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This paper aims to argue that engagement with industry in research, while costly in terms of time and effort, can provide benefits in terms of measurable research impact, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) domain.

This study draws joint experiences about how best to connect with an industry organization, how to engage with that organization and how to provide and document impact by transforming some aspect of that organization.

The findings of this study provide practical and implementable suggestions on how to engage in impactful B2B research.

This study discusses the special nature of the B2B domain and why engagement with industry is especially important and beneficial. Though such research may not be appropriate for all academics, this study argues that its high rewards more than compensate for its high costs.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of brand love by studying its intensity and the nature of extreme forms of it, rather than its presence or absence. The love of a sports team is a type of brand love and is a valuable context to study of brand love intensity because the intensity of love can become more extreme than for products; it has two distinctive features that are theoretically, management and policy relevant; and it is an under-researched context in marketing that is socially and economically significant.

The authors empirically develop and test a multidimensional hierarchical higher-order measure of the intensity of team love and a model of its drivers and outcomes using a sample of supporter club members of a professional sports team who vary in their intensity of love for the team.

The results support our measurement model and its distinctive features, especially the importance of the perceived two-way bond fans have with their team. While overall intensity of team love is not related to social influence or on-field performance, as hypothesized, they are related to sub-dimensions of team love, reflecting its multidimensionality. As hypothesized, the intensity of team love and social influence are related to the intention to renew club membership even with increased costs and poor performance and social influence is directly related to word of mouth and game attendance.

The research is limited to the club members of one sports team in a particular sport in one country and one cultural context. Future research opportunities include: extending it to other sports and brand contexts, refining the methodology and addressing other issues highlighted by the research.

The results indicate the limits of management control of team love intensity because it develops over time independently through social processes. However, firms can help facilitate these processes. The social dimensions indicate the need to develop socially, as well as individually-focussed relationship management strategies. Most devoted fans are valuable customers, but some hardcore elements can be dysfunctional and sabotage the brand.

Sport is personally, social and economically significant in most cultures and love of a sports team love can be an important glue that binds people and communities. However, the existence of extreme hardcore fans and heated rivalries can also be divisive and pose challenges for social policy. Hence, the need to better understand the factors driving more extreme forms of team love to better inform the development of social policy.

The authors focus on the intensity of brand love rather than its presence and absence as in prior research. The authors develop and test a new hierarchical measure of sports team love intensity and a model of its drivers and outcomes. The sports context is under-researched in marketing but reveals the important role played by dimensions that are obscured in studies of product brand love – its social nature and the perceived reciprocal relation with devoted fans. The results contribute to developing extended theories of brand love, open up new research opportunities and have management and policy implications.

The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise some of the main contributions of Donald F. Dixon to marketing theory and the history of marketing thought.

Personal experience, as well as a review of the major papers and the book Dixon co‐authored are used to highlight the development of his thought and contributions.

Dixon championed a broad hierarchical systems approach to understanding marketing and was able to identify the origins of concepts and ideas in history in a way that showed his depth of scholarship, the deep intellectual history of marketing thought and the misrepresenting of earlier theories that are present in some modern writings.

Dixon's contributions are of major importance but not well known in marketing. It brings together some of his major contributions and indicates their value.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on the meaning and significance of the article by Don Dixon on the change in teaching of marketing theory at Wharton in 1955‐1957.

The paper presents a personal reflection and consideration of the history of marketing research since 1957.

Dixon has throughout his career championed a broad systems framework for understanding marketing. His comments show the beginning of a major shift in marketing theory towards a narrow one sided marketing management focus that limited research and neglected areas that ended up being taken up by other disciplines such as strategic purchasing, supply chains and networks.

Highlights a tipping point in the development of marketing theory that restricted the development of marketing theory.

Industry standards affect the diffusion and adoption of new technology and the competitiveness of individual players but their development is not under the direct control of individual actors. Examines the role and importance of personal networks in the development of industry standards on the basis of a case study of Ericsson’s involvement in the development of standards for 3G mobile telephony. Notes how relations among parties and many types of forums stemming from previous development and marketing involvement affect the complex set of interactions shape the bottom‐up self‐organizing way in which standards emerge. The case study has implications for our understanding of the way standards develop and for managers attempting to influence the outcomes.

The paper seeks to review recent developments in theory and research regarding the nature and role of relations and networks in business markets and to argue for a more dynamic, interactive and evolutionary view.

Complexity theory, as well as theories of distributed cognition and control, is used to show that business markets, relations and networks are complex adaptive systems of interacting people, firms, activities, resources and ideas in which no one player is in control.

The theoretical perspective described has profound implications for management practice, policymaking and research. In particular it leads to the concept of soft assembled strategies in which management and firms utilize the inherent response properties of the relations and networks in which they operate to extend what they can do, sense, know and think.

Relevant research methodologies for addressing the academic, management and policy issues arising from this perspective are described.

The paper shows the relevance of developments in the complexity sciences and distributed cognition to business marketing and management.

The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative view of marketing that Donald F. Dixon spent much of his distinguished career developing – a paradigm that we refer to as the Dixonian systems perspective of marketing. It is a paradigm that presents marketing as a phenomenon that reaches far beyond the micro/managerial marketing mix paradigm.

Analysis and interpretation of Donald F. Dixon's and colleagues' scholarly work to distill the essence of Dixon's view of marketing, which we refer to as the Dixonian systems perspective of marketing.

The Dixon's systems perspective of marketing offers a framework for the analysis of macromarketing issues that is not provided by the conventional marketing mix micro/managerial paradigm.

The paper provides a concise overview of the macro/systems ideas and concepts of marketing contained in Donald F. Dixon's and his colleagues' extensive writings that to date has not been available from any other source.

Export grouping schemes are a commonly used vehicle for promoting international competitiveness, but their success rate is patchy. A perennial problem is the value of continuing the formal group structure itself. In this paper we examine the nature and role of export groups using the results from two in‐depth Australian case studies. The focus of analysis is on export groups as structuring devices rather than structures. They are viewed as action learning exercises in which knowledge and resource creating and self‐organizing processes are nurtured, these processes in turn shaping the evolution of interfirm relations and networks. Building on earlier work by Wilkinson and Young the dance metaphor is extended to depict and analyze export groups as dance parties. Dance themes are used to illustrate and dramatize issues arising in the design, development and evaluation of export grouping schemes and are related to the real experience of the two case studies examined.

Existing business marketing theory often overstates the importance of competitive positioning when undertaking market entry strategy, although most theory acknowledge the need to develop strategies based on an analysis of the market structure. Indeed, as business marketers offering distance learning, universities are quick to embrace competitive positioning based on an analysis of the market structure. The same level of enthusiasm, however, has not been shown on network positioning based on an analysis of the network structure. Understanding and applying network positioning could confer a different but equally important perspective impacting on the market entry strategies of a university. This article attempts to fill these gaps and demonstrate its application in the context of Australian universities planning to enter the Malaysian distance learning education market, with local colleges acting as intermediaries.