See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/287563465

Business-to-business marketing: Looking back, looking forward

Article · January 2012

DOI: 10.4337/9781849801423.00008

CITATIONS READS

37 825

2 authors:

Rajdeep Grewal Gary L. Lilien

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Pennsylvania State University
141 PUBLICATIONS 11,854 CITATIONS 206 PUBLICATIONS 12,331 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Gary L. Lilien on 09 November 2023.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 1 Business-­to-­business marketing: looking back,
looking forward
Rajdeep Grewal and Gary L. Lilien

What we now call business-­to-­business (B2B) marketing used to be called industrial

marketing (Webster 1978a), when it primarily focused on transactions of products pro-
duced for consumption by other businesses (machine tools, office supplies and the like)
as well as the items that went into the production process of those other organizations
(for example, raw materials like petroleum, timber or parts; other ingredients like valves,
bearings, resins and polymers). In the past several decades, the term ‘industrial market-
ing’ has given way to the broader term ‘B2B marketing’, and its meaning has grown to
encompass the activity of building mutually value-­generating relationships (including
both products and services) between organizations (which include businesses but also
government agencies, not-­for-­profit organizations and the like) and the many individu-
als within them. In this latter sense, specific examples of marketing issues – such as a
manufacturer–retailer relationship in consumer product markets (for example Walmart
as the key account for Procter & Gamble), pharmaceutical firms marketing to doctors
(who prescribe to patients) or agribusiness firms selling seeds, fertilizer and equipment to
farmers – all fall within the purview of B2B marketing. In contrast business-­to-­consumer
(B2C) marketing is mainly focused on the final transaction between the firm (and/or
retailer) and the customer.
Table 1.1 sketches some key differences between B2B and B2C marketing. B2B mar-
keters typically focus on far fewer and more varied customers, using more complex
and more technically oriented sales processes than appear in consumer marketers. The
complexity (multiple stakeholders – financial analysts, purchasing agents, engineers,
manufacturing managers, lawyers and others – all of whom proceed through an intricate,
multi-­stage decision-­making process) has led to a field of study specific to B2B market-
ing called ‘organizational buying behavior’. The presence of a few powerful customers,
which often account for a heavily skewed percentage of sales (for example, a telecom
firm may count ExxonMobil and General Electric among its business customers but also
serve hundreds of thousands of small to medium-­sized enterprises), means that many
common and powerful statistical tools, data mining methods and other research tools
popular in the B2C domain are either inappropriate or must be adapted to the B2B
domain. In addition, many B2C transactions still occur through common channels (for
example, consumer packaged goods in retail stores, so retailers can host and capture
data about the competitive consumer marketing landscape), but transactions in the B2B
realm, especially larger ones, tend to be private, direct sales that often involve extensive
negotiations or that occur through downstream distribution channels. Thus, data about
the nature of the customer and the terms of the transaction are far from transparent.
Both the relative simplicity of the B2C marketing domain (compared with B2B) and
the much larger number of public transactions historically has made that domain far

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 3 18/11/2011 14:18

 4   Handbook of business-to-business marketing

Table 1.1 Some key differences between B2B and B2C marketing

Business-to-Consumer Business-to-Business
Marketing culture Manufacturing/Tech culture
Market to end of chain Market to value chain
Perceptual proposition Technical proposition
Value in brand relationship Value in use, quantifiable
Large customer segments Small number of customers
Smaller-unit transactions Large-unit transactions
Transaction linkage Process linkage
More direct purchase Complex buying sequence
Consumer decides Web of decision participants

more attractive for researchers than the B2B domain, as a scan of the topics published
in top journals will readily attest. A special issue of Marketing Science focusing on the
impact of the Internet (Hoffman 2000) contained no articles and barely a mention of B2B
e-­commerce. Yet according to the most recent US Department of Commerce Statistics
(see http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2009), B2B e-­commerce accounts for more than
91 per cent of the dollar volume of such transactions, versus less than 9 per cent for B2C
e-­commerce. In Chapter 33 of this book, Shankar notes that these numbers nearly flip
when we consider the volume of academic e-­commerce research.
And there is virtually no academic work on sales to the military or to federal, state and
local governments in the US or elsewhere, according to a recent keyword search of top
journals. Yet such sales are of enormous financial importance and represent virtually the
sole business for many firms, both large and small. For example, the top five us govern-
ment contractors in 2010 (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon
and General Dynamics) accounted for nearly $50 billion in sales (see http://washington-
technology.com/toplists/top-­100-­lists/2011.aspx).
Reid and Plank (2000) trace the modern history of B2B marketing from the 1930s (e.g.,
Frederick 1939; Lester 1936) and show that it was not until the late 1960s (e.g. Webster
1965) and 1970s (e.g. Sheth 1973; Webster and Wind 1972) that the area began to attract
focused attention. In his review of the literature, Webster (1978b) noted that although
B2B marketing comprised approximately half the economy, most research in top market-
ing journals focused on B2C marketing. The same seems to be true today: Department of
Commerce statistics show that B2B transactions account for the same dollar value as B2C
transactions, yet, especially in top-­tier marketing journals, research on B2C marketing far
outstrips research on B2B marketing. If we include research on B2B sales (which accord-
ing to Lilien (1979) account for approximately 7 per cent of revenue for the average B2B
firm; Belz and Bussman (2001) put the number at 13 per cent, according to a survey of 346
executives from 13 countries), the contrast is even more striking.
Over a decade has passed since Reid and Plank’s (2000) comprehensive review of
B2B literature (a journal article of 185 pages), and both the real world and the world
of academia have evolved substantially. Rather than attempt another journal article,
we have chosen this handbook format as a way to provide a broad perspective on the
domain. Our objective is to provide as many diverse perspectives on B2B as possible

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 4 18/11/2011 14:18

 B2B marketing: looking back, looking forward  ­5

and to engage prominent B2B scholars to guide future research in the domain. For
every chapter we asked the contributors to focus on where we need to go as opposed
to just providing a comprehensive review of where we have been. We also asked each
contributor (especially those from practice fields) to provide clear takeaways for B2B
practitioners. The careful reader will still find gaps; handbooks by their very nature are
incomplete (for example this book contains little information on services, and nothing
about marketing to the government) and are more supply than demand driven (i.e. the
need for authors willing to contribute). But we are delighted with the contributions that
we include here, because we believe each chapter contributes an insightful perspective on
an important B2B domain, with clear research avenues for researchers and important
takeaways for practitioners.
The goal of this introductory chapter is to provide a brief overview and perspective
on the handbook and on the field. In the next section, we outline our view on why the
field has attracted so (relatively) little academic attention and what we can do to address
the challenges of performing research in the B2B domain. We then provide an overview
of the handbook. Next we sketch a few ideas about where further research needs lie in
the B2B domain. Each chapter suggests research directions on the particular topic it
covers; we supplement those recommendations by focusing on areas not covered within
them.

LOOKING BACK: ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES

As Reid and Plank (2000) note, focusing on the period from 1978 to 1997, research
in B2B marketing has come a long way and has produced much useful knowledge.
Their review of 2194 articles and book chapters covers (1) planning; (2) organiza-
tional buying behavior and purchasing; (3) marketing sciences (including market
research, segmentation and forecasting); (4) product (including new product and
service development and management); (5) pricing; (6) channels; and (7) promotion
(including advertising, sales promotion and sales force management and compensa-
tion). They show that B2B publications in top marketing journals are rare, appearing
in the Journal of Marketing (JM) at a rate of about five a year, Journal of Marketing
Research (JMR) at a rate of about two a year and Marketing Science (MS) at a rate
of less than one a year; the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) is completely focused
on B2C issues. The bulk of B2B research appears in more specialized journals such
as Industrial Marketing Management (37 per cent), Journal of Business and Industrial
Marketing (8 per cent), Journal of Business-­to-­Business Marketing (2 per cent, though
the journal only began in 1991, so the number would be higher today), International
Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management (9 per cent) and Journal of Personal
Selling and Sales Management (6 per cent). LaPlaca and Katrichis (2009) provide a
recent update and find that not much has changed: since each journal’s founding, B2B
publications have represented 6.8 per cent of the articles in JM, 2.5 per cent in JMR,
1.3 per cent in MS and 0 per cent in JCR. It is clear that if B2B marketing has just as
much economic import as B2C marketing, then the volume of top quality B2B research
should be greater. We believe there are structural reasons, which we call hurdles, that
explain this disparity.

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 5 18/11/2011 14:18

 6   Handbook of business-to-business marketing

Hurdle 1: Complexity and Heterogeneity

The most complex consumer behavior involves households of several individuals,

normally spanning a generation or two. Rarely are more than two or three individuals
involved in any purchase decision. In the B2B world, an organization may involve dozens
of individuals with vastly different backgrounds in the purchasing decision-­making
process. And as we noted, a firm’s prospect list may include firms of vastly different sizes
and whose use of the focal firm’s offering may differ widely. Consider a simple case.
Titanium dioxide is an opacifying ingredient used in the manufacture of paper, plastic
piping, paint and other materials. It has varying customer value and competes with
different alternative ingredients in these and other applications. Conceptualizing and
analyzing such market situations requires qualitatively different research approaches
to deal with issues of purchasing complexity and customer/prospect heterogeneity than
the approaches needed in the consumer marketplace. These difficulties are compounded
by the small number of customers in many markets (for example, suppliers of parts for
commercial airline engines may have only Boeing and Airbus as potential customers).
Research methods that sacrifice breadth for depth (as discussed by Griffin in Chapter
35 and Woodside and Baxter in Chapter 36) or that make use of extensive survey and
secondary source data thus are more appropriate to this domain than methods more
commonly used in the B2C domain.

Hurdle 2: Lack of Domain Knowledge

We are all consumers: we understand the choice process for consumables and durables
and even experience the challenges of family decision-­making. We also understand
(mostly) what products and services are supposed to do for us. In the B2B domain, some
work experience within an organization, whether in sales, production or engineering, pro-
vides a similar background and thus is almost essential for a B2B researcher. In addition
a background in science, technology or engineering is extremely helpful to understand
the domain of study.1 The solution seems clear: PhD students with work experience
and a technology background have clear advantages over their peers in their ability to
understand the B2B domain and the related research issues. For those with a technical
background but no business experience, some company experience or internship would be
most useful and should be considered part of the professional career development process.

Hurdle 3: Lack of Data Availability

A corollary to Hurdle 1 is that data for B2B research are rarer and more difficult and
time consuming to collect than are data from consumer sources, be they experimental
data used to study consumer behavior and psychology or secondary data used to develop
consumer behavior models. This lack of data availability was one of the drivers of the
development of the ISBM, whose mission includes connecting B2B researchers with
organizations that share an interest in their research problem and thus facilitating the
collection of primary source data. The ISBM hosts a data resources program (http://
isbm.smeal.psu.edu/drp) to identify and document the location of and means of access to
useful secondary source data. We believe that the use of software for customer relation-

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 6 18/11/2011 14:18

 B2B marketing: looking back, looking forward  ­7

ship management (CRM) may increase the availability of secondary data from CRM
suites to study B2B issues. Although this trend of greater data availability is a welcome
sign, more needs to be done. The ISBM thus will be reaching out to B2B researchers,
urging them to document and share their data. We believe such sharing will lead to dif-
fering approaches to the same data, as well as facilitating meta-­analytic studies.

Hurdle 4: Diffuse Focus

Perhaps most important, the domain of B2B research encompasses many problems and
relies on a variety of research foundations. The study of B2B markets is a substantive
domain that builds on theories from a diverse set of parent disciplines, including eco-
nomics, sociology, social psychology and psychology. Research on sales force manage-
ment, the primary promotion mechanism in B2B markets, studies the same phenomena
using behavioral (Bradford et al. 2010) and analytic (Mantrala et al. 2010) perspectives.
The commonality of the substantive domain is helpful, but, in our opinion, insufficient;
for example, scholars from each perspective on sales force management normally attend
different academic conferences. The ISBM has developed a biennial academic conference
to help encourage cross-­perspective communication. B2B research also faces consider-
able heterogeneity in the unit of analyses – whether an individual sales manager in sales
research, a buying unit in buying behavior research, a firm for B2B strategy and segmen-
tation issues, an inter-­firm relationship for distribution channels research or an inter-­
firm network for product development research. And research on these differing units
of analysis relies on differing theoretical perspectives. Psychological theories might be
most appropriate for sales managers, whereas the resource-­based view informs firm-­level
studies, transaction cost economics clarifies inter-­firm issues and sociological network
perspectives are beneficial for studying inter-­firm networks. We hope this handbook and
related follow-­up work will help facilitate cross-­problem connections and scholarly links.
These hurdles are mere illustrations; the reader can surely add his or her own. Yet
they are real, so the onus is on seasoned scholars in our field to build a community, share
data, share expertise and recruit and nurture the young talent the field needs to address
the many important and challenging problems the field presents.

OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT

In structuring this handbook, we took a hybrid approach: Reid and Plank (2000) provide
a useful, top-­down (topic-­driven) structure that we integrated with our understanding
of where top B2B researchers might be willing and capable to make contributions. We
received many acceptances (and a few declines, for the usual reasons). With our view
toward engaging the practice community, we invited and received acceptances from
several thoughtful practitioners.
Beyond this overview chapter (which constitutes Part I), the handbook comprises 37
chapters that we have divided into six parts:

II. Perspectives in B2B research

III. B2B marketing mix and strategy

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 7 18/11/2011 14:18

 8   Handbook of business-to-business marketing

IV. Inter-­firm relationships in B2B markets

V. Personal selling and sales management
VI. Technology and B2B marketing
VII. Methodological issues

Section II contains eight chapters that provide a variety of lenses to view diverse B2B
marketing issues. In Chapter 2, Oliva takes a high-­level, value-­based perspective on B2B
markets and, based on his experience as a practitioner and his nearly 20 years as execu-
tive director of the ISBM, suggests why and how marketing organizations in B2B firms
should view themselves as value-­creating operations for the focal organization and that
organization’s customers. Banerjee, Bergen, Dutta and Ray apply an agency theory lens
to the study of B2B markets in Chapter 3, and focus on the role of independent agents,
including how B2B firms should structure their relationships with independent agents.
They also discuss recent developments in agency theory that incorporate multitasking,
non-­linear compensation and structural econometric methods. In Chapter 4, Ghosh
and John focus on governance value analysis, which integrates governance and strategy
perspectives. They develop the notion of a ‘value frame’ to develop and assess the foun-
dational architecture of strategic choice in value chains. Next, in Chapter 5, Wyuts and
Van den Bulte investigate and apply a network governance approach, recognizing that
firms in B2B markets operate in a social network of firms, and then theorize how firms
might use their network position to govern their interactions with other firms. In Chapter
6, Morgan and Slotegraaf develop a marketing capabilities framework for B2B firms, in
which they categorize a firm’s marketing capabilities according to their lower-­to-­higher
order (essentially, complexity and sophistication) and the organizational level at which
those capabilities exist. Their chapter provides both a rich new set of research opportuni-
ties and a useful skills and capabilities inventory for B2B firms. Chapter 7 contains Lusch
and Vargo’s discussion of the ideas behind the service-­dominant logic that B2B firms
can use to gain competitive advantage; this logic views all B2B offerings as services and
provides the rationale for firms to focus on customer experience and solutions to develop
a sustainable and profitable service orientation. Cespedes then tackles the thorny issues
related to managing the marketing–sales interface in B2B firms in Chapter 8; these issues
are minor for most B2C firms but are of pervasive importance and understudied in the
B2B domain. Finally, Chapter 9 provides Fahey’s discussion of the critical importance
of competitive intelligence in B2B markets, which consists of three interrelated activities:
description, interpretation and assessment.
The ‘B2B marketing mix and strategy’ part contains five chapters. In Chapter 10,
Schultz examines issues related to marketing communication in B2B markets and
focuses on the marketing communication challenges that arise from the recent, dramatic
advances in communications technology and the emergence of a global, networked
world. In Chapter 11, Thomas discusses segmentation issues. Because of the small
number of customers, their extensive heterogeneity and their diverse needs, segmentation
approaches that have seen great success in the B2C world fall short in the B2B domain.
He thus outlines some approaches that work and identifies important areas in need of
research and methodological development. In Chapter 12, Keller and Kotler discuss the
central role that brands and branding play in the B2B marketplace and provide guide-
lines for managing the branding function in B2B firms, which they predict will permeate

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 8 18/11/2011 14:18

 B2B marketing: looking back, looking forward  ­9

the entire organization. In Chapter 13 Gopalakrishna and Lilien focus on the central
role that trade shows play in the communication mix for B2B firms and examine trade
shows from the perspective of the three main organizational actors: exhibitors, attendees
and show organizers. The final chapter of this section (Chapter 14) contains Cressman’s
discussion of the concepts and components of value pricing in B2B markets; he provides
a systematic approach to implement value pricing in B2B firms.
Inter-­firm relationships are central to B2B marketing; Part IV, ‘Inter-­firm relation-
ships in B2B markets’, comprises eight chapters focused on this critical issue. In Chapter
15, Bowman notes that buyer–seller relationships evolve over time and require a longitu-
dinal perspective in order to understand their evolution and manage those relationships
properly. Beck and Palmatier advocate a multilevel, relationship marketing approach
to understand and manage inter-­firm relationships in Chapter 16. Then in Chapter 17,
Venkatesan, Kumar and Reinartz discuss how to apply customer relationship marketing
concepts to B2B firms, with a focus on how to adapt the tools of customer lifetime value
measurement and management to this domain. Chapter 18 finds Scheer’s investigation
of trust, the most frequently studied construct in B2B inter-­firm relationships. She also
stresses the need to research the still poorly understood negative consequences of trust,
in addition to the much more frequently studied positive consequences. In Chapter 19,
Spekman discusses the complexities inherent in developing strategic alliances in B2B
markets, which can undermine the strategic use of such alliances to gain access to B2B
markets. Next, in Chapter 20, Ho and Ganesan discuss the importance of learning in
coopetative relationships, that is, relationships that involve cooperative ventures with
competitors. In Chapter 21, Johnston and Chandler elaborate on the history of the
study of organizational buying and the emerging challenges in the domain, where buying
centers must do much more than buy; they also must focus on innovation, knowledge
management and brands. Finally, in Chapter 22 Varadarajan stresses the importance of
outsourcing inter-­firm relationships in global B2B markets and provides a fresh, insight-
ful view of this increasingly important form of inter-­firm relationship.
The seven chapters in Part V, ‘Personal selling and sales management’, focus on the
most important promotional element for B2B firms. In Chapter 23, Bradford and Weitz
discuss the two main roles of B2B salespeople, the traditional influencer role and the
emerging value-­creator/relationship-­manager role, and suggest what those roles mean
for researchers and practitioners. Singh, Marinova and Brown view salespeople as criti-
cal to establish and maintain connectivity with customers and thus, in Chapter 24, theo-
rize that salespeople provide a significant, sustainable competitive advantage. In Chapter
25, Homburg and Bornemann focus on the importance of and research issues related to
key account management that can help develop and sustain strategic inter-­firm relation-
ships. Then in Chapter 26, Coughlan and Joseph organize and summarize empirical and
analytic research on sales force compensation, identify best practices and lay out research
challenges. Ahearne and Lam develop a two-­dimensional typology for sales force per-
formance in Chapter 27, featuring valence (positive versus negative) and measurement
(behavioral versus outcome). Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer take a managerial perspective
in Chapter 28 to outline a sales force systems framework that they have helped imple-
ment successfully to build winning sales forces in many B2B firms. In Chapter 29, the
final chapter of this section, Mantrala and Albers discuss the effects of Internet-­enabled
technologies on the appropriate size and structure of the B2B sales force.

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 9 18/11/2011 14:18

 10   Handbook of business-to-business marketing

Reflecting the importance of technology in the B2B domain, Part VI comprises five
chapters. In Chapter 30, Mohr, Sengupta and Slater propose a theory for marketing
high-­tech B2B products and employ a contingency approach to address differences in
marketing strategy for different types of innovations. In Chapter 31, Tellis, Chandy
and Prabhu present a three-­stage conceptualization of the B2B innovation process –
­development, commercialization and fruits of innovation – and propose key research
questions associated with each stage. Then Cooper expands on his Stage-­Gate system
for product innovation in Chapter 32 and discusses recent developments in practice
related to idea development, project selection and new product development process
improvements. In Chapter 33, Shankar provides an overview of B2B e-­commerce, dis-
cussing electronic data interchange, extranets, B2B exchanges and international B2B
e-­commerce. In the final chapter in this section (Chapter 34), Haruvy and Jap discuss
challenges underlying the design and execution of dynamic pricing mechanisms (particu-
larly auctions) for B2B commerce.
The last part, ‘Methodological issues’, contains four chapters. The first two are
devoted to the qualitative research methods that have seen widespread use in B2B aca-
demic work published to date. In Chapter 35, Griffin discusses when to use qualitative
research and how to pursue such research with scientific rigor, and then in Chapter 36,
Woodside and Baxter complement her discussion with a focus on the role and execu-
tion of case-­based research – a specific type of qualitative B2B research. In Chapter 37,
Rindfleisch and Antia discuss the challenges that survey researchers in B2B markets face
and provide guidelines for producing more rigorous academic research that employs
this methodology. Chapter 38 represents both the final chapter in this section and the
closing chapter of the book; there Srinivasan discusses the challenges for developing
marketing metrics in B2B markets, specifically when these metrics pertain to measures
of performance.
As we acknowledged, it is possible to find many omissions here; in particular, many
more methodological issues are relevant for B2B research than those discussed in Part
VII. However we choose a ‘glass half-­full’ perspective: what these expert authors have
covered here, though far from exhaustive, is important, provocative and likely to provide
intriguing research directions for academics along with useful guidance for practitioners.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

In each of the 37 chapters in this handbook, the authors lay out important research direc-
tions. Reid and Plank (2000), other authors cited in these chapters and other sources can
add to these inventories. Thus we will not attempt a synthesis of research directions but
instead urge readers to check the original sources – they are compelling and excellent.
We add two areas of research to those discussed in these sources though, because
we believe they are vital to the B2B domain but remain dreadfully understudied: (1)
the derived nature of demand in B2B markets; and (2) business-­to-­government (B2G)
marketing.
Demand for B2B products is derived; it depends on final consumer demand. For
example the demand for paint additives depends on demand for paint in consumer and
industrial markets. In turn the demand for paint in industrial markets depends on the

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 10 18/11/2011 14:18

 B2B marketing: looking back, looking forward  ­11

demand for consumer products produced by industrial firms that buy industrial paints.
Thus B2B firms face the unique challenges of marketing not only to their immediate cus-
tomers but also to customers of their customers – and so on down the value chain. The
nature of this derived demand creates phenomena such as ingredient branding (e.g. Intel
Inside) and corporate advertising in an attempt to build equity with customers’ custom-
ers (e.g. BASF’s tagline: ‘We don’t make the products you buy. We make the products
you buy better’). The nature and coordination of value capture throughout the value
chain (from raw materials to manufactured materials to component parts to finished
goods, all flowing through multiple channels of distribution) present a host of issues for
research and also suggest a domain in need of an integrated conceptual framework. Yet
research on derived demand has not surfaced in top marketing journals.
As of this writing, the 2012 US Department of Defense budget is more than $670
billion (http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid514263). And that is only
one of a myriad of state, federal and local government agencies that procure products,
technologies and services from B2B firms. Many well-­known firms (for example Boeing,
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon) obtain the vast majority of their sales by selling to govern-
ments. Selling to the government poses unique challenges, including the importance of
instruments such as tenders and a marketing timeline that starts months or years before
the tenders arrive. Governments at different levels and in different countries have varying
and often unique institutional and legal arrangements. But they buy – and in very large
quantities. Government accounts might be seen as key accounts (see Chapter 25), but
they pose many challenges that differ from those in the private sector, including unique
budget cycles, complex buying processes that involve many actors from divergent gov-
ernmental bodies and the need for an influence and presence in the political arena. This
area of enormous financial importance has seen little rigorous academic research.
Finally, the ISBM conducts a biennial marketing trends study (http://www.isbmtrends.
com), in which we highlight the key issues that leading B2B academics and practitioners
believe are the main issues that academics and practitioners should be addressing to be
prepared for tomorrow’s B2B marketplace. We urge readers, academics and practition-
ers alike, to investigate the most recent version of that study to complement the issues
and directions raised here.

NOTE

1. A recruiter from a major chemical company visiting our university recently hired no business graduates,
only chemical engineers, explaining to us, ‘We can teach chemical engineers to sell, but we can’t teach busi-
ness grads enough chemistry to be credible in our market.’

REFERENCES

Belz, Christian and Wolfgang Bussman (2001), Performance Selling, St. Gallen, Switzerland: Thexis and
Mercuri.
Bradford, Kevin, Steven Brown, Shankar Ganesan, Gary Hunter, Vincent Onyemah, Robert Palmatier,
Dominique Rouziès, Rosann Spiro, Harish Sujan and Barton Weitz (2010), ‘The embedded sales force: con-
necting buying and selling organizations’, Marketing Letters, 21 (3), 239–53.

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 11 18/11/2011 14:18

 12   Handbook of business-to-business marketing

Frederick, John H. (1939), ‘The place of industrial marketing in distribution’, Journal of Marketing, 4 (1), 31–5.
Hoffman, Donna L. (2000), ‘The revolution will not be televised: introduction to special issue on marketing
science and the Internet’, Marketing Science, 19 (1), 1–3.
LaPlaca, Peter and Jerome M. Katrichis (2009), ‘Relative presence of business-­to-­business research in the mar-
keting literature’, Journal of Business-­to-­Business Marketing, 16 (1), 1–22.
Lester, Bernard (1936), ‘Changing methods in the marketing of industrial equipment’, Journal of Marketing,
1 (1), 46–52.
Lilien, Gary L. (1979), ‘Advisor 2: modeling the marketing mix decision for industrial products’, Management
Science, 25 (2), 191–204.
Mantrala, Murali K., Sönke Albers, Fabio Caldieraro, Ove Jensen, Kissan Joseph, Manfred Krafft,
Chakravarthi Narasimhan, Srinath Gopalakrishna, Andris Zoltners, Rajiv Lal and Leonard Lodish (2010),
‘Sales force modeling: state of the field and research agenda’, Marketing Letters, 21 (3), 255–72.
Reid, David A. and Richard E. Plank (2000), ‘Business marketing comes of age: a comprehensive review of the
literature’, Journal of Business-­to-­Business Marketing, 7 (2), 9–186.
Sheth, Jagdish N. (1973), ‘A model of industrial buyer behavior’, Journal of Marketing, 37 (October), 50–56.
Webster, Frederick E. (1965), ‘Modeling the industrial buying process’, Journal of Marketing Research, 2 (4),
370–76.
Webster, Frederick E. (1978a), ‘Is industrial marketing coming of age?’ in G. Zaltman and T. Bonoma (eds),
Review of Marketing, Chicago: American Marketing Association, pp. 138–59.
Webster, Frederick E. (1978b), ‘Management science in industrial marketing’, Journal of Marketing, 42 (1),
21–7.
Webster, Frederick E. and Yoram Wind (1972), ‘A general model for understanding organizational buying
behavior’, Journal of Marketing, 36 (April), 12–19.

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 12 18/11/2011 14:18

 PART II

PERSPECTIVES IN B2B
RESEARCH

M2837 - LILIEN 9781849801423 PRINT.indd 13 18/11/2011 14:18

M2837 View
- LILIEN 9781849801423
publication stats PRINT.indd 14 18/11/2011 14:18