Abstract

Purpose
This study proposes and tests the effectiveness of an integrated approach to community-based internal branding (CBIB) in a business-to-business setting. It integrates classical and contemporary views on internal branding, integrating community-building activities into the proposed internal branding framework ensuring a holistic model of co-creation of a corporate brand identity. It also examines the moderation effect of employee’s personal, job, and community-related characteristics on the relationships in the proposed model.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a detailed narrative review to propose a conceptual model and uses a quantitative research design to test a set of hypotheses using structural equation modeling on 400 responses collected through a survey.

Findings
This study finds that integrated CBIB is a viable approach for implementing internal branding. The effectiveness of building employee brand commitment is demonstrated through the testing of the model. We also find that employee’s age, gender, organizational tenure, membership duration (in the brand community), education level, customer interaction, leadership status, and participation in brand fests moderate the proposed relationships in the CBIB model.

Research limitations/implications
One key limitation of this paper is that it lacks the multi-cultural and multi-industry perspective, which, given promising results in the current context, may be investigated in future studies.

Practical implications
The paper proposes a community mode of implementing internal branding in a B2B setting and suggests a way to create brand champions across the organization.

Originality/value
As per the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first quantitative investigation of integrated community-based internal branding.

Introduction

A brand must deliver its promise (Burmann & Zeplin, 2005) or the effort that goes into market research, positioning, and creation of brand identity is likely to be lost (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010). No doubt, the internal branding philosophy of a firm directly influences its brand image (Mäläskä, Saraniemi, & Tähtinen, 2011). In business-to-business (B2B) and service firms, front-line sales employees, and support staff are key to delivering brand experience to the customer. Further, large B2B firms, due to their extensive employee base, complex structure, and multi-national spread, are at a greater risk of presenting mixed brand messages (Lee, 2021; Martin, 2021).

Research in the areas of internal branding, and organizational behavior reveals that a strong brand identity may be built by treating employees as internal customers (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010; Berry, Hensel, & Burke, 1976; Grönroos, 1985, Grönroos, 1997). Despite this assertion, when it comes to the implementation of internal branding in the B2B context, the classical view of internal branding recommends a top-down approach (Iglesias, Landgraf, Ind, Markovic, & Koporcic, 2020). The brand identity is fixed and strongly controlled by the firm, and is unidirectionally communicated to external stakeholders (Iglesias et al., 2020; Kapferer, 2012). On the other hand, the contemporary school of thought is shaped by the proliferation of digitalization and the internet, and it highlights the limited efficacy of a control-driven, top-down internal branding in the current B2B landscape (Iglesias et al., 2020; Iglesias, Ind, & Schultz, 2022; Saraniemi, 2022). At the core of this school of thought is the idea that brand identity is fluid, and is constantly co-created and developed through active conversation with all stakeholder groups across corporate brand interfaces (Iglesias et al., 2020; Iglesias et al., 2022).

Results

4.1. Measurement model
Assessment of the conceptual model (Fig. 2) includes testing the measurement model, structural model, mediation, and moderation analyses, all of which are undertaken using SPSS AMOS 26. All fit indices for the measurement model, viz., χ2/df = 2.160, CFI = 0.950, TLI = 0.942, and RMSEA = 0.054 are acceptable (Hair et al., 2010). We also performed the equivalence testing of the measurement model recommended by Marcoulides and Yuan (2016) by calculating the T-size RMSEA and CFI values. The T-size calculates the minimum population CFI and maximum size of misspecification (T-size RMSEA). We find that T-size RMSEA and CFI in equivalence testing are 0.059 and 0.935 respectively (against the conventionally reported value of 0.054 and 0.950). The cut-offs for T-size for the RMSEA and CFI based on the degrees of freedom (349), sample size (400) and number of observed variables (29) are:

Abstract

Previous studies have addressed social media adoption in business-to-business (B2B) contexts, but limited research has focused on understanding social media marketing assimilation in the B2B context. Using an integrative model, this study examines how top management participation influences the assimilation of social media in the key marketing areas of product development, pricing decision-making, channel management, and promotion. Furthermore, it examines the resulting impact of these assimilations on B2B firms’ performance, particularly in respect of sales performance and relationship development. The study also examines the moderating impact of absorptive capacity on top management participation in the assimilation processes. The findings reveal that top management participation strongly influences social media assimilation into marketing functions. However, the impact of social media assimilation on B2B firms’ performance is varied. While assimilation for channel management positively impacts both sales performance and relationship development, assimilation for product development is only positively related to relationship development. Conversely, assimilation into the functions of pricing decisions and promotion activities shows no significant impact on either sales performance or relationship development. Finally, absorptive capacity positively moderates top management participation in social media assimilation into all key marketing functions except one. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Introduction

Social media have emerged as a “game-changer” (Kumar, 2015, p. 5), playing a leading role in the revolutions taking place in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketing. B2C marketing uses social media marketing widely, and B2B operations have begun embracing it to streamline their internal marketing communication, generate leads, drive sales, and strengthen customer relationships. Chaffey (2018) found that 79% of B2B marketing specialists rated social media as the most effective marketing channel, with a further 38% indicating that, if they had surplus in their budget for marketing in the following year, they would devote it to social media marketing. Similarly, Elevation Marketing (2020) noted that 90% of B2B buyers use social media to engage with industry thought leaders, with a further 72% indicating that they use social media channels to research solutions.

B2B social media research tracks the increase in social media use in this business interface. Previous studies have addressed several aspects of social media use in the context of B2B, including salespersons’ social media use in B2B relationships (Bill, Feurer, & Klarmann, 2020; Bowen, Lai-Bennejean, Haas, & Rangarajan, 2021; Fraccastoro, Gabrielsson, & Pullins, 2021), B2B social media adoption (Dwivedi, Ismagilova, Rana, & Raman, 2021; Lashgari, Sutton-Brady, Søilen, & Ulfvengren, 2018; Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, & Valvi, 2015; Veldeman, Van Praet, & Mechant, 2017), and B2B social media marketing and branding (Brennan & Croft, 2012; Juntunen, Ismagilova, & Oikarinen, 2020). In addition, social media in B2B entails several unexplored issues worth investigating. Although previous studies have addressed social media adoption in a B2B context, the current body of research shows an observable dearth of producing a nuanced understanding of the factors underlying the assimilation of social media in firms’ marketing functions and how they improve their marketing performance. The assimilation phase occurs after the initial implementation of the innovation. It involves the ongoing integration and use of innovation in the firm’s day-to-day operations. In the context of social media marketing, this phase focuses on leveraging social media platforms to support the attainment of the marketing strategy related to product development, pricing decision-making, channel management, and promotion activities, and on realising the anticipated benefits.

Conclusion

In many instances, technological innovations are introduced into firms with great enthusiasm, which may be occasioned by widespread initial acquisition. Nevertheless, these innovations may fail to be completely deployed in the operations of the acquiring firms. Research has shown that, unless innovations are assimilated, firms do not benefit fully from them. Social media are one innovation that B2B firms are adopting for their marketing activities. While social media adoption in B2B firms has received some research attention, a limited number of studies have focused on social media marketing assimilation in B2B firms, the conditions that enhance this assimilation, and how the assimilation contributes to firms’ performance. In this study we examined how top management participation influences the assimilation of social media in the key marketing functional areas of product development, pricing decision-making, channel management, and promotion activities. We also examined how the existing absorptive capacity of B2B firms moderates the influence of top management participation on the assimilation of social media in the key marketing functional areas. Finally, we analysed how social media marketing assimilation into these marketing functional areas improves a firm’s performance outcomes of sales and relationship development. The study’s results show that top management participation in the social media marketing assimilation processes has a strong and positive impact on the assimilation of social media for key marketing functional areas, namely product development decisions, pricing decision-making, channel management, and promotion activities. Furthermore, the findings indicate that top management participation in the assimilation of social media in the functional areas, except in the case of promotion activities, is positively moderated by the existing absorptive capacity of the firm. The results also show that social media marketing assimilation for product development has a significant impact on sales performance, while its assimilation for channel management has a significant impact on both sales performance and relationship development.

Abstract

     The deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been accelerating in several fields over the past few years, with much focus placed on its potential in Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing. Early reports highlight promising benefits of AI in B2B marketing such as offering important insights into customer behaviors, identifying critical market insight, and streamlining operational inefficiencies. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding concerning how organizations should structure their AI competencies for B2B marketing, and how these ultimately influence organizational performance. Drawing on AI competencies and B2B marketing literature, this study develops a conceptual research model that explores the effect that AI competencies have on B2B marketing capabilities, and in turn on organizational performance. The proposed research model is tested using 155 survey responses from European companies and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results highlight the mechanisms through which AI competencies influence B2B marketing capabilities, as well as how the later impact organizational performance.

Introduction

     The deluge of data combine with the availability of processing power and storage on digital devices has created a renewed interest in artificial intelligence (AI) in multiple fields over the past years (Enholm et al., 2021). Intense competition among organizations all over the world has also accelerated the need to deploy AI in order to gain an edge over rivals (Ransbotham et al., 2018). AI is not perceived by most C-level executives as a core competence that organizations must foster to remain competitive in the long-run (Kietzmann & Pitt, 2020). One key area of AI use within organizational operations has been B2B marketing (Mikalef et al., 2021). Intelligent solutions to augment B2B marketing capabilities are necessary in a complex business environment, as B2B operations often deal with massive informational complexity and the requirement to make quick decisions. In this regard, AI has the potential to revolutionize how conventional activities are performed due to the ability to process ever-increasing volumes of data, and provide rich insights on key business partners and customers (Bag et al., 2021). Furthermore, AI applications have been suggested to enable automation of many manual processes which can help alleviate bottlenecks and increase operational efficiency in B2B operations (Paschen et al., 2020). In fact, a recent survey on business executives conducted by Garner indicated that the majority believe that AI is likely to be a key development in their business within the next years (Shin & Kang, 2022).

Analysis

     To examine the validity and reliability of our proposed research model, we built on a partial least square based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. We used SmartPLS 4 as the software to run analyses (Ringle et al., 2015). For the type of analysis we conduct PLS-SEM is deemed as an appropriate technique as it allows the examination of the relationships between dependent, independent, and mediating variables (Hair et al., 2011). As PLS-SEM is a variance-based approach, it allows for (i) flexibility concerning normality, (ii) use of reflective and formative constructs, (iii) analysis of models with smaller samples, and (iv) the potential of theory building (Nair et al., 2017). Over the past years, PLS-SEM has widely been used for the analysis of models with complex relationships between constructs in several subject areas (Ahammad et al., 2017, West et al., 2016). Furthermore, PLS-SEM enables the identification of indirect and total effects, which makes it making it possible to not only simultaneously assess the relationships between multi-item constructs, but also to reduce the overall error associated with the model (Astrachan et al., 2014). The sample of 155 responses of this study surpasses both the requirements of: (1) ten times the largest number of formative indicators used to measure one construct, and (2) ten times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular latent construct in the structural model (Hair et al., 2011). Furthermore, as the research model we examine builds on exploratory theory building instead of confirming, we consider that PLS-SEM is the best alternative.

Abstract

     While there is a growing body of research on influencer marketing, it focuses almost exclusively on the consumer marketing context, and offers limited insights for business-to-business (B2B) organizations. To address this gap, the purpose of this study is to explore the use of influencer marketing in B2B markets. We draw empirical insights from 22 interviews with a) 12 senior marketing managers representing influencer marketing users in various B2B industries, ranging from industrial product manufacturers to professional service providers, and b) 10 experts from marketing agencies who advise other B2B firms on how to apply influencer marketing. The study findings identify the key elements of influencer marketing in B2B markets, and reveal four different strategies that B2B organizations use to operationalize the influencer marketing concept in practice. The study contributes to theory by providing the first empirical conceptualization of the B2B influencer marketing phenomenon. In doing so, the study widens the scope of influencer marketing to accommodate broader collaborations with influencers, which has significant implications across B2B and B2C contexts. For managers, this study offers alternative strategies to implement influencer marketing, which are associated with unique characteristics and serve different business goals.

Introduction

     Influencer marketing is gaining popularity as a key component of firms’ digital marketing strategy (Appel, Grewal, Hadi & Stephen, 2020; Li, Larimo, & Leonidou, 2020), manifested in the market growth of global influencer marketing from $1.7 billion (USD) in 2016 to $13.8 billion in 2021 (Statista, 2021). While influencer marketing is often associated with consumer brands, multiple industry reports indicate that it is gaining momentum in the business-to-business (B2B) industries, too (e.g., Morgan, 2020; Hyder, 2019; Shea, 2018; TopRank Marketing, 2020). The increasing interest in B2B influencer marketing is being driven by contemporary B2B buying behavior, where buyers have become more self-directed in their purchasing processes, and complete a significant number of purchase-related tasks before contacting potential vendors (Järvinen & Taiminen, 2016; Steward, Narus, Roehm, & Ritz, 2019; Terho, Mero, Siutla, & Jaakkola, 2022). In turn, the independent online research relies heavily on digital content, and B2B buyers trust in content produced by third-party experts and peers (Shea, 2018). Given the significant role of trust in forming B2B relationships, influencer marketing provides a credible means to influence the self-directed B2B buying processes.

      Industry case studies show that influencer marketing can provide substantial benefits to B2B firms. For example, SAP, a software company, created the TechUnknown podcast, where an influencer host discussed various topics around technology with industry experts and SAP’s internal executives, resulting in a 66% increase in their podcast downloads. Furthermore, Cherwell Software shifted its business focus from IT service management to supporting companies with digital transformation, and used influencer marketing to build credibility for its new focus. The firm partnered with technology experts and achieved a 342% better click-through rate on influencer content, compared with the performance of its past campaigns (TopRank Marketing, 2020). However, while 74% of B2B marketers see the potential of influencer marketing to drive business benefits, only 19% are running systematic influencer marketing programs (Hyder, 2019). In fact, 60% of B2B firms report they do not have the skills or knowledge to implement influencer marketing programs, and one of the key reasons is that the current knowledge and best practices in influencer marketing come from consumer marketing contexts, which are not directly transferable to B2B contexts (TopRank Marketing, 2020).

Conclusions

6.1. Contributions and theoretical implications
Influencer marketing is a rapidly emerging, yet thus far relatively underexplored management practice in B2B markets. While there is a growing body of research on influencer marketing in general (Hudders et al., 2021; Sundermann & Raabe, 2019; Vrontis et al., 2021), it is almost exclusively focused on consumer markets, product-centric promotions in social media, and consumer attitudes and behaviors, providing only limited insights into the organizational processes and unique characteristics of influencer marketing in B2B markets. Against this background, this study provides two major contributions.

     First, it provides a novel and empirically grounded conceptualization of the influencer marketing concept in the B2B market context, outlining its key elements and boundaries, and positioning it relative to established B2B marketing concepts. The conceptualization broadens the scope of influencer marketing, from product endorsements distributed on social media via external individuals in exchange for tangible rewards to multi-channel content creation and delivery by internal and external influencers on the basis of their mutual interests. This provides new knowledge by clearly differentiating the B2B influencer marketing concept from consumer influencer marketing, and highlighting the unique characteristics of influencer marketing in the B2B context. These findings provide important and thus far missing insights into the influencer marketing literature, which has been focused on the B2C context (e.g., Hudders et al., 2021; Leung, Gu, & Palmatier, 2022; Vrontis et al., 2021) and help explain why influencer marketing insights from the consumer marketing context are not directly transferable to the B2B context.

1- Introduction

2- Background

3- Methodology

4- Results

5- Mapping IMM citations

6- Conclusions

7- Research limitations

References

Abstract

Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) is an outstanding journal in the field of business-to-business marketing. This paper focuses on this journal, with an extensive bibliometric analysis of IMM from its foundation in 1971 to 2017, the last year analyzed in this study. It identifies, among others, the annual evolution of publications, the most influential countries, the most relevant authors, the most prominent institutions supporting research, as well as the citations of IMM papers in major marketing, but also other, business and management journals. To do so, this research uses the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases, and analyzes a wide range of bibliometric indicators, including the total number of publications and citations, citations per paper, the h-index, m-value and citation thresholds, and also develops a graphical analysis of the bibliographical material using the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer software. Finally, by applying a cluster analysis by fractional accounting, this research identifies trends and proposes future topics and research lines, such as: trust, innovation, performance, relationship marketing, the future role of new technologies in industrial marketing research, online marketing and corporate image.

Introduction

Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) is the first journal to focus on the field of business-to-business marketing (Lindgreen & Di Benedetto, 2018). The journal published its first issue in September 1971 and the first editor-in-chief was R. Derek Medford. In 1994, Peter LaPlaca stepped down as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing and became the editor-in-chief of IMM; his tenure has been key to strengthening its international image and position in the most prestigious journals rankings (Beverland, 2018). In 2015, Adam Lindgreen from Copenhagen Business School became co-editor of the journal, and in 2017 Anthony Di Benedetto, from Temple University (USA), was appointed co-editor-in-chief, replacing LaPlaca (LaPlaca & Lindgreen, 2016). The journal has grown significantly over time, and today, it publishes more than 100 articles per year. The journal is well-recognized as one of the leading journals in marketing, especially in the context of B2B marketing (Di Benedetto & Lindgreen, 2018). According to the Journal Citation Reports of the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics, the journal has a 2-year impact factor of 3.678 and a 5-year impact factor of 4.488. Examining the results of the 2-year impact factor, the journal ranks 30th out of 140 journals in the field of Business, and 37th out of 210 journals in Management, which demonstrates the relevance of this journal in the field of Business and Industrial Marketing. In fact, IMM’s position as measured by Thomson’s JCR Impact Factor has strengthened steadily in recent years, from 1.930 (2015) to 3.166 (2016), 3.678 (2017) and 4.779 (2018), which confirms the increasing influence of the journal during the tenure of Lindgreen and Di Benedetto.

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical background

3. Hypotheses

4. Methods

5. Analysis and results

6. Discussion and conclusions

References

Abstract

Marketing in an increasingly tumultuous marketplace requires resilience -the ability to withstand, adapt, and flourish despite turmoil and adverse change- that extends beyond firm boundaries. Although external resources are arguably essential to achieve resilience, little is known how and when firms’ social capital derived from interorganizational relationships can lead to supply chain resilience. Therefore, we investigate the role of absorptive capacity and marketing-supply chain management alignment in realizing the potential impact of social capital on supply chain resilience. Using data obtained from dual respondents from 265 Turkish firms, we test the mediating role of absorptive capacity and the moderating role of marketing-supply chain management alignment. Our findings indicate absorptive capacity mediates the relationship between social capital and supply chain resilience, and the links between social capital and absorptive capacity and social capital and supply chain resilience are stronger when marketing-supply chain management alignment is high. We also find that supply chain resilience is positively associated with organizational performance, empirically supporting the proposed value of supply chain resilience for firm strategy. Accordingly, our paper highlights that both absorptive capacity and marketing-supply chain management alignment are necessary to realize the actual value of social capital for supply chain resilience and ensuing performance.

Introduction

In today’s highly connected global marketplace, risks and disruptions are becoming unquantifiable threats to long-term success and survival (Colicchia & Strozzi, 2012) and overturning firm-centric traditional management practices that assume steady conditions (Pettit, Croxton, & Fiksel, 2013). Each day, firms face disruptions that can jeopardize their ability to perform effectively. For example, Boeing’s plan to introduce 787 Dreamliner and outrun its major competitors was plagued by severe and unexpected supply chain disruptions causing significant production delays and cost hikes as well as putting Boeing’s supply chain resilience into question (Melnyk, Closs, Griffis, Zobel, & Macdonald, 2014). Further, for example, when trade sanctions were imposed between Russia and 25 other countries in 2014, import-dependent Russian firms had to reorganize their supply chain very rapidly against such major disruption. Laine and Galkina (2017, pp. 916–919) describe the case of Russian SMEs in the shipbuilding industry, which sourced 90% of their inputs from imports, and how they reconfigured their supply chain from the mostly Western providers toward Chinese. A firm manager describes their approach: “Through the years, we were using our portfolio of established relationships, where everything was stable and predictable…” With a proactive development of R&D and production processes and business relationships –alongside operating with the existing supply chain partners- the firm was able to develop a relationship with one Chinese firm. When the disruption occurred overnight, they were able to increase the volumes of orders with this supplier at a reasonably low level of risk, as they had already developed a certain degree of trust and social capital. Eventually, they not only serve their existing customers but also to increase their market share by taking over the market from competitors who struggled with their supplies (ibid).

In the current business and political climate, deliberations concerning international trading agreements and their importance to B2B firms are increasing. Although the volume and value of international exchanges are growing, this study reveals that literature exploring issues concerning B2B international business, and particularly the role technological advancements play supporting B2B cross-border trade, is limited. This paper provides an overview of research contributions published in the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal in order to reveal the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps, and propose further research directions. Following a twostage approach, we reveal that although ‘trade’ is at the heart of IMM research, there is a scarcity of empirical studies examining technological advancements and B2B international, as well as local, trade; some attention, however, has been placed on the exploration of B2B international trade issues. Building on our findings, we propose future research directions.

Introduction

According to the International Trade Centre (www.intracen.org), the value of B2B international exchanges is growing. This growth is directly related to opportunities deriving from international trade initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As Lacka, Chan, and Wang (2019) point out, however, ‘in order for the initiatives, such as NAFTA, CPTPP, BRI, among others, to have a meaningful impact on 21st century global economy, effective and efficient cooperation of businesses of all types and sizes in regional as well as international trade is required’. This has not been fully explored thus far, and Lacka et al. (2019) therefore call for research to examine issues concerning B2B international trade, particularly explorations of the role of technological advancements in B2B cross-border trade, as previous research points out that technological innovations can support businesses and international trade growth (Gregory, Ngo, & Karavdic, 2019; Weerawarden, Sullivan, & Liesch, 2019). Responding to Lacka et al. (2019)’s call, this study sets out to provide an overview of research contributions concerning B2B international trade, and the role technological innovations play supporting businesses in those efforts. By doing so this paper aims to contribute to the literature at two levels. First, it aims to provide a holistic overview of research contributions to technologies in B2B international trade published in Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal. Second, it aims to identify research gaps and proposes future research directions to advance knowledge and understanding of the role of technological innovations in B2B international trade. To fulfil this aim a two-stage approach is adopted, consisting of a bibliometric overview of research contributions published in IMM, which then informs a systematic literature review based on which key publications are discussed and future avenues of research are suggested.

1- Introduction

2- Background

3- Methodology

4- Results

5- Mapping IMM citations

6- Conclusions

7- Research limitations

References

Abstract

Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) is an outstanding journal in the field of business-to-business marketing. This paper focuses on this journal, with an extensive bibliometric analysis of IMM from its foundation in 1971 to 2017, the last year analyzed in this study. It identifies, among others, the annual evolution of publications, the most influential countries, the most relevant authors, the most prominent institutions supporting research, as well as the citations of IMM papers in major marketing, but also other, business and management journals. To do so, this research uses the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases, and analyzes a wide range of bibliometric indicators, including the total number of publications and citations, citations per paper, the h-index, m-value and citation thresholds, and also develops a graphical analysis of the bibliographical material using the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer software. Finally, by applying a cluster analysis by fractional accounting, this research identifies trends and proposes future topics and research lines, such as: trust, innovation, performance, relationship marketing, the future role of new technologies in industrial marketing research, online marketing and corporate image.

Introduction

Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) is the first journal to focus on the field of business-to-business marketing (Lindgreen & Di Benedetto, 2018). The journal published its first issue in September 1971 and the first editor-in-chief was R. Derek Medford. In 1994, Peter LaPlaca stepped down as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing and became the editor-in-chief of IMM; his tenure has been key to strengthening its international image and position in the most prestigious journals rankings (Beverland, 2018). In 2015, Adam Lindgreen from Copenhagen Business School became co-editor of the journal, and in 2017 Anthony Di Benedetto, from Temple University (USA), was appointed co-editor-in-chief, replacing LaPlaca (LaPlaca & Lindgreen, 2016). The journal has grown significantly over time, and today, it publishes more than 100 articles per year. The journal is well-recognized as one of the leading journals in marketing, especially in the context of B2B marketing (Di Benedetto & Lindgreen, 2018). According to the Journal Citation Reports of the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics, the journal has a 2-year impact factor of 3.678 and a 5-year impact factor of 4.488. Examining the results of the 2-year impact factor, the journal ranks 30th out of 140 journals in the field of Business, and 37th out of 210 journals in Management, which demonstrates the relevance of this journal in the field of Business and Industrial Marketing. In fact, IMM’s position as measured by Thomson’s JCR Impact Factor has strengthened steadily in recent years, from 1930 (2015) to 3166 (2016), 3678 (2017) and 4779 (2018), which confirms the increasing influence of the journal during the tenure of Lindgreen and Di Benedetto.

This paper investigates the role of business models: What differences exist between the roles of an alreadyexisting market-based converted industry and a newly appearing market-based emerging industry? This study analyzed the status of the technologies and business models in the autonomous car and intelligent robot industries, as well as their recent two-year growth, using technology and business model patents. In addition, it investigated the current situation of the technologies, business models, and markets of the two industries based on literature reviews. This study then simulated the market growth of the autonomous car and intelligent robot industries using system dynamics. The simulations were established and verified by analyzing the references and citations of the technology patents and business model patents of the two industries. This study reached three conclusions. First, in the case of a converted industry such as autonomous cars, a strategy focused on a business model is useful in the early stage, whereas one focused on technology is efficient in the mature stage. Second, in the case of an emerging industry such as intelligent robots, a strategy focused on technology is somewhat more useful in the early stage than one focused on a business model; conversely, a strategy focused on technology is slightly more useful in the mature stage. Third, a business model is also important to supplement technology such as intelligent robots at a mature stage in Canada or autonomous cars at a mature stage in Japan.

Introduction

IT advances are producing innovative changes in all industries, leading to what many have called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As the pace of these changes accelerates, creative combinations of technologies and markets are emerging in various segments of the economy. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to produce revolutionary changes as industries and businesses start to adopt cyber-physical systems, which are combinations of physical systems and cyber systems (Bloem et al., 2014). Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are based on the newest and foreseeable developments in computer science, information, and communication technologies combined with manufacturing science and technology. This confluence is frequently designated Industry 4.0 (Monostori, 2014). More generally, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by the emergence of new business models, the disruption of existing systems, and the reorganization of production, consumption, transportation, and delivery systems (Schwab, 2017). One key feature is the emergence of creative business models, which involve a creative recombination of technologies and markets. As a result, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has generated two types of new industries (see Fig. 1). First are the converted industries replacing the existing market, such as the autonomous car industry, which is replacing the traditional car industry, or smart farm factories, which are replacing traditional agriculture. Second are the emerging industries, which do not have any precedent among similar industries. Examples include intelligent robots and 3-D printers.

We define market work as purposeful efforts by a focal actor to perform and transform markets and focus on the connection between market work and market change. To enable an evaluation of the effectiveness of market work, we delineate the domain of market change and provide an operational definition of its elements and develop a composite index of market change. Our research process consisted of four steps: (1) Specification of the elements of market change; (2) Specification of indicators for the identified elements; (3) Reliability and validity assessments; and (4) Validating the market change index. We identified six elements of market change. Markets can be changed by changes in Products & Price, Customers & Use, Channels, Supply-side Network, Representations and Norms. In the qualitative phase of the study we identified at total of 22 facets of these elements, which were later developed into 25 indicators. The overall model was operationalized as a formative first-order, formative second-order model, where first-order elements are formatively measured latent constructs that form a more abstract general (second-order) latent construct – market change. The research process involved testing the reliability and validity of the model and the final market change index.

Introduction: the connection between market work and market change

Recent research in strategic management and entrepreneurship suggest that markets should not be viewed as a given and deterministic context, exogenous to the firm (Priem, Butler, & Li, 2013). Instead, firms are increasingly conceptualized as active creators of market opportunities (Alvarez & Barney, 2007; Sarasvathy, 2008). Some authors even suggest that firms can reap so-called influence-rents, “extra profits earned by an economic actor because the rules of the game of business are designed or changed to suit an economic actor or a group of economic actors” (Ahuja & Yayavaram, 2011, p. 1631). The outcome from a managerial point of view is that markets (and opportunities) are not precursors of strategy, but rather outcomes of deliberate and designed actions, thus inviting firms to engage in activities aimed at shaping markets (Kindström, Ottosson, & Carlborg, 2017) to generate market innovations (Kjellberg, Azimont, & Reid, 2015) that support value creation, growth and profitability. Such actions can, based on the ‘turn to work’ literature in management and strategic organization (Phillips & Lawrence, 2012), be labelled “market work”, which we define as purposeful efforts by a focal actor to perform and transform markets. Market work fulfills the characteristics of “work” identified by Phillips and Lawrence (2012), namely it involves actors engaged in a purposeful effort to manipulate some aspect of their context, and it highlights that actors engage in constructing elements that were previously seen as beyond the control of individual actors.

Online-offline operations are known to induce channel conflicts if the same products are offered by them. Under many franchising arrangements in the fashion industry, to avoid channel conflicts and cannibalization between the franchisee and the brand owner, the brand owner will first supply the product for the franchisee to sell offline in the first period. After that, the brand owner will sell the product online directly in the second period. We explore this online-offline model with the focal points on the choice of franchising contract and the ordering time. By modelling the choices under four different scenarios, we derive the analytical conditions in which one scenario is preferred to another scenario with respect to contract type and ordering time option. We examine the problem from the perspectives of the brand owner, the franchisee and the supply chain. We identify the situations in which the optimal choices of the brand owner and the supply chain are the same, as well as the conditions when Pareto improvement is achievable.

Introduction

Fashion retailing has stepped into the omni-channel retailing era. Online and offline operations of many fashion brands and international retailers are both well-developed. For example, Sears, one of the largest American fashion retailer, has invested heavily in information systems so that its online and offline operations are both enhanced and integrated together (Laudon and Laudon 2014). Uniqlo, the world’s leading fashion brand originated from Japan, also employs the O2O strategy as the sharp tool for its rapid expansion in the China market. The core of Uniqlo’s O2O strategy lies in leading the offline customer traffic to retail shops by the online services including new arrival promotion with the mobile social networking software (e.g., WeChat), APP coupons and big data analysis on consumer buying behaviours. Besides, JD1 , the leading e-commerce platform in China, has established the strategic cooperation with two famous sportswear brands, “Lining” and “Xstep”, to integrate the online and offline channels and provide better experience to consumers with an improved logistics solution and a more effective inventory circulation. A lot of fashion brands, in both fashion apparel and footwear (Khazaei Pool et al. 2016), are implementing franchise operations. Franchising is a licensing arrangement with which the franchisee can operate the brand as well as the retail format in a specific market. Fashion brands, like Bossini, are known to be expanding by relying heavily on franchising. Under the franchising arrangement, the fashion brand (the franchisor) will make a profit by some means, such as charging the franchisee a royalty or making a profit margin by the wholesale price. Some fashion brands also prefer to sell in a market offline via the franchisee, and online by its website directly.

The environment of industrial markets is highly institutionalized, and research has documented different types of institutional work conducted by firms. However, the way in which individuals within organizations perceive and conduct such work is not well-understood. In this paper, we adopt the “inhabited institutions” approach to study how business-to-business managers experience the institutional work conducted by their companies as a strategic orientation. In-depth interviews with 34 managers reveal that institutional orientation is composed of three dimensions: the key institutional customers concept, institutional embeddedness, and market legitimacy. In addition, our study uncovers the relationships among these dimensions. The article concludes with the theoretical implications of the research as well as with a discussion regarding how a culture of institutional work, i.e., institutional orientation, can be instrumental in enhancing the performance of BtoB firms.

Introduction

An important body of research suggests that business-to-business markets have become increasingly institutionalized and complex (Auh & Menguc, 2009; Bello, Lohtia, & Sangtani, 2004; Nyström, Ramstrom, & Tornroos, 2017; Yang & Su, 2014). Keillor, Pettijohn, and Bashaw (2000) demonstrate that industrial firms experience higher levels of politically-based barriers in their global operations than business-toconsumer firms do. The institutional environment refers to political institutions such as the structure of policy making and regulation, economic institutions such as the structure of markets and the terms of access to these markets and socio-cultural institutions such as informal norms (Henisz & Delios, 2002). For instance, Bengtson, Pahlberg, and Pourmand (2009) show the importance of interactions with political actors for small European firms. In the same vein, Li, Li, and Cai (2014) demonstrate the moderating effect of a firm’s home-country’s institutional culture in the relationship between a firm’s early marketing entry and other firms’ behaviors and performance. From the institutional perspective, markets are supported by three institutional pillars: a cognitive pillar, a normative pillar and a regulatory pillar (Scott, 2013). To thrive in this environment, organizations must embrace a broader marketing strategy that integrates these different institutions and thus includes all of the actors who can influence the way in which a market evolves (Kotler, 1986; Yang & Wang, 2013). In institutional theory, this expanded marketing refers to institutional work, i.e., the intentional actions of individual and collective actors in the creation, maintenance and change of institutions (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006).

We study the Multi-trip Separate Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows at Customers and Facilities (MT-PDTWCF), arising in two-tiered city logistics systems. The first tier refers to the transportation between the city distribution centers, in the outskirts of the city, and intermediate facilities, while the second tier refers to the transportation of goods between the intermediate facilities and the (pickup and delivery) customers. We focus on the second tier, and consider that customers and facilities have time windows in which they can be visited. Waiting is possible at waiting stations for free or at customers and facilities at a given cost or penalty. Therefore, it is relevant to coordinate the arrivals of vehicles at facilities and customers with the corresponding time windows. The MT-PDTWCF calls for determining minimum (fixed, routing and waiting) cost multi-trip routes, for a given fleet of vehicles, to service separately pickup and delivery customers, while taking into account vehicle capacity and time windows both at customers and facilities. We propose the first exact algorithm for MT-PDTWCF, namely a Branch-and-Cut-and-Price algorithm. It is based on column generation, where the pricing problem is solved by a bi-directional dynamic programming algorithm designed to cope with the features of the problem. Subset-row and rounded capacity inequalities are adapted to deal with MT-PDTWCF and inserted in the Branch-and-Cut-and-Price algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on benchmark instances with up to 200 customers, showing its effectiveness.

Introduction

We address the Multi-trip Separate Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows at Customers and Facilities (MT-PDTWCF), which arises in the context of two-tiered City Logistics systems (Cattaruzza, Absi, Feillet, & González-Feliu, 2017; Crainic, Errico, Rei, & Ricciardi, 2012; Crainic, Ricciardi, & Storchi, 2009). In these systems, the first tier refers to the consolidation and transportation of loads between the city distribution centers (CDCs), in the outskirts of the city, and intermediate facilities without storage or waiting areas, called satellites, located inside the city (or close to it), by using large-capacity vehicles. The second tier considers the delivery/pickup of goods between the satellites and the customers, by using smaller-capacity vehicles that can travel inside the city. The usefulness of two-tier City Logistics systems stands in reducing the nuisances caused by freight transportation in urban areas (Crainic et al., 2009): larger trucks transport freight to satellites using corridors surrounding the city, while only small vehicles enter the city center, and the coordination of the two tiers at satellites allows the reduction of traffic congestion. In this paper, we focus on the second tier problem and consider that both customers and facilities have time windows, so that it is essential to coordinate the arrivals of vehicles at facilities and customers with the corresponding time windows. This class of problems has recently received significant attention (see, e.g., Crainic, Gajpal, & Gendreau, 2015b; Crainic, Nguyen, & Toulouse, 2016; Grangier, Gendreau, Lehuédé, & Rousseau, 2016; Guastaroba, Speranza, & Vigo, 2016; Nguyen, Crainic, & Toulouse, 2013; Nguyen, Crainic, & Toulouse, 2017), as environmental issues and traffic congestion have become more critical in every day life (Guastaroba et al., 2016).