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The purpose of this paper is to call for a scrutiny of the dualist approach to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) marketing in industries driven by consumer-generated content. It posits that individual consumer-centric factors are influential for B2B marketing as well in sectors such as the travel industry and investigates the determinants of tourists’ intention to use social media websites for travel planning.

Integrating constructs from IS and marketing literature, the paper proposes information quality and perceived enjoyment as antecedents of perceived usefulness, attitude and intention to use. The research model is tested using data from social media users with experience in travel planning.

Results show that perceived usefulness and information quality are stronger predictors of attitude and behavioral intention than perceived enjoyment. Enjoyment was not found to be strongly influential. Relevancy and reliability of information and its usefulness concerning travel-planning needs were found more influential.

Data were collected from social media users, raising possible issues of representativeness.

The paper offers clarity regarding antecedents of downstream user behavior which can be of significant value. Demarcations in B2B and B2C perspectives blur in the context of social media, enabling more effective integration.

The paper brings in and validates the roles of information quality and enjoyment as influencers of behavior. Identifying the travel industry as a sector having greater likelihood of B2BC convergence, the paper extends IS adoption research to user-interactive sites in the travel-planning context, which can benefit the consumer as well as the supply side.

The purpose of this paper is to question again the relevance of the differences, which were first discussed over 20 years ago, between industrial marketing and consumer marketing and to suggest new ways to frame the debate on the B2BC dichotomy.

The paper includes an historical review of the principal texts of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group in order to elucidate the four key characteristics of industrial marketing; the time perspective, the role of the customer, market structure and the unit of analysis. It continues by considering the contributions that Consumer Culture Theory, which it is argued is a powerful renewing force in consumer marketing, can make in respect of these four characteristics.

The dichotomy of B2B/B2C no longer works by simply attributing it to the four historical differentiators of industrial marketing that are currently being adopted by innovators in consumer marketing. Consequently, this paper highlights the possible contributions of this development to industrial marketing and questions whether differentiation is possible. Are there not other criteria to take into consideration to differentiate the two fields?

This paper allows the reader to revisit a controversy that has apparently been kept hidden. It does not question the relevance of the controversy but the criteria used in trying to differentiate industrial marketing from consumer marketing. It introduces the most recent developments of consumer marketing research into the context of industrial marketing theories.

This study aims to provide a holistic review of social media influencers (SMIs) research based on a unique approach of bibliometric analysis and content analysis between 2011 and 2020. The review examines the main influential aspects, themes and research streams to identify research directions for the future.

The sample selection and data collection were done from the Scopus database. The sample dataset was refined based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria to determine the final dataset of 183 articles. The dataset was exported in the BibTeX format and then imported into the BiblioShiny app for bibliometric analysis. The content analysis was done following the theory-context-methodology framework.

The several findings of this study include (1) Co-word analysis of most used keywords; (2) Longitudinal thematic evolution; (3) The focus of the research papers as per the theory-context-methodology review protocol are persuasion knowledge model, fashion and beauty industries, Instagram and content analysis, respectively; and (4) The network analysis of the research studies is known as the co-citation analysis and depicts the intellectual structure in the domain. This analysis resulted in four clusters of the research streams from the literature and two emergent themes (Chen et al., 2010)

In general, the previous reviews in the area are either domain, method or theory-based. Thus, this study aims to complement and extend the existing literature by presenting the overall picture of the SMI research with the help of a unique combined approach and further highlighting the trends and future research directions based on the findings of this study.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the transformations undergone by dual marketers in their marketing strategies, with the advent of new digital tools. In particular, the chapter wants to emphasise the shift from a dual marketing perspective to the omnichannel approach, based on the integration of communication strategies between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). To this end, the chapter first analyses the theoretical contribution of the integrated marketing communication paradigm in omnichannel marketing. Then, identifying the characteristics common to the B2B and B2C markets, it maps the use of touchpoints and digital content in the dual marketers' omnichannel strategies. Moreover, the role of online personalised marketing and big data analytics tools is illustrated in order to investigate the relationship between dual marketing and big data analytics towards Industry 4.0. Lastly, the dynamics and the perspectives emerged from the literature are traced within the case study of Unicredit Italia to try to bring out the best practices for an omnichannel strategy of dual marketers.

Studies about product customization decision are especially relevant for organizations that decide opening a subsidiary overseas. This scenario requires the company to decide which products should be customized and which products should be standardized when selling products in international markets. The main purpose of this paper is to identify which factors influence the decisions on the customization of industrial products and consumer products to a particular country in the marketing function of a global company.

To do so, a literature review was conducted addressing the following topics: internationalization, international marketing and product customization factors. With regard to methodological aspects, an initial qualitative phase was conducted with four exploratory case studies. In the quantitative phase, an online survey was developed, obtaining 123 records of an intentional non-probabilistic sample.

As a result, six factors were deemed essential to the product customization decision: customers’ characteristics, sustainable return on investment, sustainable profit, legal requirements, sales of other products in the portfolio and weather differences.

The authors expect that the results of this research contribute academically for the management knowledge about the meanings that product customization can assume in internationalized companies, and, additionally, in a business way, the authors expect that they help companies make strategic decisions on the appropriate measure to take regarding product customization in international markets, whether industrial products or consumer products. With these findings, the authors expect to make a valid contribution about product customization decision and suggesting future studies from other perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively analyze and compare people’s objectives when participating in two sets of co-creation initiatives – business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) – to what the theory in the field states about that participation.

A qualitative approach has been adopted; it uses laddering, a qualitative technique, in a novel manner through the analysis of an abstract product: the co-creation process.

Results in B2C point to a disconnection between the motivation of participants and what the theory suggests that should be expected from a co-creation agenda. In the B2B setting, the disconnections are much smaller.

The research used small and narrow samples. Additionally, the research considers only the consumers’ perspective.

Considering the context in which they compete (industrial or consumer market), companies must come up with better selection criteria for co-creators and must be more specific in setting and pursuing the goals of the co-creation projects. By doing so, organizations can achieve more fruitful results in those innovation initiatives.

The present study is innovative in the use of laddering to understand not a product nor a service, but a process: co-creation. The study reveals that, despite the buzz about co-creation, practical examples suggest that this process may not be as fruitful or satisfying as the theories suggest.

Given the dramatic changes in the business environment, the purpose of the paper is to stimulate readers to challenge their mental models of business and industrial marketing, and consider the implications of the blurring of the lines between industrial and consumer marketing.

The paper is a reflection on the evolution of the discipline of industrial marketing since the author's first publication in this area 40 years ago, and an analysis of the impact on this discipline of five interrelated forces of change including: the convergence of B2B and B2C driven by the advances in the internet and rise of small businesses; the prevalence of outsourcing and creation of value networks across firms and countries; the opening of corporate R&D, manufacturing and marketing to the involvement of empowered customers; bridging the functional silos within the firm; and the movement from an “industrial” to a “knowledge” based society and the blurring of products, services, and customer experience.

The lines between consumer and business marketing are increasingly blurred by new technologies and business models. Researchers and practitioners need to re‐examine their mental models of business and industrial marketing in light of these changes.

The blurring of the lines has many implications, including moving from focusing on buyers to stakeholders, recognizing new forms of relationships with empowered consumers, re‐examining the role of outsourcing, bridging disciplinary silos, recognizing the importance of brand equity, utilizing information and communications technology, focusing on the total customer experience, addressing emerging markets, re‐examining the role of marketing research and modeling, and rethinking the use of dashboards. By recognizing these changes, one can build upon the foundation of the field to develop innovative approaches to both business and consumer markets.

A call to debate the need to redefine and rethink the discipline, and even rethink the title and focus of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to critique the adequacy of efforts to capture the complexities of customer experience in a business-to-business (B2B) context using input–output measures. The paper introduces a strategic customer experience management framework to capture the complexity of B2B service interactions and discusses the value of outcomes-based measurement.

This is a theoretical paper that reviews extant literature related to B2B customer experience and asks fresh questions regarding B2B customer experience at a more strategic network level.

The paper offers a reconceptualisation of B2B customer experience, proposes a strategic customer experience management framework and outlines a future research agenda.

This paper is conceptual and seeks to raise questions surrounding the under-examined area of B2B customer experience. As a consequence, it has inevitable limitations resulting from the lack of empirical evidence to support the reconceptualisation.

Existing measures of customer experience are problematic when applied in a B2B (services) context. Rather than adopting input- and output-based measures, widely used in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context, a B2B context requires a more strategic approach to capturing and managing customer experience. Focussing on strategically important issues should generate opportunities for value co-creation and are more likely to involve outcomes-based measures.

Improving the understanding of customer experience in a B2B context should allow organisations to design better services and consequently enhance the experiences of their employees, their customers and other connected actors.

This paper critiques the current approach to measuring customer experience in a B2B context, drawing on contemporary ideas of value-in-use, outcomes-based measures and “Big Data” to offer potential solutions to the measurement problems identified.

In the past few decades, relationship management (RM) theory and RM strategies in business-to-business (B2B) contexts have evolved tremendously, driven by constant innovation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand the trends and evolution of RM and relationship quality (RQ) in B2B contexts and empirical insights on RM and RQ in B2B, which in turn would provide insights into trends and future research directions.

Grounded on the industrial marketing and purchasing group, this study adopts a critical systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the past, current and future trends in empirical research insights of RM and RQ in B2B markets.

This study provides some novel insights into RM in B2B context by using a multidimensional approach to RM and RQ and analyzing prior marketing research from three perspectives: the evolution of RM and RQ in B2B context; prior empirical research; and practical business insights. Overall, these perspectives inform the development of an evolving side of RQ in B2B contexts, leading to some predictions regarding the future of RM in B2B markets.

The exploratory results of this study shed light on the key factors that drive RQ and the importance of RM in B2B markets in the digital age where customers still long for human interaction regardless of the prevalence of advanced technology.

In the wake of advanced technologies and particularly, B2B companies had to turn to virtual platforms and embrace digital transformation to establish and manage their customer relationships. Yet, managing relationships via digital channels has its own challenges for both B2B practitioners and scholars. This indicates that there is still a huge need for attuned RM strategies that align with the changing environments – mainly driven by technological advancement – in B2B markets.

The promise of B2B e‐commerce had led to an explosion in the number of e‐marketplaces as firms adopted a “launch and learn” strategy. However a cash crisis and continuing losses led to tremendous consolidation in these marketplaces. This scenario was mirrored in Latin America too. With the growing importance of B2B e‐commerce worldwide, Latin American firms cannot ignore the competitive advantages that accrue by employing the Internet into their strategies. This paper presents a variety of decision models that small and medium enterprises can employ to integrate the Internet into their business decisions and thereby remain competitive.