Guest editorial

Citation

Rollins, M. and Rutherford, B. (2015), "Guest editorial", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-06-2014-0129

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Volume 30, Issue 8

IMP2013: building and managing relationships in a global network

The 29th Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) conference was held in Atlanta, on August 30-September 2, 2013. A total of 200 participants from more than 15 countries attended the conference and doctoral consortium. The diverse conference program included nine tracks, three special sessions, six panel sessions and one roundtable discussion. Texas Tech’s Shelby Hunt’s presentation opened the main conference. A doctoral consortium, organized by Peter LaPlaca, brought together 29 doctoral students and 9 faculty members from around the world. Doctoral consortium participants enjoyed the presentations by Jagdish Sheth (Emory University, USA), Ivan Snehota (University of Lugano, Switzerland), Greg Marshall (Rollins College and Aston Business School, UK), Kristian Möller (Aalto University, Finland), Barry Babin (Louisiana Technological University, USA), Abbie Griffin (University of Utah, USA), Aino Halinen (University of Turku, Finland) and Jan-Åke Törnroos (Åbo Akademi University, Finland).

As Co-program Directors, we are honored to be editors of Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing IMP 2013 Special Issue. We invited a select number of the authors to submit their manuscripts based on the recommendations from the track chairs for consideration into this special issue. We would like to thank IMP2013 track chairs, reviewers and JBIM reviewers and their help with this special issue. In total, there are eight papers.

The first paper in this issue, “Dynamics in a distribution triad – A case study” by Pardo and Michel, focuses on business-to-business (B2B) distribution. Pardo (2014) bases her work on in-depth analysis of a wholesaler that specialized in fresh fruit and vegetable distribution in France. This work qualifies the different stages a wholesaler goes through in the relationships with its suppliers on the one side and its customers on the other. The findings of this research allow distribution firms to view distribution channels as places where they can have some latitude to find new positions other than the ones imposed by producers.

The second paper, “A sales process framework to regain b2b customers” by Liu, Leach and Chugh, develops a B2B sales process framework to facilitate the re-acquisition of lost customers. To our knowledge, this research is one of the first studies to empirically investigate sales activities pertaining to re-acquisition efforts in B2B sales organizations. The findings of the Liu et al. study provide insights for sales executives to conduct defection analysis and design re-acquisition efforts.

The study by Ekman, Erixon and Thilenius, “Information technology utilization for industrial marketing activities: The IT–marketing gap”, explores the IT usage of industrial firms. The authors analyze a case study based on 63 interviews using the extended contemporary marketing practice (CMP) model. The study shows that industrial firms’ relationship-oriented business is poorly supported by currently used IT systems.

Schneider’s study, “Triadic analysis of business relationship ending: a case study of dyad and a third actor”, uses triadic analysis as a tool, which allows for the examination of a dyadic business relationship pertaining to a third actor(s). A triadic approach has rarely been used in industrial marketing research. Schneider (2014) develops a model describing the end of a triadic business relationship and then details the characteristics that derive from a triadic perspective.

The paper by Anaza, Rutherford, Rollins and Nickell, “Ethical climate and job satisfaction among organizational buyers” examines the relationship between ethical climate and facets of job satisfaction among organizational buyers. Although the ethics dialogue remains pervasive, ethical issues relating to organizational buyers in B2B markets are largely underexplored. The authors suggest that based on the results of their study the effect of ethical climate on buyers’ level of satisfaction with company policies and support acts as the basis for explaining additional buyers’ satisfaction with the buying firm such as buyers’ satisfaction with promotion, coworkers and supervision.

Three papers in this special issue explore innovation processes in industrial firms and networks. The first innovation focused paper is by Eklinger-Flick and titled, “Development, production, and use in policy initiated innovation processes”. It describes the forces which promote or obstruct a policy-initiated innovation process in the context of a regional strategic network. Data are obtained from a case study of an innovation process undertaken from 2007 to 2011. The findings show that achieving resource interaction between the producing and using settings is particularly challenging when the innovation process is policy initiated and, thus, involves both the private and public sectors.

The second innovation study, by Ylimäki and Vesalainen, “Relational co-development of a service concept: Dialogue meets efficiency”, develops a combined approach that encourages dialogical interaction in a relational solution development process by taking into account the efficiency claims for such a process. This empirical development case illustrates the co-creation of value propositions in the pre-activity (negotiation and development) phase of a full-service maintenance concept. The case illustrates the importance of an open and analytical business negotiation procedure. This procedure is intended to:

• share relevant information;

• ensure there is a common understanding of premises, goals, means and outcomes; and

• to achieve balance between the parties’ interests in a dyadic exchange context where uncertainty increases because of the increasing complexity of exchange.

Finally, the paper by Cantu, Ylimäki, Siren and Nickell investigates how technological hubs, defined as knowledge intermediaries, can assist companies in creating successful partnerships to develop innovations. The study sheds light on the important role of technological hubs and its incubators as knowledge intermediaries in innovation co-creation. The research is founded on a longitudinal case study of an Italian technologic hub that aims to improve the competitiveness of its local economy. Authors found that technological hubs can facilitate networking among tenants and between tenants and external actors within the same epistemic network.

We would like to thank all IMP 2013 participants, and the authors and reviewers of this special issue for the hard work in aiding in the improvement of these highly selective manuscripts.

Minna Rollins

Department of Marketing and Real Estate, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia, USA and Business School, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland, and

Brian Rutherford

Department of Marketing and Professional Sales, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA

About the Guest Editors

Minna Rollins (D.Sc. in Econ & Bus.Adm.) is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of West Georgia and Visiting Professor of International Business and Sales Management in the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio. Her research interests include in customer information usage, sales management and international marketing. She has published her research in the journals, such as Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management and Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Minna teaches undergraduate-, graduate- and doctoral-level courses and seminars. Minna Rollins is the corresponding author and can be contact at: mrollins@westga.edu

Brian Rutherford (PhD, Georgia State University) is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Professional Sales at Kennesaw State University. He serves as the Marketing coordinator for Kennesaw’s doctoral program. He has 40 journal publications, including articles in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.