The study deepens our understanding of business marketing by looking beyond the individual choices of business actors to the role of consent between interacting actors. Based on an empirical investigation of manufacturers and retailers in Germany and drawing from previous research on business relationships, the paper develops a theoretical structure for the analysis of consent in business marketing. The paper argues for a shift from a view of individual choice as the basis of business marketing towards the idea of choice being part of an evolutionary discursive practice of consent. The study detects the mediating role of consent at four levels: 1) as a stratifying process, 2) as recursive practice, 3) as energizing interaction, and 4) as economizing activities, resources and actors; it elaborates significant theoretical implications and highlights managerial lessons.

Introduction

This paper examines how the giving and receiving of consent between companies affects business marketing. Consent means that an agreement among actors has been reached; hence, consent occurs when an actor agrees to a proposal made by another actor. For example, in the annual trade negotiations between manufacturers and retailers, consent occurs when upon a retailer’s request, a manufacturer agrees to offer private labels or bespoke consumer and trade promotions to a retailer; or for example, when a retailer agrees to distribute manufacturer brands or provide incremental shelf for brand extensions that a manufacturer has proposed. Similarly, consent occurs when business actors agree to develop environmentally friendly offerings, develop new business, enter new segments, or distribution channels. In all these examples, the giving and receiving of consent between interacting business actors would affect their individual choices. For this reason, informed and voluntary consent matters in several contexts, such as in business, law, research, medicine, as well as personal relationships (Barnett, 1986; Buchanan & Tullock, 1999; Donaldson & Dunfee, 1994; Scarry, 2014); thus, consent is regarded as the foundation for the legal enforceability of contracts (Bar-Gill, 2012; Barnett, 1986, 1992; Mouzas, 2016; Mouzas & Blois, 2013). We posit that consent between companies is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle of what happens when business marketers and their business customers seek a jointly agreed action. There is a scarcity of discussion about the role of consent in business marketing because our hitherto understanding in marketing has largely been shaped by the choice perspective (Child, 1997; Beckert, 1999; Williamson, 2002). The choice perspective centers on the decision-making processes of corporate and individual business actors. The choice perspective builds on the core theoretical constructs of corporate direction, industry and competition analysis (Ansoff, 1970; Pettigrew, 2014; Porter, 1981, 2008). Specifically, in marketing the choice perspective was initially expressed in terms of the ‘marketing decision variables’ (Howard, 1957) which evolved into the concept of a marketing-mix (Kelley & Lazer, 1958) and the “four P’s” (Kotler, 1967; McCarthy, 1960) that business actors would apply. Nonetheless, the choice perspective has been mediated by a continuing debate about the connectivity between the actor and its context (Barney, 1991; Hamel & Prahalad, 1990). Previous debates have been confronted by calls to develop relational perspectives that recognize the interdependencies among individually significant customers and suppliers within complex inter-firm networks (Day, 2000; Ford & Mouzas, 2013; Håkansson, Ford, Gadde, Snehota, & Waluszewski, 2009; Johanson & Vahlne, 2011; Lusch, Vargo, & Tanniru, 2010). Drawing from relational perspectives on business networks and conducting an empirical investigation on business relationships between manufacturers of consumer brands, such as Mars, Kellogg, Nestlé, and Unilever as well as grocery retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Metro, Rewe, Lidl and Aldi (Villas-Boas & Zhao, 2005), we ask the following research question: How does the giving and receiving of consent between suppliers and customers affect their business marketing? By addressing this research question, the present study develops a theoretical framework that seeks to advance our understanding of the mediating role of consent in business marketing.