۱- Introduction

۲- Background

۳- Methodology

۴- Results

۵- Mapping IMM citations

۶- Conclusions

۷- 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.