Industrial Marketing Management
CALL FOR PAPERS
Special issue on
Global Marketing in Business-to-Business Contexts: Challenges, Developments, and Research Opportunities
Deadline for submission, February 1, 2016
Guest Editors:
Constantinos N. Leonidou (University of Leeds, UK)
Magnus Hultman (University of Leeds, UK)
The gradual decline of trade barriers, increasing regional integration, improved international trade infrastructures, and emergence of new markets around the globe has created a dynamic competitive landscape for organizational marketers (Aykol et al., 2012). On the one hand, firms now are able to gain easier access to new markets, identify a wider range of supply sources, and recognize new opportunities for future growth. On the other hand, this increasing globalization of markets and production is making things more difficult for practitioners due to growing intensity and complexity of global competition. Thus, many organizations are increasingly recognizing the essential role of effective international marketing activities in achieving growth and prosperity (Leonidou et al., 2010).
At the same time, business-to-business marketing is becoming progressively significant for firms and economies around the globe (LaPlaca, 2013) and increasingly relies on international marketing practices to deal with the global challenges and opportunities (Helm and Gritsch, 2014). For example, industrial buyers are shifting to more globalized purchasing strategies (Jia et al., 2014), establishing new international supply networks (Elg et al., 2012), and increasingly using technology to identify and evaluate new supply opportunities (Wu et al., 2006). Furthermore, business-to-business marketers are embracing and recognizing the importance of establishing successful relationships with international collaborating partners (Leonidou et al., 2014), understanding the implications of business-to-business branding and the importance of building strong brand management capabilities (e.g., Leek and Christodoulides, 2011). Knowledge in this context is also being accumulated on the value of establishing strong business networks and political ties in international markets (e.g., Dong et al., 2013), forming and nurturing strategic alliances with direct and indirect rivals (e.g., Ritala et al., 2014), and building specific marketing capabilities to enhance international competitiveness (e.g., Evers et al., 2012). The literature further provides guidance on how firms outsource core business activities (e.g., new product development) to international collaborating firms (e.g., Ahearne and Kothandaraman, 2009) and how sustainability and corporate social responsibility can be applied in international business-to-business markets and incorporated into global supply chains (e.g., Chan et al., 2012).
Notwithstanding the considerable proliferation of knowledge in business-to-business global marketing issues, there are still gaps in our knowledge of how and why some international marketing practices work and others fail in this context (LaPlaca, 2013). There is also a general need in the business-to-business international marketing field to address theoretical shortcomings and criticisms, and add to theory development in a meaningful way (Aykol et al., 2012). In addition, researchers need to focus on new and existing problems that are relevant to practitioners and/or researchers and continuously look for answers and better explanations of important international business-to-business phenomena (Katsikeas, 2006). Enhancing research rigor with an emphasis on better research designs and procedures is also essential in the field (Hult et al., 2008). Addressing these challenges is critical in an effort to resolve current and future international marketing problems and issues in a business-to-business context and to move the frontiers of knowledge in this research area.
The purpose of this special issue call is to bring together high quality contemporary research on global marketing in the business-to-business context with a view to addressing challenges and recent developments, and providing interesting managerial implications and opportunities for future researchers. We are open to both conceptual and empirical manuscripts with clear relevance to international marketers that fit the scope of the Special Issue, and welcome submissions using different methodological approaches. We are looking for submissions with clear empirical and/or theoretical contributions and robust methodological applications. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Global procurement, production, and marketing of industrial products and services
• Behavioural aspects in business-to-business exchange relationships
• Cross-national and cross-cultural differences in business-to-business relationship management
• International brand management in industrial and business-to-business settings
• Exporting and importing activities of industrial firms
• Factors influencing marketing strategy and performance in international business-to-business operations
• International marketing standardization/adaptation in business-to-business markets
• Foreign market entry mode strategies for manufacturers of business-to-business products
• The role of international marketing capabilities and resources in industrial settings
• Sustainability and business-to-business marketing in international contexts
• Ethical aspects in international industrial marketing and channel management
• Drivers and outcomes of export marketing strategies in business-to-business settings
• Global business alliance networks and marketing effectiveness
• Coopetition-based business models in international markets
• Coordination of distribution channels across cultures
• The role of culture, and institutional environments in global marketing activities of industrial products
• Language issues in international business-to-business and industrial practices
• Innovation of industrial products in emerging markets and comparisons with developed markets
• Industrial marketing practices in developing and transition economies and comparisons with developed economies
• Country of origin effects for industrial products
• Entrepreneurial marketing and learning processes (e.g., exploration versus exploitation) in international industrial settings
• Longitudinal, multilevel, or multi-method research designs in international business-to-business marketing contexts
Important dates
The deadline for the special issue papers submission is February 1, 2016.
Submission Procedures
The submission site for this special issue will open on January 1, 2016 and will be available until the deadline of February 1, 2016. All submissions will be through the journal’s editorial web site: http://ees.elsevier.com/imm/. Please go to the site, register as an author and submit the paper as the site will instruct you. During the submission process you will be asked to indicate the type of manuscript via a drop down selection. Choose SI: Global B2B Marketing as the type of manuscript.
All queries about the special issue should be sent to the Guest Editors at the following address:
Dr. Constantinos N. Leonidou, Associate Professor of Marketing, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK [[log in to unmask]<file:///C:[log in to unmask]>]
Dr. Magnus Hultman, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
References
Ahearne, M., & Kothandaraman, P. (2009). Impact of outsourcing on business-to-business marketing: An agenda for inquiry. Industrial Marketing Management, 38(4), 376-378.
Aykol, B., Leonidou, L. C., & Zeriti, A. (2012). Setting the theoretical foundations of importing research: Past evaluation and future perspectives. Journal of International Marketing, 20(2), 1-24.
Chan, H. K., He, H., & Wang, W. Y. (2012). Green marketing and its impact on supply chain management in industrial markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(4), 557-562.
Dong, M. C., Li, C. B., & Tse, D. K. (2013). Do business and political ties differ in cultivating marketing channels for foreign and local firms in China? Journal of International Marketing, 21(1), 39-56.
Elg, U., Deligonul, S. Z., Ghauri, P. N., Danis, W., & Tarnovskaya, V. (2012). Market-driving strategy implementation through global supplier relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(6), 919-928.
Evers, N., Andersson, S., & Hannibal, M. (2012). Stakeholders and marketing capabilities in international new ventures: evidence from Ireland, Sweden and Denmark. Journal of International Marketing, 20(4), 46-71.
Helm, R., & Gritsch, S. (2014). Examining the influence of uncertainty on marketing mix strategy elements in emerging business to business export-markets. International Business Review, 23(2), 418-428.
Hult, G. T. M., Ketchen, D. J., Griffith, D. A., Finnegan, C. A., Gonzalez-Padron, T., Harmancioglu, N., Huang, Y., Talay. B. M., & Cavusgil, S. T. (2008). Data equivalence in cross-cultural international business research: assessment and guidelines. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(6), 1027-1044.
Jia, F., Lamming, R., Sartor, M., Orzes, G., & Nassimbeni, G. (2014). Global purchasing strategy and International Purchasing Offices: Evidence from case studies. International Journal of Production Economics, 154, 284-298.
Katsikeas, C. S. (2006). Global marketing of industrial products: Contemporary developments and future directions. Industrial Marketing Management, 35(5), 540-544.
LaPlaca, P. J. (2013). Research priorities for B2B marketing researchers.Revista Española de Investigación en Marketing ESIC, 17(2), 135-150.
Leek, S., & Christodoulides, G. (2011). Brands: Just for consumers? Introduction to the special issue on B2B branding. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(7), 1060-1062.
Leonidou, L. C., Barnes, B. R., Spyropoulou, S., & Katsikeas, C. S. (2010). Assessing the contribution of leading mainstream marketing journals to the international marketing discipline. International Marketing Review, 27(5), 491-518.
Leonidou, L. C., Samiee, S., Aykol, B., & Talias, M. A. (2014). Antecedents and Outcomes of Exporter-Importer Relationship Quality: Synthesis, Meta-Analysis, and Directions for Further Research. Journal of International Marketing, 22(2), 21-46.
Ritala, P., Golnam, A., & Wegmann, A. (2014). Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(2), 236-249.
Wu, F., Yeniyurt, S., Kim, D., & Cavusgil, S. T. (2006). The impact of information technology on supply chain capabilities and firm performance: A resource-based view. Industrial Marketing Management, 35(4), 493-504.
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