A dynamic model of growth phases and survival in international business-to-business new ventures: The moderating effect of decision-making logic

The growth and survival of international new ventures (INVs) has not been the subject of extensive in-depth qualitative study and our understanding of their decision-making is deficient. On the basis of empirical analyses in a small and open economy, a dynamic model was developed that explains the growth phases through which INVs pass as they mature in the high-technology business-to-business field. The model also recognizes rapid advancement, survival crises, and retrenchment. Propositions were devised regarding the impact of opportunities, resources and capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, and learning on growth phases and survival. A novel finding is that the decision-making logic moderates the impact of these factors. These findings have important implications for industrial marketing scholars and practitioners.     

Developing e-commerce marketing capabilities and efficiencies for enhanced performance in business-to-business export ventures

This study builds on resource based view (RBV) theory by examining the effects of e-commerce on exporting performance. Specifically, a framework is developed and tested to determine the e-commerce resources/capabilities–marketing efficiencies–performance relationship. To explore the impact of e-commerce on exporting, a two-stage methodological approach was employed. Results from 15 depth interviews with exporters were used to gain insight into types of e-commerce resources and capabilities and their impact on export marketing efficiencies and performance. Next, the framework was empirically tested using a sample of 340 exporters. The evidence shows that specialized e-commerce marketing capabilities directly increase a firm's degree of distribution and communication efficiency, which in turn leads to enhanced export venture market performance. Overall, the analyses provide support for the need to incorporate e-commerce constructs into existing RBV theory in export marketing. Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed and directions for future research are offered.     

Digital mediation in business-to-business marketing: A bibliometric analysis

Digital mediation in business-to-business marketing is becoming increasingly important to firms, due to customer needs and evolving technological environments. The extensive research in this area for the past twenty years has created a need to synthesize extant research. This paper examines the literature in the domain, to create a classification scheme for subdomains and to explore future research directions. This study reviews 119 relevant articles published in 29 journals between January 1999 and March 2019, to detail the domain. In addition to providing details on most cited articles and published authors, our analysis classifies the digitally mediated business-to-business marketing literature into four subject clusters—a framework for digitally mediated business-to-business marketing, the digital business-to-business marketplace, value creation through digital marketing, and the use of social media for business-to-business marketing. Four shifts in the literature are described: the emergence of Internet research and business-to-business technology; the evolution of e-commerce; the focus on social media; and the broadening of research. Finally, directions for future research are identified and discussed.     

Sustainability and business-to-business marketing: A framework and implications

Researchers in several business disciplines have convincingly argued that environmentally responsible strategies can contribute to competitive advantage and superior financial performance. While debates on ecological conservation and environmental practices within marketing have raged for over three decades, much of the focus has been on identifying and targeting the environmentally-conscious consumer. Less attention has been given to marketing's role in a green supply chain and its interface with environmentally-friendly manufacturing and operations. We integrate disparate streams of research and develop a broader framework to understand the appropriate role and focus of business-to-business marketing in the supply chain for achieving environmental sustainability objectives. We identify three major strategies - the reduction of surplus supply of products, reduction of reverse supply, and internal marketing - where marketing's role in environmental sustainability is crucial for achieving superior competitive advantage and financial performance.     

A framework for offshoring marketing processes in business-to-business marketing relationships

Outsourcing has been a prominent aspect of business strategies in the last three decades. Outsourcing of manufacturing processes is now complemented with outsourcing of various marketing process as well. More importantly, outsourcing to foreign locations — offshoring — has increased for marketing processes in recent years. In this context, the present paper develops a model that identifies the types of marketing interactions and processes that can be offshored in business-to-business markets. We suggest that the decision to offshore marketing processes and interactions depend upon the interaction process that is preferred and the importance of interaction process itself. Marketing interactions that are not critically important and/or those that can be performed through technology can be easily offshored. However, other marketing processes need to be examined in depth before being offshored. Implications for research and practice in the area of offshoring, as well as in the broader area of outsourcing, are also highlighted.     

The role of corporate image in business-to-business export ventures: A resource-based approach

Although a growing body of studies suggests that good corporate images have strategic value for the firms that possess them, no research to date has looked at the role of corporate image in export markets. To fill this gap in the extant literature, this study draws on the resource-based view and insights from qualitative interviews to develop a model that links an exporter's financial resources and relationship management capabilities with its corporate image advantage and its performance in the export market. Findings reveal that both financial resources and relationship management capabilities are significant contributors of corporate image advantage, which, in turn, is an important determinant of superior export performance. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for marketing theory and practice and suggestions for future research.     

A multidimensional perspective of business-to-business sales success: A meta-analytic review

The role and nature of business-to-business (B2B) sales has evolved since the end of the 20th century, mostly driven by technological, organizational and social changes. However, the literature has yet to catch up with that evolution. Particularly, the literature lacks contemporary studies that exclusively showcase the key determinants and practices that facilitate the success of B2B sales. Hence, we conduct a meta-analysis of the literature and summarize the results of 139 independent published studies from 1980 to 2019 that examined the relationship between several determinants and B2B sales success. Our results show that such success may be influenced by 31 different determinants associated with four dimensions of the selling process (i.e., salesperson, organization, customer, and environment). We also investigate the moderator effects of measurement source (subjective vs. objective), measurement items (single vs. multiple), industry context (goods vs. services), number of industries (single vs. multiple), sales function (inside sales vs. outside sales) and year of publication (before 2010 vs after 2010) between several determinants and B2B sales success. Our findings convey important implications for theory and practice on the key determinants of B2B sales success, as well as the conditions on which each determinant is effective. We also provide recommendations for further research on B2B sales success.     

Behavioral issues in price setting in business-to-business marketing: A framework for analysis

Business-to-business pricing research has often focused on developing rational and normative frameworks and models for pricing issues, strategies and tactics. However, there has been less attention given to behavioral models that help us understand the realities of pricing and how managers actually set prices. Specifically, there has been less attention given to the various individual and group influences on the price setting process. We apply insights from a steadily increasing body of literature on behavioral decision making to identify some relevant behavioral issues that may affect managerial price setting processes in business-to-business contexts. We conclude with some implications for theory building and practice and an agenda for future research.     

The structure and evolution of business-to-business marketing: A citation and co-citation analysis

The field of business-to-business (B2B) marketing has grown considerably in the past four decades. However the state of knowledge about its structure and evolution remains limited. Who are the key players and what are the key papers in B2B marketing? What main research topics have been investigated over time? This article answers these questions by applying bibliometric methods for the first time to the existing body of scholarly B2B research. The key findings reveal a highly dynamic discipline in the 1970s and 1980s, when new knowledge was being intensively exchanged among an increasing number of B2B researchers. Since that time, the pace of development has slowed, and diversification in the discipline manifested itself in a distinctive number of core research subfields. Yet initial research topics such as organizational buying behavior, where much research is still undone, are to a large extent not addressed by modern B2B scholars.     

Entrepreneurial team's risk-based decision-making: A dynamic game analysis

It is well-known that some cognitive factors such as opportunity perception and risk perception influence entrepreneurial risk-based decision-making (RBDM). This paper proposes some rules of entrepreneur's risk decision-learning to address this RBDM taking cognitive factors into consideration. The learning mechanisms of entrepreneurial team's RBDM is derived based on entrepreneur's perception evolution. The paper employs a system dynamics model to analyze the entrepreneurial team's risk decision-learning. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the entrepreneurial RBDM process with cognitive factors.     

Intraorganizational influences on business-to-business pricing strategies: A political economy perspective

Historically, researchers have addressed pricing issues from many different perspectives, including the firm's business model (cost structure, experience curve), stakeholders (customers and channel partners), competition (market structure and intensity), and macroeconomic issues (interest rates, economic growth). An important dimension of organizational price setting that has been neglected is the impact that the firm's internal political system, reflected in interdepartmental coordination and rivalry, has upon price setting. A study of managers who are influential in shaping the firm's pricing strategy was conducted to identify intraorganizational issues and their relative impact on the firm's pricing strategy. The results of the study provide important implications for the development and execution of a firm's pricing strategy.     

A simulation of business-to-business decision making in a relationship marketing context

The dynamic and interactive SUGARSCAPE simulation is adapted to represent agent-based relationship marketing models in business-to-business exchanges. Computer-generated selling agents operate in complex environments using relationship marketing approaches that may or may not be uniformly distributed inside their organizations. The intricate nature of these models also allows for diverse combinations of buyer traits that impact their decisions as well as seller profitability. These features include individual and firm exchange experiences, the ability to identify and to become loyal to sellers, and the sharing of information within and among buyer firms. Relationship marketing is played out or operationalized based on pricing tactics that show differences between asking prices and post-exchange value.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

A comparison of marketing approaches used by high-tech firms: 1985 versus 2001

The authors present a follow-up to a study conducted in 1985 that investigates the use of marketing approaches used by high-tech firms. The firms were surveyed to determine if their use of marketing approaches has changed. The 2001 study confirms the emergence of Web-based marketing approaches as of particular importance to high-tech firms. The findings should serve as a reference for practitioners to assess their marketing efforts and to evaluate the change in tactics used to market high-tech firms.     

Online group buying: Some insights from the business-to-business perspective

Extant marketing research has examined online group buying (OGB) from the consumer behavior perspective. The goal of this article is to broaden understanding of OGB by offering insights into the topic from the business-to-business (B2B) perspective. In doing so, it offers insights to help stimulate greater interest in and scholarly work on better understanding and improving B2B relationships and outcomes in OGB. Three discovery-oriented qualitative studies were conducted and analyzed using content analysis with an interpretive approach and contingency theory as a theoretical lens. The findings reveal that marketing exchanges through OGB offers businesses the opportunity to raise corporate and product brand awareness, gain an immediate pool of large groups of customers, expand the customer base, sell other products, contribute to better cash flow, encourage positive word of mouth, and increase sales during non-peak sales periods. However, marketing exchanges through OGB may also be challenging for businesses in terms of maintaining business profitability, managing costs, withstanding competition, obtaining support from OGB website operators, and managing customer expectations of continued discounts. These findings should help businesses that promote and sell their products through OGB to become better informed of the potential benefits and pitfalls of engaging in OGB, and thus improve their navigation in the OGB marketplace to achieve desired marketing outcomes.     

Understanding the sales-marketing interface dysfunction experience in business-to-business firms: A matter of perspective

Despite its importance, the sales-marketing interface (SMI) in business-to-business (B2B) firms is often dysfunctional. While scholars have proposed functional-level impactors of SMIs, research that examines how sales and marketing personnel, at an individual level, perceive, evaluate, and respond to SMI dysfunction is sparse. Our study employs a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach and uses in-depth interview data collected from 42 participants in 21 sales-marketing dyads across multiple levels from a variety of B2B industries to examine this phenomenon. Findings reveal that the same dysfunction may trigger vastly different sensemaking processes in sales and marketing personnel's minds wherein they sense and interpret the same dysfunction encounter differently. These interpretations lead them to resort to activities that may, at times, be counterproductive to resolving the dysfunction. In addition, sales and marketing personnel view the interface dysfunctions as following a bidirectional pattern, as opposed to a sequential pattern that has been documented in the literature. Collectively, differential dysfunction experiences within the SMI have implications for whether and to what extent the dysfunction is addressed.     

Coopetition and COVID-19: Collaborative business-to-business marketing strategies in a pandemic crisis

Although coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition) should positively affect company performance, it is unclear how implementation of these business-to-business marketing strategies can take place during large-scale emergencies. Therefore, guided by resource-based theory and the relational view, this investigation examines how organisations have used coopetition to cope with the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Key examples include retailers sharing information about stock levels, pharmaceutical organisations working together to develop a vaccine, technological giants collaborating for the greater good, and charities forming alliances for a joint cause. This paper strengthens the extant literature by highlighting the heterogeneity of coopetition strategies that firms can use within a global crisis. Practitioners must balance the risks and rewards of coopetition activities. In turn, they should decide whether to continue to cooperate with their competitors once the pandemic has ended, or resume operating under individualistic business models. This article ends with some future research directions.     

The effect of strategic alliance resource accumulation and process characteristics on new product success: Exploration of international high-tech strategic alliances in China

This paper examines two research questions: (1) how do strategic alliance resources influence new product outcomes, and (2) how do these effects differ under different NPD process characteristics. By integrating resource-based view and coordination literature, the authors argue that both marketing and technology resources demonstrate independent and interactive effects on new product innovativeness, speed to market, and market performance. Further, the individual effects of marketing and technology resources are moderated by the process characteristics of partner interdependence, while the interactive effect between marketing and technology resources is moderated by the development process characteristic of task interdependence. Using primary dyadic data collected from 142 international high-tech strategic alliances in China, we test and find general support for these arguments. The results provide significant theoretical implications for a variety of research streams, as well as managerial implications for strategic alliances with Chinese firms.