Cognitive computing,Big Data Analytics and data driven industrial marketing

The integration of cognitive computing and big data analytics leads to a new paradigm that enables the application of the most sophisticated advances in information and communication technology (ICT) in business, including industry, business to business, and related decision-making process. The same paradigm will lead to several breakthroughs in the subfield of industrial marketing: a field both promising and extremely challenging. This special issue makes a case that cognitive computing and big data are a source of a new competitive advantage that, if properly embraced, will further consolidate industrial marketing management position in the of core the decision-making process of businesses operating locally and globally. In this vein, the value added of this special issue is twofold. On the one hand, this special issue communicates high quality research on big data analytics and data science as it is applied in industrial marketing management; On the other hand, it proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the design, implementation and provision of sophisticated applications and systems necessary for data-driven industrial marketing decisions.     

B2B service innovation and global industrial service management

This special edition of IMM aims to develop knowledge and generate new insights and applications of service innovation in B2B context, and global industrial services management relevant to scholars and managers. This article briefly discusses the theme of the special issue, the compelling rationale for putting together the body of scholarship around the topic, and brief introduction of the articles featured in the issue, and their contributions to industrial marketing/B2B discourse. It also highlights some key future research directions.     

Segmenting a business market for a professional service

This article uses benefit segmentation to analyze the structure of an industrial market for professional services— the market for CPA services among business firms. Data were collected from a random sample of U.S. business firms, stratified to include a broad cross section of the market for CPA services. Benefit segments were described by linking CPA selection criteria importance ratings with client firm characteristics such as business firm size. Examples of ways in which information about market structure can be used in marketing professional services are presented. The results provide evidence about the applicability of prior industrial marketing research and multilevel industrial market segmentation models to a professional services market.     

Strategic flexibility, rigidity and barriers to the development of absorptive capacity in business markets: Themes and research perspectives

The marketing and strategy literature hail strategic flexibility as a key success factor in creating continuously customer value and generating competitive advantage. However, empirical evidence indicates that rigidity in market strategies and actions is more the rule than the exception in organizations. The focus of this special issue is on better understanding rigidity and flexibility in business markets. This lead article seeks to elaborate on why companies face rigidity and how they can create flexibility. To do this, we relate rigidity in organizations to the concepts of dominant logic, industry recipe and persistence. The case illustrations highlight barriers to the development of absorptive capacity in business organizations. Identifying such barriers is a first step in better understanding how companies can remain agile and flexible in demanding and fast changing markets. The paper then proceeds with a brief introduction to the other contributions of this special issue and concludes with a research agenda.     

Introduction to the special issue on the nature of industrial marketing work

Peter Drucker once remarked that everything degenerates into work, and if it does not degenerate into work, nothing gets done. This special issue presents our vision for generating more analytical attention to the nature of industrial marketing work and to explore ways in which future research can contribute to this nascent research area. In this introductory article we seek to scope out an agenda for taking some of the themes of industrial marketing work further. In particular, the review points to the opportunities within industrial marketing, drawing on the intersections of Margaret Archer's morphogenetic agency approach with the neoinstitutional and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) fields of study. It then highlights the useful contributions of the papers in this special issue. Our contribution lies in advancing new avenues for researching and, in so doing, ensuring something gets done to research this nascent area.     

Economic Geography and Business Networks: Creating a Dialogue between Disciplines: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This introductory article presents an outline of the papers accepted for this special issue. The Guest Editors provide an overview of the work within industrial marketing where synthesis between economic geography and industrial marketing literature has occurred. A discussion of the most synthesised areas of economic geography is advanced and each article is then discussed, compared and contrasted with other articles in the special issue and with articles within industrial marketing that have previously synthesized concepts drawn from economic geography. Within this narrative, the Guest Editor’s propose an agenda for future interdisciplinary research at what they refer to as the ‘nexus of interest’ between the disciplines.     

Digital servitization: Crossing the perspectives of digitization and servitization

For over three decades now, several product companies around the world have been undertaking servitization paths. They have been devoting growing and substantial efforts to expand their service business. Expanding the service business in addition to their traditional core product business secures long-term growth and strengthens competitive advantages in business-to-business marketplaces. Recently, service business expansion has taken up many of the new digital technologies offered through the digital transformation. Thus, the servitization literature has progressed toward a dialogue on digital servitization . Against this background, the present article introduces the reader to this special issue. It first recalls key aspects of the emerging digital servitization discussion, and then depicts, through illustrative case studies, the growth paths utilized by industrial product companies when they take advantage of the digital servitization process. After discussing how the articles included in this special issue advance the literature, the article develops a number of directions for future research on digital servitization.     

Impact of outsourcing on business-to-business marketing: An agenda for inquiry

Increasing globalization has made companies focus more on their outsourcing decisions. Moving beyond the tactical companies have begun to incorporate outsourcing as a strategic weapon in their armory. This article expands on this theme by highlighting the need for understanding this key issue from business marketing and sales perspective and pointing to some interesting research issues on the topic. The article also introduces this special issue, briefly discusses the six special issue articles and provides a framework that integrates their contributions to our understanding of strategic outsourcing.     

Business service networks and their process of emergence: The case of the Health Cluster Portugal

Business services have been receiving increasing attention from academics, practitioners and policy-makers. Despite the growing interest, this field of research suffers from several limitations: it draws mostly on services marketing theory, and it is grounded mostly in monadic and dyadic studies. This paper contributes to the advance of business services research by addressing these limitations with regard to a specific service-related issue. We carry out an interdisciplinary study by integrating among others an industrial network approach (INA) into the services area, and we thus develop the research at a network level by adopting a services network perspective; furthermore, the study is carried out in a business-to-business context by looking into a health cluster: the Health Cluster Portugal. The article addresses one particular aspect of business services networks: their emergence. We propose a conceptual framework that draws on process-based research and integrates theories from other bodies of research, allowing a rich understanding of how a business service network is created. Our findings point to discontinuities along the emergence of such networks, showing that there is an iterative process underlying their formation, with different theories playing a predominant explanatory role at different stages. This paper contributes to the wider body of literature on services research by promoting the integration of the INA and other process-related approaches in the area of business services networks, and also provides practitioners and policy-makers with a structured framework to understand how an intentional ‘bottom–up’ business service network may be created or orchestrated.     

Business marketing in BRIC countries

This paper highlights the increased importance of the BRIC countries (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, and China) in the world economy. The BRICs are not only among the best economic performers but are responsible of a considerable part of the goods and services consumed globally and intensely trade one another. This means significant business interaction that existing research fails to explain. Hence, this special issue was prepared to encourage publication of empirical research of business marketing that involves one or more BRIC countries. This paper briefly introduces to the eleven research papers included in this special issue.     

A service perspective on business relationships: The value creation, interaction and marketing interface

Adopting a service perspective or logic on business directs suppliers' focus in business relationships towards engaging with their customers' business processes. The purpose of this article is to analyze implications for value creation and marketing of adopting a service logic in business relationships. In the article it is demonstrated that a service perspective is multi-dimensional, enabling the mutual creation of value, with service as a mediating factor in that process. It is argued that value creation, purchasing, usage and marketing are intertwined processes. Here supplier-customer interactions are in a focal position. This perspective enables marketers to better understand how to develop and extend service offerings through assistance to customers' processes relevant to their businesses. Therefore, the underpinning logic of industrial interactions is analyzed in detail, extending marketing's conventional boundaries.     

Global marketing in business-to-business contexts: Challenges,developments, and opportunities

This article introduces the special issue on global marketing in business-to-business contexts. The aim is to advance knowledge on the subject that can stimulate further research in this important and emerging area of industrial marketing. The twelve contributions selected for this special issue bring together high quality contemporary research that address challenges and recent developments. The articles specifically offer unique insights that progress understanding in the area, provide interesting managerial implications, and present intriguing opportunities for future researchers. These contributions reflect the variety of current work in global marketing in the business-to-business context. While most of the contributions in this special issue focus on the development and deployment of unique resources and capabilities to enhance international competitiveness and performance success, insights are also offered on international relationships and/or relationship marketing within the business-to-business context, country of origin effects, and knowledge transfer between international partners in subsidiaries. The article concludes with a summary of important avenues for further research.     

Marketing competencies and the sources of customer value in business markets

This introduction to the special issue discusses the notion of marketing competencies in buyer-supplier relationships, and the role these competencies play in creating value for the customer. Existing work on the role of competencies in industrial marketing has two main foci. The first, established approach deals with competencies as inputs to organizational processes, and seeks to establish in how far marketing competencies such as customer relationship management, channel design, etc. lead to superior financial returns. The second, emerging, approach focuses on the marketing of competencies as a source for customer value. This article uses supply and demand side perspectives to look at these two approaches and suggests a typolology involving four distinct value-creation strategies. Recent literature is discussed and implications for advancing the application of resource-based thinking to industrial marketing are provided.     

The development of consulting in goods-based companies

The article focuses on the developments in several B2B companies which traditionally produce goods and based on this experience are trying to enter the business of management consulting. It is the aim of the paper to identify the specific challenges that these companies are facing regarding marketing and selling their management consulting services. Furthermore hypotheses are developed that should give direction how to overcome those challenges successfully. Due to the lack of current research results, an explorative case study approach is chosen referring to two companies from the IT industry having gained relevant experience in this business area. In addition, theoretical frameworks demonstrate the plausibility of the hypotheses developed. If further research supports these hypotheses, it will have significant impact on the market strategy, marketing communication and sales organization of companies going to increase their consulting services.     

Green marketing and its impact on supply chain management in industrial markets

Green marketing and green supply chain have been drawing the attention of both academics and practitioners in the recent decade. However, no holistic framework has been developed on how to build green industrial brands and industrial corporate brands. Whether or not sustainable/green supply chains can be integrated with green industrial marketing in building greener organizations and industrial brands is still unclear. In addition, little is known on the factors on green new industrial product development or how green new industrial products are adopted by organizations. Furthermore, we know little of whether and how green supply chain enables green new industrial product development. This special issue aims at reflecting the most recent advances on green industrial marketing, green/sustainable supply chains and their interplay in green industrial branding, and to explore future research directions. The guest editors hope that the solicited papers can provide insights on the impacts of sustainable or green supply chains on marketing theory in industrial and business-to-business markets.     

Increasing the role of direct mail marketing in industrial marketing strategy

Direct marketing has long been a dominant factor in the distribution strategy of industrial goods and services. Yet frameworks for strategy formulation in this area are nearly nonexistent in the literature. Much that has been written focuses on successful techniques, such as how to use a specific type of sales letter to improve results. This article outlines a set of key perspectives that industrial marketers may use to evaluate the potential effectiveness of direct marketing strategies.     

Rediscovering strategic content in ‘strong process’ research on business network innovation

A strong process view on business networks takes ‘becoming’ as a starting point for understanding business networks and innovation. This view tends to leave the role of strategic content implicit and underdeveloped. Yet, embracing content from a process angle is important to obtain insight in the role of strategic intent and value transformation. A philosophical architecture for addressing this gap is currently lacking. In the context of business network innovation, this paper seeks to explore how content can remain theoretically relevant and how it can be inserted in a strong process view underpinning industrial marketing research.This conceptual paper makes a distinction between content-centric, process-content co-evolution, and process-centric philosophies. These are mutually exclusive and fail to cater to the gap introduced. A fourth strategy is introduced that adopts the process-centric view as a foundation but uses pragmatism and encapsulation to reach out to content research. The paper offers methodological considerations for empirical research and applies the resulting approach to industrial marketing. It concludes with implications for research in industrial marketing.     

Understanding and managing customer value propositions: Introduction to the special issue

Customer value propositions have experienced a growing interest among marketing scholars and managers in recent years. Despite its frequent mention in the business and academic press, the value proposition concept remains poorly understood and executed. This article introduces the reader to the special issue of Industrial Marketing Management on understanding and managing customer value propositions. The special issue combines five original research articles with four commentaries by though‑leading scholars and practitioners that together shed light on the origins and current use of the value proposition concept and also identify future research directions for improving our conceptual understanding and practical use of this pivotal concept in business markets.     

Managing knowledge in industrial markets: New dimensions and challenges

Managing knowledge in industrial markets has become an increasingly important task in the last 10 years. Many industrial firms paid little attention to the topic, since it was felt that knowledge was easily handled internally and was a simple process. The growth of information technology that centered on the collection, analysis and dissemination of information during the 1990's and early 2000's has necessitated that managing knowledge be taken seriously by industrial marketing managers. By doing so industrial firms can make available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services to industrial marketing managers on all levels of the firm, achieve shorter new product development cycles, and facilitate and manage organizational innovation and learning. This article outlines the new dimensions in knowledge management in industrial marketing that are important for industrial managers, academic researchers, and business firms to understand for the future.