Industrial Marketing Management最新文献_第3页

Inbound sales management: Exploring the substitutability of autonomous AI sales agents in advancing B2B relationships 入站销售管理：探索自主AI销售代理在推进B2B关系中的可替代性

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-11-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.11.007

Christopher A. Nelson , Lana Waschka , Gary K. Hunter

Generative AI is fundamentally reshaping how B2B buyer-seller relationships are initiated and developed, raising new theoretical questions about the nature of relationship-building in digitally mediated exchanges. In particular, when a prospective buyer initiates contact through digital channels—creating inbound leads—sales managers must determine whether to assign key relationship-forging tasks to an AI agent or a human. This research investigates how these choices affect buyer relationships and sales outcomes. Using traditional relationship phases (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987), we conceptualize and test the effectiveness of AI in the exploration and expansion phases, where sharing market expertise and proposing integrative solutions are critical. We provide evidence that human salespeople are more effective in vital relationship-building tasks, demonstrating that psychological distance provides an explanatory mediating mechanism. On the other hand, buyers with higher technological proficiency tend to prefer AI agents, suggesting that using bots can lead to improved sales outcomes for this segment of buyers. Thus, these findings offer insights into when to deploy human salespeople versus AI agents in the lead nurturing process, such as sharing market expertise and proposing integrative solutions.

生成式人工智能从根本上重塑了B2B买卖关系的启动和发展方式，提出了关于数字媒介交换中关系建立本质的新理论问题。特别是，当潜在买家通过数字渠道发起联系时，销售经理必须决定是将关键的关系建立任务分配给人工智能代理还是人类。本研究探讨了这些选择如何影响买家关系和销售结果。利用传统的关系阶段（Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987），我们概念化并测试了人工智能在探索和扩展阶段的有效性，在这些阶段，分享市场专业知识和提出综合解决方案至关重要。我们提供的证据表明，人类销售人员在重要的关系建立任务中更有效，表明心理距离提供了一个解释性的中介机制。另一方面，技术熟练程度较高的买家往往更喜欢人工智能代理，这表明使用机器人可以改善这部分买家的销售结果。因此，这些发现为在潜在客户培养过程中何时部署人类销售人员和人工智能代理提供了见解，例如分享市场专业知识和提出综合解决方案。

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引用次数: 0

Ingredient branding in industrial B2B2C chains: How corporate brands and sales value propositions drive co-branded equity 工业B2B2C链中的成分品牌：企业品牌和销售价值主张如何推动联合品牌资产

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.12.009

Fernanda Muniz Junqueira Ottoni , Rafael Barreiros Porto , Marcos Inácio Severo de Almeida , Karim Marini Thomé

In industrial markets, the equity of co-branded offerings hinges on how decision makers interpret alliances between corporate brands. When brand strength is asymmetric, it remains unclear which partner dominates equity formation and when sales value proposition framing adds value. This study investigates how corporate brand strength (strong vs. weak, for host and ingredient firms) and sales value proposition framing (utilitarian vs. symbolic) jointly shape product brand equity across B2B and B2C audiences. Drawing on signaling and information integration theories, we argue that equity formation is contingent on audience type, framing, and brand strength asymmetry. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with 558 participants employed simulated ingredient co-branding scenarios in a B2B2C dairy context. Results show that strong host and ingredient brands enhance brand equity, with host brands exerting a systematically stronger influence. Weak host brands substantially depress brand equity, particularly among B2B respondents. Framing effects are contingent: utilitarian framing increases willingness to pay a price premium only when paired with strong host brands in B2B settings. The study advances industrial co-branding research by clarifying when corporate brand dominance and framing congruence drive co-branded product equity across B2B and B2C audiences, highlighting asymmetric brand strength as the primary coordination mechanism.

在工业市场，联合品牌产品的权益取决于决策者如何解读企业品牌之间的联盟。当品牌实力不对称时，仍不清楚哪个合作伙伴主导股权形成，以及销售价值主张框架何时增加价值。本研究探讨了企业品牌实力（对于主业和原料公司而言，强与弱）和销售价值主张框架（功利与象征性）如何共同塑造B2B和B2C受众的产品品牌资产。根据信号和信息整合理论，我们认为股权的形成取决于受众类型、框架和品牌实力的不对称性。558名被试进行了2 × 2 × 2 × 2的被试间实验，采用B2B2C乳制品情境下的模拟成分联合品牌情境。结果表明，强势的主料品牌和食材品牌提升了品牌资产，主料品牌的系统性影响力更强。弱品牌会严重压低品牌价值，尤其是在B2B受访者中。框架效应是偶然的：只有在B2B环境中与强大的主机品牌配对时，功利主义框架效应才会增加支付溢价的意愿。本研究通过澄清企业品牌优势和框架一致性在B2B和B2C受众中驱动联合品牌产品权益的作用，进一步推动了行业联合品牌研究，并强调了不对称品牌优势是主要的协调机制。

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引用次数: 0

'Retail Business Development Specialists' (RBDS): Understanding customer-facing versus relational performance drivers with Retail-to-Business (R2B) customers “零售业务开发专家”（RBDS）：了解面向客户与零售业务（R2B）客户的关系性能驱动因素

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.11.009

Christopher R. Plouffe , Carlos Bauer , Michael Peasley , David Mathis

Forward-thinking retail firms (e.g., Apple, Ikea, BestBuy, Verizon) are benefiting from a new customer-facing role, the ‘Retail Business Development Specialist’ (RBDS). Empirical work on the RBDS role has yet to be undertaken in the literature, thus this initial examination of RBDS begins by positioning it as a “Retail-to-Business” (R2B) marketing role whose primary purpose is to serve high-volume customers and grow sales in ways distinct from both B2B and B2C sales positions. We initially explore the RBDS role through a qualitative field and case study (Study 1). Findings from Study 1 indicate that effective RBDS performance is likely predicated upon effectively managing the buyer exchange relationship from both a customer- (CO) and sales-oriented (SO) perspective as well as efficacious usage of various relationship management behaviors. In Study 2, we explore performance in the RBDS role through the lens of selected individual traits, salesperson behavioral orientations (SOCO), and relationship management strategies (i.e., ROC-II), testing these relationships via a field study of 211 RBDS employees. The present research contributes by offering an initial look at this new customer-facing role, while investigating specific traits and relational behaviors that drive performance.

有远见的零售公司（如苹果、宜家、百思买、威瑞森）正受益于一个面向客户的新角色，即“零售业务发展专家”（RBDS）。关于RBDS角色的实证工作尚未在文献中进行，因此对RBDS的初步检查首先将其定位为“零售对企业”（R2B）营销角色，其主要目的是服务大量客户并以不同于B2B和B2C销售职位的方式增长销售。我们通过定性领域和案例研究（研究1）初步探讨了RBDS的作用。研究1的研究结果表明，有效的RBDS绩效可能取决于从客户（CO）和销售导向（SO）的角度有效管理买方交换关系，以及有效使用各种关系管理行为。在研究2中，我们通过选择的个人特质、销售人员行为取向（SOCO）和关系管理策略（即ROC-II）来探讨RBDS角色的绩效，并通过211名RBDS员工的实地研究来检验这些关系。目前的研究提供了对这种新的面向客户角色的初步看法，同时调查了推动绩效的特定特征和关系行为。

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引用次数: 0

Symbolic or substantive? Can supplier codes of conduct impact ESG performance? 象征性的还是实质性的？供应商行为准则能否影响ESG绩效？

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.12.007

Moulik M. Zaveri , Erik A. Mooi , Peren Özturan

An undercover investigation found that Mango and Zara sourced from suppliers where employees were compelled to work for 12 hours a day in hazardous conditions (Forbes, 2024). There are many such examples, exposing the dependence of major organizations on—often barely visible—suppliers. To deal with issues such as those illustrated in this example, major organizations may use supplier codes of conduct (SCCs)— legally binding documents through which organizations manage and monitor their suppliers' ethical and socially responsible practices. The first observation is that some organizations adopt SCCs when others do not, raising the very question of whether their adoption really fosters ethical and socially responsible practices—whether they are symbolic or substantive. Second, for organizations that adopt SCCs, there is significant variation in practices. We conduct an unsupervised machine learning approach whereby the text of each SCC is analyzed to assess variation in topics. We find three categories of topics that we label customary, cooperative, and compliance SCCs. The analysis shows that cooperative SCCs are best at fostering environmental and social ESG performance, whereas compliance SCCs are best at fostering social and governance ESG performance. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications.

一项秘密调查发现，Mango和Zara从供应商那里采购，这些供应商的员工被迫在危险的条件下每天工作12小时（福布斯，2024年）。有许多这样的例子，暴露了主要组织对供应商的依赖——通常几乎不可见。为了处理本例中所述的问题，主要组织可能会使用供应商行为准则(SCCs) -组织通过其管理和监督供应商道德和社会责任实践的具有法律约束力的文件。第一个观察是，一些组织采用了scc，而另一些组织没有，这就提出了一个问题，即采用scc是否真的促进了道德和社会责任实践——它们是象征性的还是实质性的。其次，对于采用SCCs的组织，在实践中存在显著的差异。我们进行了一种无监督的机器学习方法，通过分析每个SCC的文本来评估主题的变化。我们发现了三类主题，我们将其标记为习惯、合作和遵从性scc。分析表明，合作型企业在促进环境和社会ESG绩效方面表现最好，而合规型企业在促进社会和治理ESG绩效方面表现最好。我们讨论了理论和管理意义。

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引用次数: 0

Entrepreneurial selling: Advancing value-based sales through entrepreneurial psychology 创业销售：通过创业心理推进价值销售

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.12.008

Robert J. Pidduck , Rhett Epler

Business-to-business (B2B) sales is increasingly imbued with expectations for salespeople to adopt a posture for what the layman might term ‘being entrepreneurial’ (i.e., thinking and behaving in ways that orient towards independent creativity, proactive initiative-taking, and willingness to take risks in trying new ways of doing things). Yet, the latest advancements in entrepreneurship scholarship remain largely disconnected from the B2B scholarly audience. In this position piece, we introduce the idea of entrepreneurial selling—where value-based selling (VBS) meets individual-level entrepreneurial constructs that tap into core facets of being entrepreneurial in one's work. We argue that concepts such as entrepreneurial mindset, alertness, imaginativeness, passion, hustle, and individual entrepreneurial orientation offer helpful yet presently untapped insights into sales behaviors, resilience, and value creation in buyer-seller relationships. By integrating core constructs in the field that represent the foundations of entrepreneurialism among individual employees, we chart a promising new research agenda that deepens understanding of how salespeople navigate uncertainty, initiate opportunity-driven interactions, and embody entrepreneurial behaviors and approaches in established firms.

企业对企业（B2B）销售越来越多地充满了对销售人员的期望，希望他们采取一种外行可能称之为“企业家”的姿态（即，以独立创造力、积极主动的方式思考和行动，并愿意冒险尝试新的做事方式）。然而，创业学术的最新进展在很大程度上仍然与B2B学术受众脱节。在这篇职位文章中，我们介绍了创业销售的概念——基于价值的销售（VBS）与个人层面的创业结构相结合，这些结构挖掘了一个人在工作中具有创业精神的核心方面。我们认为，企业家心态、警觉性、想象力、激情、喧嚣和个人创业取向等概念为买卖双方关系中的销售行为、弹性和价值创造提供了有益但目前尚未开发的见解。通过整合该领域代表个体员工创业精神基础的核心结构，我们绘制了一个有前景的新研究议程，加深了对销售人员如何驾驭不确定性、发起机会驱动的互动以及在成熟公司中体现创业行为和方法的理解。

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引用次数: 0

From coopetition to courtroom: The role of litigation frequency in coopetition 从合作到法庭：诉讼频率在合作中的作用

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-03 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.11.010

Carolin Krieweth, Jona Hesse, Malte Brettel

As coopetition among major business players intensifies, both scholarly and managerial interest in inter-firm coopetition has grown. While prior research has emphasized its potential benefits, an emerging stream of work highlights the risks it entails. Among these, litigation frequency remains an understudied yet consequential outcome. This study examines how firms' involvement in coopetitive alliances shapes their overall external litigation exposure. Specifically, we investigate how competition intensity and the presence of coopetition influence firms' litigation frequency. We further examine how balance within coopetitive relationships moderates this effect. We theorize that balanced coopetition mitigates litigation frequency, whereas intensified competition and the mere presence of coopetition increase it. Using a multi-source, cross-industry dataset of 1981 alliances formed by 322 S&P 500 firms between 2004 and 2021, our analysis indicates that both competition intensity and coopetition elevate litigation frequency, while balanced coopetition reduces it by approximately 29 % compared to non-coopeting firms. In doing so, this study contributes to coopetition and litigation research by empirically demonstrating how structural conditions shape firms' external legal exposure, offering a more nuanced view of the dynamics and governance of inter-firm relationships.

随着主要商业参与者之间的合作加剧，学术界和管理层对企业间合作的兴趣都有所增长。虽然先前的研究强调了它的潜在好处，但新兴的工作流强调了它所带来的风险。其中，诉讼频率仍然是一个未被充分研究的重要结果。本研究考察了企业参与竞争联盟如何影响其整体外部诉讼风险。具体而言，我们研究了竞争强度和合作的存在如何影响公司的诉讼频率。我们进一步研究了竞争关系中的平衡如何调节这种影响。我们的理论认为，平衡的合作减少了诉讼频率，而激烈的竞争和单纯的合作增加了诉讼频率。利用2004年至2021年间322家标准普尔500强公司组成的1981个联盟的多来源跨行业数据集，我们的分析表明，竞争强度和合作都提高了诉讼频率，而与非合作公司相比，平衡合作使诉讼频率降低了约29%。在此过程中，本研究通过实证证明结构条件如何影响公司的外部法律风险，为合作和诉讼研究做出了贡献，为公司间关系的动态和治理提供了更细致的视角。

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引用次数: 0

Corporate activism in B2B contexts: A typology and research agenda B2B背景下的企业行动主义：类型与研究议程

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-05 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.11.011

Luiza D. Braga , Matheus G. Tardin , Marcelo G. Perin , Amir Grinstein

Corporate activism (CA) refers to companies taking public stances on controversial sociopolitical issues. Existing research has primarily focused on consumer-facing (B2C) contexts, while activism in business-to-business (B2B) settings remains underexplored despite its increasing relevance. This study advances understanding of B2B CA through a three-stage research design. First, we conducted a systematic literature review and extracted six recurring themes: issue domains, forms of support, level of involvement, timing, temporal scope, and value chain orientations. Second, we analyzed real B2B CA cases to assess how these themes manifest empirically. Our findings reveal two unifying constructs: value chain orientation (upstream vs. downstream) and commitment tangibility (intangible vs. tangible) that synthesize the diversity of B2B CA practices. Third, based on these themes, we develop a typology of four archetypes: market-access activism, risk-shield activism, grounded activism, and market-normative activism. We conclude with a research agenda that outlines theoretical, contextual, and methodological priorities for advancing the emerging B2B CA field.

企业行动主义（Corporate activism， CA）是指企业在有争议的社会政治问题上采取公开立场。现有的研究主要集中在面向消费者（B2C）的环境中，而企业对企业（B2B）环境中的行动主义尽管越来越相关，但仍未得到充分探索。本研究通过三个阶段的研究设计来促进对B2B CA的理解。首先，我们进行了系统的文献回顾，并提取了六个反复出现的主题：问题域、支持形式、参与程度、时间、时间范围和价值链方向。其次，我们分析了真实的B2B CA案例，以评估这些主题如何在经验上表现出来。我们的研究结果揭示了两个统一的结构：价值链导向（上游vs下游）和承诺有形性（无形vs有形），它们综合了B2B CA实践的多样性。第三，基于这些主题，我们发展了四种原型的类型学：市场准入行动主义、风险保护行动主义、扎根行动主义和市场规范行动主义。我们总结了一个研究议程，概述了推进新兴B2B CA领域的理论、背景和方法优先事项。

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引用次数: 0

Contingent value of coopetition in business clusters from a resource-based view: A moderated-mediation model 资源视角下企业集群合作的或有价值：一个有调节的中介模型

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-24 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.12.006

George Kobina VanDyck , Christopher Agyapong Siaw , Jonas Aryee , Shikhar Bhaskar , Chiwuokem Nwoko , Rahul Govind

This study examines how perceived cluster resource attractiveness (PCRA) shapes coopetition among co-located firms and how coopetition translates those resource perceptions into knowledge sharing and innovation. Building on the resource-based view, we model coopetition as the mechanism through which managers leverage valuable, unique, and complementary cluster resources into firm outcomes, and we theorize that engagement mode in cluster activities conditions this translation. Using survey data from 221 firms in a business cluster, we estimate a moderated-mediation model with regression and corroborate the results with a latent-variable SEM robustness check. Findings show that PCRA increases coopetition, and coopetition in turn enhances both knowledge sharing and innovation. However, the indirect effects depend on participation type: formal participation attenuates the coopetition to outcome link, especially for innovation, informal participation is directionally positive but statistically non-significant, and an aggregate participation robustness test confirms attenuation when firms engage in formalized participation. The study introduces PCRA as an operationalization of cluster-level resource heterogeneity, positions coopetition as an RBV-consistent mechanism, and identifies governance-based boundary conditions limiting the returns to coopetition. Practically, managers should leverage informal ties and selective formal involvement to convert cluster resources into knowledge and innovation while avoiding over-formalization that can dampen coopetitive gains.

本研究探讨了感知集群资源吸引力（PCRA）如何塑造同地企业之间的合作，以及合作如何将这些资源感知转化为知识共享和创新。在资源基础观点的基础上，我们将合作建模为管理者将有价值的、独特的、互补的集群资源转化为企业成果的机制，并将集群活动中的参与模式作为这种转化的条件。利用221家企业集群的调查数据，我们用回归估计了一个有调节的中介模型，并用潜在变量SEM稳健性检查证实了结果。研究结果表明，PCRA促进了合作，而合作反过来又促进了知识共享和创新。然而，间接影响依赖于参与类型：正式参与减弱了合作与结果的联系，特别是对于创新，非正式参与是正向的，但统计上不显著，总参与稳健性检验证实了企业参与正式参与时的衰减。该研究将PCRA作为集群级资源异质性的操作化，将合作定位为rbv一致性机制，并确定了基于治理的限制合作回报的边界条件。实际上，管理者应该利用非正式关系和选择性的正式参与，将集群资源转化为知识和创新，同时避免可能抑制合作收益的过度形式化。

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引用次数: 0

Understanding paradoxical tensions and coping strategies in platform-based servitization 理解基于平台的服务化中的矛盾张力和应对策略

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-11-22 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.11.008

Guilherme Sales Smania , Néstor Fabián Ayala , Wim Coreynen , Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos Gomes , Glauco H.S. Mendes

Platformization represents a powerful means to advance digital servitization. However, it also gives rise to inherent contradictions that generate tensions. The present study explores such tensions through a paradox lens, drawing on two case studies of agricultural machinery manufacturers that implemented B2B platforms to support their servitization initiatives. The findings uncover paradoxical tensions in both platform design and governance—specifically, the platform orientation and affiliation paradoxes in platform design, and the innovation and transparency paradoxes in platform governance. To address these tensions, the study identifies four coping strategies: flexible architecture, selective exclusivity, modular governance, and customer empowerment. These insights can support managers in diagnosing the paradoxical tensions they may encounter in their companies' platform-based servitization initiatives and in adopting appropriate coping strategies.

平台化是推进数字化服务化的有力手段。但是，它也产生了内在矛盾，从而产生紧张局势。本研究通过一个悖论的视角探讨了这种紧张关系，借鉴了农业机械制造商实施B2B平台以支持其服务化计划的两个案例研究。研究结果揭示了平台设计和治理中矛盾的紧张关系，特别是平台设计中的平台导向和隶属关系悖论，以及平台治理中的创新和透明度悖论。为了解决这些矛盾，该研究确定了四种应对策略：灵活的架构、选择性排他性、模块化治理和客户授权。这些见解可以帮助管理人员诊断他们在公司基于平台的服务化计划中可能遇到的矛盾紧张关系，并采取适当的应对策略。

引用次数: 0

Digital platform ecosystems: A systemic view of power wielded by the platform orchestrators over complementors 数字平台生态系统：对平台协调者凌驾于互补者之上的权力的系统看法

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Industrial Marketing Management

Pub Date : 2025-11-01 Epub Date: 2025-10-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.10.001

Cristina Simone, Antonio Laudando, Silvia Scardini

In the rising shaped-by-platforms landscape, increasing power has been concentrated in the hands of a few dominant digital platform orchestrators. This growing dominance has brought the issue of power asymmetries between platform orchestrators and complementors to the forefront of economic and managerial literature. Although most studies attribute the dominant position of platform orchestrators primarily to their economic power, it represents only one source of a broader multidimensional power. This study unveils a critical literature gap: the lack of systemic frameworks enlightening the multiple sources of the platform orchestrators' power. The research addresses this gap, adopting the systems thinking perspective that enables to enrich literature in two ways: first, to move beyond a monolithic definition of the platform orchestrator's power by identifying three different sources from which it emerges (economic, technological and regulatory); and second, to integrate the static view of platform orchestrators' power by enlightening how each source affects the other according to recursive interdependent feedback loops. The originality of this work is double: 1) it provides an insightful taxonomy of the three main sources of the platform orchestrator's power; 2) it develops a 3 × 3 matrix shedding light on the interdependences and feedback loops among the three sources of power.

在由平台塑造的格局中，越来越多的权力集中在少数占主导地位的数字平台协调者手中。这种日益增长的主导地位，已将平台协调者与互补者之间的权力不对称问题推到了经济和管理文献的前沿。尽管大多数研究将平台协调者的主导地位主要归因于他们的经济实力，但它只代表了更广泛的多维权力的一个来源。这项研究揭示了一个关键的文献缺口：缺乏系统的框架来启发平台协调者权力的多种来源。该研究解决了这一差距，采用了系统思考的视角，可以从两个方面丰富文献：首先，通过确定平台协调者的权力产生的三个不同来源（经济、技术和监管），超越了对平台协调者权力的单一定义；第二，通过揭示每个源如何根据递归的相互依赖的反馈循环影响其他源，来整合平台编排器力量的静态视图。这项工作的原创性是双重的：1)它提供了平台编排者权力的三个主要来源的深刻分类；2)建立了一个3 × 3矩阵，揭示了三种电源之间的相互依赖关系和反馈回路。

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引用次数: 0