Deadline for submission: April 1, 2023*
(*Initial expressions of interest and
one-page abstracts due by June 1, 2022 – to be mailed directly to Handling GE Matevþ (Matt) Raðkoviã)
Important dates
Guest editors
Overview and purpose of the special issue
The central aim of this special issue of Industrial Marketing Management is to develop new insights into why and how B2B service firms
internationalize – which pertains to both outward and inward internationalization behavior. Despite the growth of the internationalization practices of B2B service firms amongst service firms (e.g.,
Battisti, Scott-Kennel & Deakins, 2021; Blagoeva, Jensen & Merhcant, 2020; Dayan & Ndubisi, 2020; Boehe, 2016), research on the phenomenon remains sparse (Taylor, Jack, Madsen & Alam, 2021). Furthermore, the changing global environment – with growing deglobalization
tendencies (Witt, 2019), structural shifts across industries and increasing conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Petricevic and Teece, 2019) known under the VUCA acronym – also begs the question: How do changes in the global environment
impact B2B service firms across different industries and markets in their internationalization efforts/practices?
This question is set against the backdrop of a more perennial issue of the impact of the changing nature of globalization on the structures,
strategies and practices of B2B firms (Cavusgil, Yeniyurt & Townsend, 2004). However, contrary to understanding how recent changes in the global environment have impacted global marketing of B2B firms generally (Leonidou & Hultman, 2019), we know far less
about the impact on the internationalization of B2B service firms. For example, how do increased volatility, a deeper level of uncertainty, growing complexity and emergent ambiguity interact with the so-called four IHIP characteristics (i.e., intangibility,
heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability) of internationalizing B2B service firms (e.g., Gansser, Boßow-Thies & Krol, 2021)?
Specifically, there remains a dearth of research into the service characteristics of B2B firms and their impact on the internationalizing
process, which should be seen as a two-way process of both outward and inward internationalization processes. Understanding the nature of B2B service characteristics and their impact on the internationalization process is critical for knowing how such firms
expand overseas or are influenced by overseas players in their domestic environments. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has not only disrupted existing B2B relationships and business practices (e.g., Sheth, 2020; Chesbrough, 2020). It has also, for example, created
new opportunities for operating in a virtual world, for example, by combining relational and virtual governance approaches (Jean, Kim, Shin & Hult, 2021) which are particularly important for international/internationalizing B2B service firms. Likewise, it
has facilitated new forms of coopetitive behavior (Crick & Crick, 2020) which remain to be explored in a B2B service firm internationalization context
Accordingly, we invite contributions that explore the internationalization of B2B services as an object of marketing, or as an offering.
Grönroos (2020) notes that the marketing of services cannot be understood conceptually without an understanding of what service as an object of marketing consists of conceptual development of service as an offering or an object to be marketed. An explicit
understanding of what constitutes B2B services that are innovated, designed and branded for consumers in international markets, has not yet been explored.
Existing literature also acknowledges the important role played by the “dubious nature” of the institutional environment in international
business (Aguilera & Gr¸gaard, 2019) and the role of home country and host country contexts in supporting the internationalization efforts of B2B firms (Chan & Pattnaik, 2021). While traditionally, the concept of “distance” has been a cornerstone concept within
the international business literature, the so-called “institutional orientation” has recently also become a prominent strategic orientation within the industrial marketing literature (Chaney, Carrillat & Zouari, 2019). While the concept of institutional distance
still features quite prominently within the industrial marketing literature (e.g., Cheng & Huang, 2019), recent studies within the international business literature – the home domain of institutional theory within management – have moved away from the concept
of “distance” and instead emphasize the role of home and host country contexts (Harzing & Pudelko, 2016). The international business literature has also moved away from the idea of distance as a type of diversity to be managed (Lumineau, Hanisch & Wurtz, 2021;
Kostova & Beugelsdijk, 2021). However, what is not clear in existing literature is how such support is facilitated (Lindsay, Rod & Ashill, 2018) and how this support impacts the B2B service internationalization process, as it continues to evolve in keeping
up with the changes in the global environment. Moreover, existing research largely focuses on institutional support for B2B service firms undertaking internationalization for the first time rather than post-entry internationalization (Lindsay, Rod & Ashill,
2017). As noted by Torres, Clegg and Varum (2016, p. 496), in referring to government support organizations, “While they [home country (government) support measures towards internationalization] are widely recognized in academic literature, and in policy circles,
the process through which they exert their effects is poorly understood, both by academic researchers and policymakers themselves.”
Sample Topics
There is a need for more understanding of why, when and how B2B service firms internationalize, de-internationalize and/or re-internationalize.
This special issue welcomes high quality submissions in the form of conceptual and empirical papers that develop new perspectives on the internationalization of B2B service firms to fit the 21st century global landscape marred by VUCA conditions (i.e., volatility,
uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). Suggested questions of interest include (but not limited to) the following:
For further enquiries regarding this call, please contact one of the guest editors.
Preparation and submission of paper and review process
Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Submissions should be about 6,000-8,000 words in length. Copies should be uploaded on Industrial Marketing Management’s homepage through the Editorial management system. You need to upload your paper
using the dropdown box for the special issue on VSI: “Int. B2B Service Firms”. For guidelines, visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505720/authorinstructions.
Papers not complying with the notes for contributors (cf. homepage) or poorly written will be desk rejected. Suitable papers will be
subjected to a double-blind review; hence, authors must not identify themselves in the body of their paper. Manuscripts within the scope of the special issue (as described above) and deemed to have a reasonable chance of conditional acceptance after no more
than two rounds of revisions will enter the review process.
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