by conflicts (i.e., affective and cognitive), thus resulting in the indirect effects of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation through affective and cognitive conflicts. In addition, we hypothesize that the conflict-based indirect effects are contingent on the trust level in the coopetitive relationships. We then empirically test the proposed hypotheses, using survey data collected from two international trade fairs. The results yield support for the positive association between vertical coopetition and efficiency process innovation. The mediating role of affective conflict in the indirect effect of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation is also supported, but that of cognitive conflict is not. Finally, the results indicate that trust moderates the indirect effect of vertical coopetition on efficiency process innovation through cognitive conflict but not through affective conflict. The implications of our findings for future research and managerial practices are also discussed.     

Corporate governance and environmental performance: is there really a link?

Corporate governance scholars are increasingly interested in firms' social and environmental performance. Empirical research in this area, however, has moved forward in an uncoordinated fashion, producing fragmented and contradictory results. Our paper seeks to address this situation by adopting a fact‐based research approach that comprehensively explores the link between corporate governance and environmental performance. Specifically, we aim to understand how the relationships between and among the firms' owners, managers, and boards of directors influence environmental performance. We are particularly interested in understanding the interactions among these three key sets of actors. In the end, we offer some observations about governance practices and discuss the implications for theory. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.