Industrial Marketing Management Research Articles

Unlocking the potential of Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) in the age of the industrial metaverse: Business models and challenges

While the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) holds much promise, there is a mismatch between its potential and companies capturing value from investments in IIoT. Indeed, even when companies recognize the value of IIoT, they do not necessarily know how to grasp related opportunities and are challenged in developing a suitable business model. Accordingly, to alleviate roadblocks to capturing value from IIoT, in this paper we address the challenge of identifying suitable business models in the age of the industrial metaverse. We do so through an extensive review and classification of main IIoT business model archetypes that are successful in practice. In particular, we conduct a content analysis of IIoT projects based on over 2000 articles in industry trade magazines and newspapers. Our analysis identifies four distinct business model archetypes in the context of IIoT, viz. IIoT digical, IIoT service-centered, IIoT data-driven, and IIoT platform, and further explores the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that companies can capture value from their IIoT initiatives. We explore appropriate contexts for these business model archetypes, and, in doing so, we provide actionable guidance for industrial (marketing) managers seeking to position their IIoT offerings and maximize their value.

Sustainability and interactive network branding in fast‐changing business environments

Sustainability and interactive network branding in fast‐changing business environments

Value co-creation in business-to-business context: A bibliometric analysis using HistCite and VOS viewer.

Value co-creation (VCC) recently displayed a significant increase in the frequency of publications in business studies and social sciences. Our study objects to explore the current state of VCC research in the business-to-business (B2B) context, principally in the marketing field. This research article extracted research papers on VCC in the B2B context published in the last two decades through the Web of Science (WoS). Initially, we applied HistCite to determine the research dynamics of VCC articles and then VOS viewer to conduct bibliographic coupling and cartographic analysis. Furthermore, we found the most co-occurred keywords in the abstracts, titles, and keywords. Our research explored that the United Kingdom was the most important country with 27 publications and 594 citations. Aarikka-Stenroos L was the most influential author, among his research is a systematic review which revealed that scholars of B2B journals adopted the term business "ecosystem" and studied the implications of ecosystem perspective in business and innovation networks and received the most citations. Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) was the most influential journal because it published 8 of the 10 most cited articles. One hundred and six out of 121 publications were in Business research and seventy-six were in management area, which made it the most hot and critical research area. Lappeenranta University was the most essential organization in VCC research based on the most records published and second-highest citations. Four research streams have emerged which indicate the prominent role of VCC in the B2B context (1) VCC and relationships, (2) VCC and organizational capabilities, (3) VCC and actors' engagement at various platforms, and (4) VCC and processes. Our research paper provided a base for conceptualizing publications related to business, management, operations research management science, and social sciences interdisciplinary on VCC in the B2B context. Content analysis has revealed that research work on VCC in the B2B context is at an early stage in the marketing arena. Along with bringing some sort of consensus regarding researchers' opinion toward the nature and modality of VCC literature and process in the B2B context, we urge future research to focus on how relationships and their precursors can be efficiently utilized to co-create and enhance value within B2B interactions. We also request future research to focus on making the VCC process sustainable and viable both on a time and economical basis. Organizations can involve customers and producers to work jointly to co-create value for their goods and services with negligible cost to achieve higher market shares and a competitive edge over rivals. This might be the first bibliometric study conducted on VCC in the B2B context (there are some Bibliometric VCC publications, but they are not B2B-specific, our research is the first Bibliometric study conducted on VCC in the B2B context) in the marketing field and can expose novel avenues for future research.

Developing PSS business ecosystems in the digital era

This paper presents two approaches to developing PSS (product-service systems) business ecosystems for manufacturing and service organisations by leveraging digital development. Our research is based on two in-depth, comparative case studies of large multinational corporations: one manufacturing company that takes the servitisation approach and the other a logistics services company taking a productisation approach. The research addresses two principal gaps in extant PSS research. First, most extant PSS research focuses predominantly on servitisation development and overlooks the productisation perspective. We address this gap by considering PSS from both a productisation and servitisation perspective. Second, extant research investigates PSS integration mainly from the ‘technical’ and ‘commercial’ perspectives. In contrast, this research adds a ‘social’ perspective by considering the business-to-authority (B2A) and business-to-public (B2P) relations. The findings also provide business practitioners with preliminary yet meaningful insights into holistic consideration of PSS ecosystem integration from ‘technical’, ‘commercial’ and ‘social’ perspectives. Moreover, we seek to push the boundaries of PSS ecosystem research and promote interdisciplinary research across fields, including business strategy, industrial marketing, social marketing, public policy and supply chain management.

Marketing analytics capability, artificial intelligence adoption, and firms' competitive advantage: Evidence from the manufacturing industry

Data-driven analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) have become the most crucial aspects of today's industrial marketing management. Although many firms have embraced analytics and AI strategies, corresponding academic advances have been slow. This research investigates how industrial goods manufacturers sustain their competitive advantage in export markets, convincing buyers in a competitive data-rich business environment. The evidence has been taken from the RMG (readymade garment) industry, one of the largest manufacturing industries significantly attached to the export markets. Utilizing multi-phase research design, the study reveals that firms marketing analytics capability play a vital role in sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring the market, consequently leading to a sustained competitive advantage. The performance of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring becomes higher for a firm when they adopt AI on the strength of the marketing analytics platform. These findings exhibit the latest avenue of exploration within marketing analytics and AI's academic research paradigm. Further, in practice, managers will be aware of the facts that create resilience in this specific industry context.

Rethinking customer engagement design: Using customer-mobilized engagement (CME) to grow business networks

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework of customer-mobilized engagement (CME) pathways where customers actively identify, engage, and mobilize hidden (new) actors (and their resources) who are beyond the reach of the focal organization. As a large proportion of value stems from connections with multiple business networks, an organization's customer network becomes an important strategic asset contributing to competitive advantage and survival. Taking a propositional approach, we conceptualize the CME pathway and elaborate on factors critical to CME drawing on two organizations for illustrative purposes. We develop three propositions explaining how customer-mobilized engagement of hidden (new) actors, resources, and engagement platforms connect dynamically via the mobilizing customer. The reinterpreted communicative value proposition increases the contribution of hidden actors and enhances and expands value outcomes for actors within the CME pathway including increased sustainable competitive advantage for the focal organization. Adopting CME adds new resources, in different ways to deliver value to an organization's diverse business streams and grow their business networks. The CME pathway provides industrial marketing managers with an agile tool to guide the design of their offerings which can adapt across business contexts and time as the social, economic, political and technological environment changes.

Examining a client network development framework for a logistics service provider: A longitudinal case study

Buyer-seller relationships represent a core theme in industrial marketing management. From the supplier's perspective, extant marketing literature, however, focuses on client retention in preference to client recruitment. Within the context of logistics outsourcing, although numerous studies have taken the buyer's perspective and shown how manufacturers/retailers select logistics service providers (LSPs), there is a shortage of studies and a lack of theoretical understanding from the supplier's perspective on how LSPs recruit clients. This study contributes to rectifying this through a longitudinal case study conducted on a fourth-party logistics service provider appraising its recruitment of clients. A mid-range client recruitment framework is developed, built abductively on the case and through the theory of mediating firms value creation. Theoretically, the framework refines notions of the mediating firm theory. Managerially, this client recruitment framework is proposed as a guide to aid LSP managers in their organic growth strategies through client network development.

Industrial marketing in the context of innovation development: Review and research agenda

Goal: to outline the structure of the research discussion on innovation industrial networks; to determine the state of the discussion regarding the participation of various actors in innovation networks at various stages of the innovation process; to identify fundamental works on this topic and to form the agenda for future research. Methodology: the study was conducted using two bibliometric approaches: keyword analysis and co-citation analysis using the Scopus database; also manual coding of 116 documents was used in order to identify “hot topics” and emerging topics (little-studied). Findings: five key areas of research were proposed, dividing the broad topic into narrower and more specific areas; the core of the most authoritative research in the field was proposed, demonstrating the implicit fusion of two disciplines: industrial marketing and innovation management. Originality and contribution of the author: The article presents the first bibliometric analysis of the existing literature in the studied area with a focus on the structural units of the network (actors) at various stages of the innovation process. The study makes a significant contribution to clarifying the interdisciplinary nature of the study of relationships between actors for innovation. The existing and emerging (little-studied) trends in research are highlighted.

Prior knowledge, industry 4.0 and digital servitization. An inductive framework

Over the last few years digital servitization has become a very popular topic in the industrial marketing and technology management literature. The present article contributes to the extant literature on business models for digital servitization by investigating the roles and effects of prior technological knowledge. To date, this rich and growing body of literature has underestimated a crucial corporate asset for value creation, and that is firms’ past experience and knowledge. Such a corporate heritage may have relevant implications for a firm's approach and decisions regarding digital servitization, however, especially if it is related to one (or more) of the I4.0 technologies. The research question posed in the present article is thus: how does a company's prior knowledge affect its digital servitization strategies? To answer this question, we conducted a multiple case study, collecting and analyzing primary and secondary data about Italian medium- to large-sized enterprises that had recently implemented digital servitization. The findings illustrate the different effects of the technological solutions adopted on the companies’ business models, and delineate an inductive matrix with four different ideal-typical business models: expert industrializer; explorative solutioner; explorative industrializer; and expert solutioner.

A conceptual framework for latecomer linkage capabilities

Abstract In this article, we put forward a framework for conceptualizing processes of linkage capability-building in firms based in developing countries, so-called latecomer firms. To do this, we combine the literature on latecomer capabilities with insights from the literature on industrial marketing and supply-chain management. Our framework distinguishes between different levels of development across three capability categories: envisioning opportunities for useful market and knowledge-based linkages, engaging with external partners in ways that create suitable organizational arrangements, and exploiting relationships for technological learning.

Retrospective view and thematic analysis of value co-creation through bibliometric analysis

Value co-creation (VCC) is an emerging phenomenon in the business eco-system that has received scholars' attention over the past decade. This study explored most influential journals, institutions, countries and different research themes of VCC publications through bibliometric analysis. These publications were retrieved from Web of Science (WoS) and bibliometric analysis was conducted by VOSviewer. Our analysis shows that Industrial marketing management was the most productive journal in VCC publications. The USA, England and China ranked first, second and third in terms of total publications (TP) but there was a huge difference in terms of citations. Karlstad and Sydney Universities were the most productive institutions with respect to TP and citations respectively. Moreover, most influential countries and institutions (citing the same publications) were grouped through a bibliographic coupling. Five themes have been emerged outlining the explicit role of VCC in (1) sustainability, open innovation, sharing economy (2) customer participation and service quality (3) service science and resource integration (4) eco-system and social media (5) value co-destruction. This may be the first bibliometric study to explore the thematic analysis of VCC publications at a glance and researchers as well as students may find out the current status and potential research gaps of VCC research.

Industrial marketing management digital media optimization for B2B marketing

The role of digital media in B2B marketing has gained traction with academics and practitioners in recent years. However, a comprehensive framework about the use and value of these media has not been developed, leaving B2B experts uncertain about their effectiveness. In fact, whether or not digital media can impact the business development and marketing processes to achieve higher performance remains vague. Additionally, there is a paucity of research related to the impact of different media towards the enhancement of processes and outcome of marketing to generate opportunities. To provide guidance for practitioners, we consider marketing processes in the global software industry by researching practitioner experiences. We develop an assessment tool to identify and align marketing processes and digital media. This research attempts to explore and explain how digital media impacts the B2B business development process cycle at the conjunction of marketing and sales. The research tests a conceptual model by means of a cross-sectional survey of more than 530 practitioners. Our novel framework provides several contributions to knowledge and practice, defining marketing-related processes, and determining a set of digital platforms. By acknowledging the perspectives of vendors, third-parties, and buyers in a simultaneous study, we ensure optimal alignment.

Strategic enablement investments: Exploring differences in human and technological knowledge transfers to supply chain partners

Business-to-business firms have a long history of investing in training their supply chain partners using primarily salespeople. However, advances in technology now allow for elements of sales enablement programs to be automated and run without human involvement. This paper examines how human and technology enablers are suited to transfer tacit and explicit knowledge respectively. It constructs a strategic enablement investment framework that, depending on the mix of investments in human or technology enablers, results in four types of learning environments: self-directed, collaborative, adaptive, and complex. We close by discussing the implications for future research and offer guidance for industrial marketing managers.

Adoption of digital sales force automation tools in supply chain: Customers' acceptance of sales configurators

Digitalization changes both buying processes and sales processes and, consequently, the dynamics and division of work between buyers and suppliers in the supply chain. This has major implications for industrial marketing and supply chain management. In this study, we analyze the impact of sales configurators, which are used to create valid configurations of market offerings that fulfill customer requirements. The usefulness of sales configurators can be investigated from both the sellers' and buyers' perspectives. In this research, we focus on the latter, and we specifically investigate the antecedents of customers' acceptance of sales configurators in a supply chain. In our analysis, we concentrate on system-level antecedents, which have been neglected by the existing literature. Our research yields better knowledge of how digital sales technologies can be used by customers for improved effectiveness and perceived value. The results demonstrate that ease of use and system adaptability contribute strongly to the perceived effectiveness, and eventually to the perceived usefulness, of sales configurators. Yet, surprisingly, perceived enjoyment is identified as having the most significant effect on perceived usefulness.

Product-market planning capability and profitability

We test the profit implication of product-market planning as a dynamic capability, from a contingency theory perspective. Among a sample of high-technology industrial organizations, we find that product-market planning capability is significantly and positively related to profits under marketing differentiation, but negative implications ensue for those adopting cost efficiency strategies. Pursuing hybrid strategies has no significant effect, while technological turbulence also has no moderating effect. Additional analysis establishes the temporal effects of product-market planning capability on 3-year lagged profits. These differential results are considered within a contingency framework. Implications are identified and discussed for industrial marketing management theory and practice.

Ten basic questions about structural equations modeling you should know the answers to – But perhaps you don't

Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) has enjoyed increased popularity as an analytical method among Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) authors over the last years. Despite such popularity, many authors fail to understand the basic principles of the method and reviewers are frequently confronted with manuscripts suffering from erroneous applications, insufficient reporting and questionable interpretation of SEM-based findings. Addressing this issue, the present article presents – in non-technical language – the most basic concepts related to SEM, resolves common misconceptions about the method's application and provides hands-on advice to IMM authors and reviewers dealing with SEM-based manuscripts. Structured along ten fundamental questions, the article covers issues related to (1) latent variables and their scaling, (2) types of parameters in SEM, (3) unstandardized and standardized estimates, (4) model identification, (5) model constraints, (6) model fit, (7) independence and saturated models, (8) modification indices, (9) nested models, and (10) equivalent models. After illustrating these concepts with the use of examples, the article concludes with a list of guidelines addressed both to IMM authors crafting manuscripts using SEM and the peers reviewing them.

Linking the types of market knowledge sourcing with sensing capability and revenue growth: Evidence from industrial firms

In today's fast-changing digital world, it is more important than ever before to understand the drivers of a firm's continuous change and renewal. Although concepts such as dynamic capabilities help to address this challenge, managerial instructions for achieving a sustainable competitiveness do not often reach beyond the surface. Therefore some researchers suggest investigating the sensing capability, or the capability to recognize market opportunities and threats, which is one dimension of the dynamic capabilities. In this paper, we derive the key market knowledge sourcing determinants of the sensing capability of industrial firms in general, and under high, medium, and low levels of market dynamism and link them to revenue growth. Our results provide industrial (marketing) managers new insights on how to effectively use various sources of market knowledge to sense market opportunities and threats. We use second respondent-validated survey data from top managers at 483 internationally operating industrial firms to test hypotheses and complement it with objective revenue growth data. Surprisingly, while competitor sourcing negatively affects sensing capabilities under low and medium dynamic markets, research institution sourcing positively affects it, particularly under high dynamic markets.

Research in Industrial Marketing: Issues and Opportunities Classification

This article discusses about researches on industrial marketing. It is designated to provide more understanding correlated with researches conducted in industrial marketing. Literature reviews are expected to provide support to researchers in performing future researches. Literature review is employed for this article. Based on the result and discussion, it can be concluded that the researches on industrial marketing were grouped into nine topics, which are: the differences between business-to-business (B2B) marketing and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, theory and practices in industrial marketing, marketing-selling interface, purchasing and supply management, customer relationship management (CRM), industrial marketing strategy, correlation between industrial marketing and information technology, business-to-business (B2B) digital marketing, as well as correlation between business-to-business- (B2B) marketing and social media. Therefore, the most preferable topics to be studied are theory and industrial marketing practices.

Supply chain management in industrial marketing–Relationships matter

The focal research topics in industrial marketing management have evolved significantly since IMM was first published in 1971. Part of this evolution has been the inclusion of research in supply chain management, which is the focus of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to assess themes across the classic articles in supply chain management (SCM) published in IMM, and explore how the field of SCM has evolved since their publication. A systematic literature review was used to assess SCM research in IMM, identify themes and publication patterns, and use these themes to assess gaps in extant research and opportunities for future research. Results of the literature review show that over 58% of the SCM research published in IMM has focused on buyer-supplier relationships and other purchasing and supply management topics. These will continue to be key topics in IMM. In addition, our literature review suggests opportunities for more SCM research in IMM around sustainability, logistics, and manufacturing innovation. These areas within the SCM umbrella are under-researched, yet yield significant opportunities for future research in a time of constant change within companies' distribution models.

Outsourcing integration and third party logistics services: An appreciation of two ‘classic’ articles in industrial marketing management

This paper provides an appreciation of two highly cited, ‘classic’ Industrial Marketing Management articles pertaining to outsourcing integration and third party logistics services. The appreciation includes revisiting the general topic themes emanating from both articles, third-party logistics (3PL) service providers, outsourcing and core competence for competitive advantage, relationships, integrating supply chain actors, and combining products and services as a value proposition, with an objective to cast each article's influence on, and ongoing and future contributions to, present day research.