Abstract

With this study, brand managers can have an overview of the major concepts and characteristics of brands over time, while academics receive a mapping of the most analyzed topics and suggestions for future research. Based on the documents published in Scopus and Web of Science databases using the word “brand”, this article aims to provide an overview of the brands and suggest opportunities for future research. Text mining clustering allowed the processing of a large amount of information and organized the first overview of the concepts that have been studied. Thus, first, we examine the existing definitions of a brand. Then, we provide a historical perspective of the topics associated with brand constructs and their associations and present a framework for the psychological characteristics of the branding process. Finally, we present the future trends.

Introduction

Originally the term “Brand” referred to a piece of burning wood. In the Middle Ages, it becomes a verb meaning a permanent mark with a hot iron. In the seventeenth century, it represented a mark of ownership (Ries & Ries, 2005). Yet, it is in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that it grows in relevance and started to designate goods, services, and institutions, but now also destinations, people, and robots. Brands are present in human lives in the physical, online, or virtual world (Loureiro et al., 2021).

Brands and studies on brands have rapidly evolved over time and there is a need to map such evolutions to guide both researchers and practitioners. Other reviews discuss some particular aspects of branding by focusing on specific concepts—for instance, authenticity (Nunes et al., 2021), engagement (Bilro & Loureiro, 2020), love (Gumparthi & Patra, 2020), or human brand (Osorio et al., 2020)—or are devoted to a certain context (e.g., Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Hollebeek et al., 2014), period of time (Górska-Warsewicz & Kulykovets, 2020; Barros-Arrieta & García-Cali, 2021; García-Cali), or are dedicated to the global versus local symbolism of the brand (Liu et al., 2021), lacking a more holistic perspective of brands. Because brands and their concepts are a core topic in marketing, it is relevant to aggregate the knowledge to offer a summary view on the topic.

Concluding thoughts

This overview of the extant literature identifies important steps in the progress of the research on brand. Thus, earlier studies started to be more dedicated to brand choice, quality assurance, brand equity, perceived risk, or corporate reputation. In the late 1990’s the concerns about the relationship between brand and consumers become more relevant. In the twenty-first century, the studies on the psychological consumer perception of brands become gradually more frequent, such as: brand personality, brand experience and brand love. In those days, social media and e-commerce shifted the focus on physical goods/services to online ones. Brand engagement and co-creation both online and offline are key words for academics and brand managers. More recently, brand authenticity and brand coolness are relevant to better understand the preference of consumers. As brands are conquering virtual and artificial contexts, the studies on this topic gain popularity.

The academic audience can benefit from this research by having a summary of the literature and suggestions for future research. Hence, this article offers a timeline on the evolution of the content of publications, where it is possible to observe the most analyzed concepts in each decade. Thus, this article provides readers with an overview of how concepts, meanings and trends in branding have evolved over time. Secondly, academics can use the framework for the psychological characteristics of the branding process in their research, where it is possible to understand the associations between core branding concepts. Thirdly, Table 2 can be a guide for potential further research on the topic.

Abstract

Using a proprietary dataset from an Australian leading FinTech lender, we provide insights into the effect of consumer behaviour on FinTech lending patterns. Out of seven consumption categories, gambling expenses significantly reduce the lender’s willingness to fulfill loan requests. Cash usage and repeated borrowing are related to lower offer-to-requested loan ratios. The FinTech lender prefers to lend to borrowers who are married, have dependents and/or aged over 30. However, for such mature borrowers, cash usage and repeated borrowing increasingly reduce the approval likelihood of their loan requests. Taken together, our empirical evidence suggests that consumer behaviour affects FinTech lending decisions.

Introduction

In this study, we provide new evidence on the relationship between consumer behaviour and credit access using a novel data by a leading Australian FinTech lender specialized in short-term consumer credit products. FinTech firms have garnered increasing attention amongst policy makers and regulators given its disruption to how traditional businesses are conducted in the consumer credit market, particularly through open banking initiatives. Jagtiani and Lemieux (2019) show that FinTech lenders utilize more soft information from alternative data sources in screening and this business process benefits borrowers who would otherwise be unable to obtain credit. Di Maggio and Yao (2021) investigate FinTech lenders’ pricing strategies and borrower outcomes using a large dataset on household balance sheets. They find that FinTech lenders rely on hard information from credit reports rather than soft information or alternative data.

We contribute to this growing literature by presenting novel evidence on how soft information from bank statements surrounding payment and consumption behaviours affects the willingness of FinTech lenders to fulfill loan requests. Prior studies have shown some alternative data, such as applicant’s appearance, social network and writing style, etc., used in FinTech lending (e.g., Herzenstein et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2013; Gonzalez and Loureiro, 2014; Dorfleitner et al., 2016; Freedman and Jin, 2017; Buchak et al., 2018; Jiang et al., 2018; Croux et al., 2020). Our unique dataset allows us to show that FinTech lender’s willingness to supply credit depends on the consumer behaviour revealed from information contained in bank statements and applicant demographics. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we are amongst the first to study the effect of consumer behaviour on FinTech lending, while most extant studies focus on the implications of FinTech lending on borrowers (e.g., Gathergood et al., 2019; Di Maggio and Yao, 2021) or the prediction of defaults (e.g., Khandani et al., 2010).

Conclusion

This study examines the relationship between consumer behaviour and credit access using a novel data by a leading Australian FinTech lender specialized in short-term consumer credit products. Our findings provide an Australian perspective to the growing literature on FinTech lending which uses primarily U.S. data. Our unique dataset reveals that FinTech lender’s lending decisions depend on loan applicants’ consumer behaviour. To the best of our knowledge, we are amongst the first to study the effect of consumer behaviour on FinTech lending, while most studies focus on the implications of FinTech lending on borrowers (e.g., Gathergood et al., 2019; Di Maggio and Yao, 2021) or the prediction of defaults (e.g., Khandani et al., 2010).

This study has its limitation. Due to the data constraint, we can only show the association, but not causal relation, between loan applicant’s consumer behaviour and FinTech lending. Nevertheless, we believe that the findings on the association between consumer behaviour and FinTech lending may still be of interests to FinTech borrowers, academics, and/or regulators. For example, our findings suggest that in the FinTech era, loan applicants need to be aware that their cash usage and gambling expenses can affect their borrowing capacity.

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) has emerged as a sustainable alternative to the linear model of production and consumption of products and services. Consumers are key actors in the circular economy loop, yet consumer behaviour and decision-making remain at the periphery of research in this area. To close this gap and to promote related academic research we perform a systematic literature review, analysing the main areas of research in the CE relating to consumer behaviour and decision-making. The results show that there are six main areas that link consumer and CE: consumer behaviour, purchase intention and sustainable consumption; lifetime and reparability; recycled plastics, upcycling, e-waste and innovation. These areas seem incomplete and focused on a relatively small number of sectors. Further, while attitude and knowledge are the most influential elements in the consumer’s buying decision-making process, our analysis shows significant gaps in current research in this regard. A key element of consumer behaviour, the post-purchase phase relating to “use”, “recycle” and “upcycle” was found to still be obscure. We provide recommendations on how this gap can be filled.

Introduction

The circular economy (CE) has been gaining increasing attention in recent years from society, companies and public bodies (Korhonen et al., 2017). The best-known economic model until now was the linear model, based on continuous growth and the use of many resources (Kirchherr et al., 2017; Ness, 2008). The CE has emerged as an alternative to this model, due to the fundamental positive role it plays in the environment, its functions and its interactions with the economic system (Ghisellini et al., 2016). The concept of CE has been reformulated and analysed several times in recent years (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Ghisellini et al., 2016; Kirchherr et al., 2017; MacArthur et al., 2013; Prieto-Sandoval et al., 2018), with researchers agreeing that it is a regenerative production and consumption model. However, it cannot be regarded as an individual process, as the CE involves a change in companies, industries and the economy through shifts in values, norms, behaviours and attitudes in society (Chizaryfard et al., 2021).

To this effect, the concept of CE is being analysed from different fields such as economics, strategy, engineering and resource consumption (Clube and Tennant, 2020; Demirel and Danisman, 2019; Machado et al., 2019; Perez-Castillo and Vera-Martinez, 2021), although there are still few studies concerned with the impact of consumers on the CE loop. Consumers must be involved in the whole process and be aware of the value of CE-based products and services. However, as stated by (Kirchherr et al., 2017), the reasons why consumers do or do not take part in CE processes have not been sufficiently analysed (Camacho-Otero et al., 2018). established that although there is increasing research on consumption, the contributions often refer to possible solutions relating to the nature or meaning of CE or the consumption progress, but do not focus on the relationship between the CE and the consumer. In turn (Wastling et al., 2018), argued that the role of the consumer in the CE needs to be questioned and has not yet been fully explored. To this end, there is a need to analyse the role of consumers to resolve the existing gaps in the current literature. However, not only is the relationship between CE and consumer essential to understand, but so are the behaviours and attitudes that consumer may have regarding this process, considered a hot topic due to the wealth of information it brings to both companies and society (Stankevich, 2017). The consumer can be analysed effectively through the decision-making process, wherein the consumer is at the centre (Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016).

Discussion and conclusions

Based on this literature review, it was found that interest in the relationship between the CE and the consumer has increased in the last two and a half years, when 75% of the documents analysed were published. This reflects the fact that it is a new topic that has a long way to go, and one that is important not only at European but also at global level. This literature review provided an overview of and revealed the deep research in the existing literature regarding the CE and the consumer, in terms of consumer behaviour and consumers’ PI.

To answer the first research question – What are the main areas of research in the CE relating to consumer behaviour? – this paper summarises and interrelates the different main areas of the CE with the consumer. Notably, seven different main areas were detected, all of them interrelated, as shown in Fig. 7. A circular economic model is presented, composed of “take, make, distribute, purchase, use and dispose”, adding “recycle, upcycle and innovate”. The CE was the main concept analysed, from which six different main areas were obtained that can be connected to the circular chain in terms of consumer behaviour. They were (1) the elements that affect consumers’ behaviour, PI and sustainable consumption; (2) lifetime extension and reparability; (3) packaging and recycled plastic; (4) e-waste; and (5) upcycling. Moreover, it was identified that process improvement and involvement depend on (6) innovation, as a way to reduce barriers to CE adoption and to contribute to a more sustainable economy, and so is considered a key factor within the CE loop. Each of the areas mentioned, except for the “purchase” area, which deals with the key concepts of consumer behaviour and attitudes, analyse consumers in a superficial manner, focusing more on the product or service than on consumer reactions or behaviours. To this effect, an important gap is detected in the literature, and that is the lack of knowledge of consumers in actions such as decisions to extend the life of a product, how consumers perceive the changes in new consumption models, and even how they can be re-educated in relation to concepts based on the CE.

Abstract

Stakeholder-based brand is increasingly recognized as a measure for corporate sustainability, although the knowledge in this area is relatively unknown. Through a systematic review approach, the present study explores the global knowledge base on sustainability and brand. The most influential authors and documents are identified, followed by a discovery of the intellectual structure of the sustainability and brand knowledge base with five schools of thought. First, the Customer Attitudes and Behavior school refers to behavioral studies (one of the common approaches in sustainability studies). Second, the Tourism Marketing school represents the popular context of sustainability studies that mainly relates to hospitality, destination marketing, and fashion brand management. Third, the Brand Strategy school refers to corporate strategy concerning brand that is widely used to measure corporate sustainability performance such as brand equity. Fourth, the Societal Marketing school provides insights into the marketing strategy that leads a firm to achieve competitive advantages under concerns about finite resources and rising environmental and social costs. Finally, the Advanced Quantitative Analysis school reveals an approach that is mainly used when conducting sustainable marketing studies. A model on sustainability brand is then derived, adopting the grounded theory approach. Future research opportunities are also identified and discussed to continuously advance the scholarship in this specific area.

Introduction

Competitiveness through tangible practical benefits is no longer viable in today’s cut-throat business environment. For this reason, a company’s brand—which is viewed as providing both practical and intangible benefits—is essential to its long-term viability. Corporate brand is being valued more and more due to the increasing interest about business sustainability. Given the impact it has on the attitudes and behaviors of consumers, the corporate brand eventually affects the financial performance of the company. It stands for business strength and reputation in the marketplace [1,2]. The collective value of a brand or brand equity is a crucial component that describes a company’s performance as perceived by its stakeholders [3]. It responds to the idea that a company’s stakeholders should look at how well the company performs in terms of sustainability and how well its stakeholder-focused strategies and practices work [4]. According to research that was carried out in the past [5,6], one of the most critical factors that determines a company’s reputation is how its social performance is seen by the public or stakeholders. This increases brand equity. According to Avery and Bergsteiner [7], corporate sustainability should be achieved by building a strong brand and reputation. Similar to this, several studies have discovered that CSR results in brand equity and business reputation and that a positive reputation can result in long-term profitability and consistently higher performance [8]. In addition, a corporation can benefit from cause-related activities [9] by enhancing the position of the brand, increasing favorability for the brand, raising the volume of the revenues, boosting loyalty among customers, and creating strong bonds with alliances and social organizations.

Brand equity, according to Aaker [10], increases the firm’s worth through boosting marketing campaigns’ efficiency and effectiveness, as well as customer loyalty, prices and profit margins, brand expansion, trade leverage, and competitiveness. Whilst others have claimed that brand equity is determined by the added value that the brand name brings to a product (e.g., [7]), Aaker [10] defines brand equity as a collection of brand assets and liabilities associated with the brand’s name and symbol. The value provided by a service or product may be reduced or increased as a result of this grouping. Undoubtedly, a company’s perceived reputation should reflect both its past and future actions and, in comparison to its rivals, should reflect the firm’s total appeal to all significant stakeholders [11]. Additionally, some scholars [12,13] have claimed that brand equity is determined by the overall value that a brand offers to one of its primary goods. The brand equity model includes associations with the brand, a user’s impression of the product’s quality, and other proprietary aspects of the brand in addition to brand loyalty, brand name awareness, and perceived brand quality [14]. Building a powerful brand involves considering all of these aspects as part of the process [15,16,17].

Conclusions

Through the systematic review approach, the present review has provided the answers to the five research questions. First, we identify the most influential authors and documents regarding sustainability brand. The top four influential scholars in the specific sustainability brand knowledge base are: Gupta, Suraksha; Gupta, Shuchi; Kumar; Kantabutra. Accordingly, their eight documents are the most influential documents in this specific knowledge domain. Second, we discover the topical foci and most popular topics that scholars in the sustainability and brand literature are interested in. Some of the most recent topics are brand, brand loyalty, brand image, brand equity, and buying intention.

Third, we reveal the intellectual structure of the sustainability and brand knowledge base by identifying five schools of thought in the knowledge domain. First, the Customer Attitudes and Behavior school refers to behavioral studies (one of the common approaches in sustainability studies). Second, the Tourism Marketing School represents the popular context of sustainability marketing studies that mainly relate to hospitality, destination marketing, and fashion brand management. Third, as in the Brand Strategy school, the brand strategy such as brand equity is widely used to measure corporate sustainability performance. Fourth, the Societal Marketing school provides more insights into the marketing strategy that leads the firm to achieve competitive advantages under the concern about finite resources and rising environmental and social costs. Finally, the Advanced Quantitative Analysis school reveals an approach that is mainly used when conducting sustainable marketing studies.

Abstract

     The objective of this study is to ascertain the effects of omni-channel retailing on the promotional strategy of retail organisations in order to better understand how to alter the promotional strategy in accordance with the ever-changing needs of customers and ultimately provide the customer with a seamless experience. This research is based on a critical systematic literature review of articles related to the topics of ‘omni-channel retailing’ and ‘promotional strategy’. The analysis made evident that most literature is focused on developing an understanding of omni-channel retailing; uncovering consumer behaviours in omni-channel retailing; and ways to adapt promotional strategies related to merchandising, sales promotion, selling, and word of mouth. Past research is quite fractured and does not represent a holistic picture of the implications of omni-channel retailing for promotional strategy. The analysis provided in this paper provides a general guideline for researchers and practitioners concerning promotional strategies that can be adopted in omni-channel retailing.

Introduction

     The retailing environment is getting increasingly complicated. The rise of technological advances has multiplied customer touchpoints and therefore caused the customer journey to become more complex [1]. Whereas customer journeys in the past could be seen as linear, in the omni-channel environment, those journeys are now highly complex [2]. In addition to this, the amount of retailing channels has rapidly grown; whereas in the past, you were only able to buy a product in a physical store, nowadays, this can also be done online by making use of your phone, tablet, laptop, and even your voice assistant (multiple channels). Furthermore, according to Oracle [3] (p. 3), “more than three-quarters of consumers use two or more channels to browse for, research, and purchase products”. This new omni-channel environment is fading the borders between online and offline retailing [4]. Brynjolfsson, Jeffrey, and Rahman [5] (p. 24) highlight this by stating that omni-channel retailing is “turning the world into a showroom without walls”. As the online and offline worlds are becoming more intertwined, consumers require a seamless experience across channels [4,6]. A way to facilitate this is to integrate promotions across all existing channels [7]. One of the Marketing Science Institute’s [8] five major research priorities for 2020–2022 concerns the rise of the omni-channel environment; specifically, they propose research on the implications of omni-channel retailing for promotional strategies.

Conclusions

     The customer is getting more empowered, and omni-channel retailing is a phenomenon that almost every company nowadays must deal with. It is therefore important to understand how a promotional strategy can be designed in such a way that takes into consideration the needs and preferences of those empowered customers in the omni-channel environment. The main need of the customer is the provision of a seamless customer experience, meaning integration of all channels they use during their shopping journey. However, this is not limited to channel integration only, as it also encompasses brand consistency and promotional alignment. One way of accomplishing this would be to provide personalisation for customers across all channels.

     Furthermore, it is important to understand the types of behaviours that take place in the omni-channel retailing environment. Two phenomena are frequently mentioned in the literature, namely showrooming behaviour and its counterpart, webrooming behaviour. The former states that customers search for information about/to touch a product in store and consequently buy the product online (potentially from a competitor). The rise of mobile phone usage has mainly facilitated showrooming behaviour, and research has shown that customers spend higher amounts when purchasing products via their mobile phones. However, ‘competitive showrooming’ is undesirable behaviour and can be diminished by adapting promotional strategy accordingly. The latter states customers search for information online and consequently buy the product in store. This type of behaviour takes place because customers like to be in control and therefore search for extensive information and confirmation of their judgements online before buying the product in store, where they can touch and see it.

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical Foundation

3. Review of Different Methodology

4. Distribution of the Articles Reviewed

5. Review of the Related Works

6. Discussion

7. Conclusions

References

Abstract

Customization of products or services is a strategy that the business sector has embraced to build a better relationship with the customers to cater to their individual needs and thus providing them a fulfilling experience. This whole process is known as customer relationship management (CRM). In this context, we extensively surveyed 138 papers published between 1996 and 2021 in the area of analytical CRM. Although this study consisted of papers from different business sectors, a fair share of focus was directed to the telecommunication industry and generalized CRM techniques usages. Different science and engineering-based data repositories were studied to ascertain significant studies published in scientific journals, conferences, and articles. The research works on CRM were considered and separated into IT and non-IT-based techniques to study the methods used in different business sectors. The main target behind implementing CRM is for the better revenue growth of the company. Different IT and non-IT-based techniques are used in the analytical CRM area to achieve this target, and researchers have been actively involved in this domain. The purpose of the research was to show the impact of IT-based techniques in the business world. A detailed future course of research in this area was discussed.

1. Introduction

These days CRM is the center of attraction of every other scholar and expert. As each day passes by, many companies are adopting the concept of CRM in their business to stay updated with the customer-oriented market. It is gradually sinking in the desperate need of exhaustively detailed familiarity of their customers’ behavior to strengthen their bond with their customers. The evolution of highly efficient algorithms and platforms has altered the way of connecting with customers, leading to a better situation with the marketing, sales, and customer service functions in organizations. From a professional’s perspective, CRM serves to grasp a full insight into one’s customers’ needs and desires and design convenient platforms for the customers to improve their relationship with the companies. This paper presents a detailed overview of customer relationship management’s different aspects and the analytical aspect of it in different business organizations. Every business group’s main target is to emerge an abiding relationship with its customers to cultivate its balance in today’s flourishing market. The customers nowadays anticipate the best services and products and want a personalized service in which they expect to get precisely what they call for and also at a quick pace

Abstract

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Abstract

This review expands our insight into the ways the required adaptation to digital channels caused by COVID-19 has affected the creation of brand equity through social media marketing. Based on a systematic literature review, we propose a conceptual framework that answers the following research question: How can businesses, amidst and after the COVID-19 pandemic, adapt their social media marketing strategy to create positive brand equity? The conceptual framework describes four components as the basis for a potential social media marketing strategy. First, (1) businesses need to develop a clear perspective on their current social media marketing activities, and (2) evaluate current branding elements. Based on this, (3) the timeline of marketing activities must be postponed or adapted to the needs of consumers. Lastly, (4) businesses must adapt their messaging to show empathy and deliver relevant information. Within this process, governmental parties, financial institutions, influencers, and consumers are identified as stakeholders who influence and assist businesses in optimizing their social media marketing strategy. These findings are relevant for academics and businesses to further understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 on social media marketing. Additionally, they highlight that the roles of online channels and the consumer are expanding in the future.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has created substantial growth for internet-based businesses as an increasing number of consumers are shopping online [1]. In 2020, the global ecommerce market has seen an increase of 27.6%, surpassing over 4.28 trillion US dollars [2]. In the past few years, organizations have been subject to the introduction of digital technologies that transform organizations, interactions with consumers, and the creation of value [3–5]. Online shopping has created the opportunity to compare products more conveniently and consumers can easily choose the products that fit their needs the most [6]. Mostly young consumers have shifted to online spending, affecting the manner in which businesses have to operate as young consumers are more likely to shop through social media [7]. Additionally, 62% base their purchase decisions on the impact that these have on society, e.g., sustainable and green products, in comparison to 53% of middle-aged consumers and 44% of older consumers [7].

Subsequently, as more consumers and businesses are adapting to buying and selling through online channels, the digital marketing sphere is becoming more competitive [8]. When looking at the state of digital marketing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a special emphasis should be put on Social Media Marketing (SMM) as it offers a wide range of tools to target customers more effectively. Social media has also become a large influence on online shopping, as research shows that 54% of purchases made by younger consumers are from independent retailers they discovered via social media [7]; this is 43% for middle-aged consumers and 25% for older consumers. This is especially promising as social media has become a primary communication channel for many and the time consumers spent online has drastically increased since the start of the pandemic [1,9]. As SMM is aimed at the creation of interactions with consumers in the digital settings where they already spend time, businesses can enhance their customer experience by analyzing customers and their conversations [10].

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.

Given the importance of online word of mouth (WOM), there has been an increasing need to understand the psychological mechanisms that underlie WOM transmission (i.e. sharing of opinions) and reception (i.e. processing of received messages). The goal of the current paper is to review some of the most recent research in online WOM (focusing on the past two to four years) as well as make suggestions regarding future research. [For earlier syntheses on WOM senders and social media marketing, see King et al., 2014, Stephen, 2016, Whitler, 2014] [6–8].

Introduction

With the rise of online socialmedia platforms (e.g.Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and e-commerce websites (e.g. Amazon), online WOM has become a popular and vitalsource of information for consumers. The importance of WOM has been documented by a number of articlesthat analyze large amounts of e-commerce and social media data: Consumer chatter affects product preferences, purchase decisions[1,2] and ultimately, firm’s financial performance [3,4]. The impact of WOM is also widely acknowledged by marketers and brands alike [6–8]. Forinstance, the majority of marketing executives (61%) say that WOM is the most effective form of marketing [5]. This paper is organized around specific factors (e.g. valence, linguistic cues) that have gained attention in WOM research. For each factor, we review its effect on senders and receivers separately to highlight the factor’s differential effects on the two groups. This approach will also reveal imbalances in the literature, highlighting potential areas for future research.

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.

Introduction

Social media

How we use it

Authors’ impressions of major platforms as they apply to facial plastic surgery

What patients want

Is it worth it?

#Hashtag

Potential pitfalls

Summary

References

KEY POINTS

Social media is quickly becoming one of the main avenues for direct to consumer marketing.
Patients use social media to find surgeons and to communicate about procedures, outcomes, and their experiences.
A surgeon’s social media presence can dramatically increase their perception of being an expert and showcase to patients their style and approach.
There is no single best social network, instead various networks exist with unique characteristics that each have the potential to drive traffic to a practice.
Social media can be potentially hazardous for patients and surgeons if misused.

INTRODUCTION

As patients incorporate social media into their daily routine, physicians are increasingly investigating ways of harnessing this burgeoning market of interactive media. Plastic surgeons are apt to embrace innovation and emerging technologies, and they are now helping to define the interaction between social media and medicine. Social media is a powerful tool that needs to be used wisely to avoid pitfalls.