Managerial and organizational perspectives on online–offline integration within integrated marketing communication: toward a holistic conceptual framework

Abstract

The digital revolution has transformed the communication landscape into a hybrid online-offline environment. Although increasing complexity does pose new challenges for practitioners and scholars, the literature also lacks theoretical and empirical analyses of managerial and organizational issues regarding online and offline integration within integrated marketing communication (IMC). This study aims to provide an initial contribution to this field from a business perspective. First, we provide a definition and empirical analysis of the key managerial and organizational issues and approaches adopted by senior managers to tackle the challenge of online and offline integration. Second, we propose a conceptual framework that offers a holistic view of implementation modalities of offline and online integration, as well as the achievable outcomes and barriers to such implementation.