Industrial Marketing Management最新文献

There is a lack of empirical research about network governance mechanisms in the inter-organisational relationship (IOR) literature. In this paper, we provide new insight by analysing how platform actors influence governance mechanisms in business networks using a comparative case study of two platforms in a B2B2C setting. The focus is on the dynamics of the governance mechanism mix over time, highlighting how important contextual factors impact the combination of formal, informal and virtual mechanisms. Three groups of contextual factors are central to the governance mechanism mix: (i) macro-level factors (e.g. market structure), (ii) network-level factors (e.g. platform scope) and (iii) inter-organisational relationship-level factors (e.g. prior history of cooperation). Our findings highlight the impact of, and the interdependencies between, the three different contextual factors on the evolution of network governance mechanisms over time when a platform is involved as a network actor.

Corporations that present a distinctive and different brand identity are preferable for customers and the market, create value, and lead in pricing. It helps customers feel the corporation is trustworthy and reliable. Despite the remarkable advantages, the definition of brand identity for global B2B companies needs to be clearer and more complex than the definition of other close concepts. It deals with some problems and causes some challenges for managers. The present study aims to identify the main controversies and challenges in brand identity management for global B2B companies. Accordingly, a hybrid systematic literature review (SLR) and thematic analysis (TA) have been employed to extract the initial drawbacks. Afterwards, the relationships among the extracted themes are identified using an Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) to recognise the network of the problems surrounding the brand identity of global B2B companies. Ultimately, the identified themes are also categorised via the MICMAC method (Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification). After reviewing 142 articles, 12, 11, and 9 challenges were extracted as the main themes for corporate, brand, and stakeholder levels. These themes were analysed and categorised into drivers, linkages, dependents, and autonomous challenges. Moreover, three subsystems were presented, covering the causal relationship among the challenges.

Market segmentation goes beyond merely dividing a market into smaller groups of customers with similar needs that can be served with different offerings. Segmentation builds on and holds implications for marketing strategy, the differentiation of marketing activities, and the allocation of resources. Consequently, segmentation is essential for firms to enhance their competitive edge in navigating a more complex marketing landscape. This paper discusses five important areas where further research is needed to advance the understanding of segmentation: Segmentation as a theory, segmentation in practice, segmentation as a process, the impact of increased digitalization, and the challenge of multilayered markets.

The emerging digital technologies have brought about new changes to the servitization of manufacturing enterprises and resource allocation efficiency. Besides that, in the Chinese manufacturing industry, the ratio of listed companies between state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises is approximately 4:1, which also influences the resource allocation efficiency. This study establishes a comprehensive set of indicators encompassing workforce composition, financial investments, servitization propensity, and performance outcomes to gauge the holistic level of servitization among publicly traded manufacturing companies. The objective is to investigate the impact of servitization on the efficiency of resource allocation among firms within the industry. During the initial phases of servitization, the introduction of services renders products less substitutable. Consequently, some firms experience an increase in pricing levels, while others witness a reduction. This divergence in pricing strategies results in decreased resource allocation efficiency among firms. As the servitization process progresses, companies with initially high pricing levels reach a saturation point in their servitization journey, while those with lower pricing levels intensify their servitization efforts. This shift leads to an enhancement in product substitution elasticity among firms, thereby fostering an improvement in resource allocation. Notably, firms with higher levels of servitization tend to incorporate digital technologies into their service processes. They leverage information collection and data matching to formulate personalized and differentiated service strategies, consequently elevating the distinctiveness of their products. However, this transformation may also precipitate a reduction in resource allocation efficiency within the industry. It is imperative to underscore that the impact of manufacturing servitization on resource allocation efficiency varies across different regions in China, different sectors characterized by varying factor intensities, and different ownership structures. This impact is particularly conspicuous among non-state-owned enterprises, which indirectly underscores the relatively subdued competitive intensity among state-owned enterprises and the inadequacies in market-driven dynamics.

As information and communication technology (ICT) develops, firms increasingly rely on interorganizational information systems (IOSs) and social media to exchange knowledge and communicate with their partners. In this research, we investigate how ICT infrastructure capability and ICT use capability impact IOS- and social media-enabled knowledge exchange processes, respectively. Using a task–technology fit perspective, we also examine how the impact is influenced by the interorganizational governance (IOG) structure. We surveyed 550 industrial manufacturing firms to test the hypotheses. The results of our statistical analysis show the different impacts of ICT infrastructure capability and use capability on IOS- and social media-enabled knowledge exchange processes, which in turn promote interorganizational communication efficiency. This finding confirms the fit effects of ICT capabilities and IOG: contractual governance strengthens the positive impact of ICT infrastructure capability on the IOS-enabled knowledge exchange process, whereas relational governance strengthens the positive impact of ICT use capability on the social media-enabled knowledge exchange process. These findings raise our understanding of the relationships among ICT capabilities, ICT-enabled knowledge exchange processes, and communication efficiency as well as reconfirm the importance of IOG in interorganizational knowledge exchange. They also offer important theoretical and practical implications for marketing channel management.

Research supports the role of leaders in driving positive sales outcomes. However, while scholars have extensively analyzed the effects of positive leadership styles, the impact of negative managerial behaviors has received comparably scant attention. Grounded in job demands-resources theory (JD-R), we propose a conceptual framework that examines the effect of abusive supervision on job embeddedness and subsequent turnover intentions. Using unique panel data from 237 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople, we find that abusive supervision results in higher turnover intentions, and that this effect is explained partially by reduced job embeddedness. What can be done, then, to curb these effects and harden salespeople to the threat of challenging leadership? Our results indicate that the provision of two critical job resources—workplace social media (i.e., digital communication-based platforms) and flexible work accommodations (i.e., idiosyncratic deals)—jointly mitigate the negative effect of abusive supervision on salespeople's sense of workplace attachment. We conclude our research with implications and directions for future researchers interested in uncovering additional ways to reduce the pernicious impact of abusive supervisory environments on salesperson well-being.

In today's dynamic industrial market, the adoption of a bricolage strategy combined with ambidextrous behavior has emerged as a crucial approach for firms striving to maintain competitiveness. Despite the paramount importance, the questions regarding how bricolage is strengthened and how it enhances salesforce ambidexterity have yet to be answered. This research aims to develop an integrated model for the relationships among salesforce control system, salesperson bricolage, service-sales ambidexterity and value co-creation in B2B context. The study also explored how customer demandingness and empowerment climate moderate the relationship between salesperson bricolage and service-sales ambidexterity (SSAM). A sample of 321 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople served as a sample for our survey. The results demonstrate that the joint effect of behavior-based control and outcome-based control has a significant positive effect on salesperson bricolage. The study findings also demonstrate a positive and significant linkage between salesperson bricolage and SSAM, which further positively leads to value co-creation. Moreover, the empowerment climate positively moderates the relationship between salesperson bricolage and SSAM. In last, customer demandingness negatively moderates the connection between salesperson bricolage and SSAM. This research contributes to advancing our understanding of how a bricolage strategy plays a role in fostering salesforce ambidexterity in the B2B context.