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This study aims to explore what characteristics contribute to the definition of relevance in business-to-business (B2B) marketing research and how/why different strands of B2B marketing maintain or lose their relevance.

This study is conceptual. It adopts a performative-phenomenal standpoint for B2B marketing research and approaches relevance through the concept of episteme, which is considered pivotal for understanding this phenomenon.

This study proposes four axioms that define the characteristics of relevance in B2B marketing research and discusses their implications for scholars and practitioners. Consequently, an action plan for revitalizing B2B marketing research is developed, comprising learning and temporal dimensions, resulting in nine different relevance types.

The central argument put forward in this study is that different research strands of B2B marketing have deeply rooted epistemic underpinnings that influence their interpretation of relevance. Consequently, fostering dialogue between practitioners and scholars is considered necessary to sustain relevance in B2B marketing research. B2B scholars are urged to think beyond their subspecialized silos and acknowledge how the business environment and the various strands of B2B marketing congruently shape B2B marketing relevance, while also embracing research methods that bring them closer to business practice.

Marketing practitioners and academics continue to drift apart. This study puts forward three recommendations to bring marketing academics and practitioners closer together.

The study contributes to the B2B marketing literature by grappling with the theory-praxis gap and critically exploring what constitutes relevance in B2B marketing research.

Through critically reflecting on existing research on information and communication technology (ICT) in hospitality, the purpose of this study is to propose recommendations for future research to further narrow the theory-practice gap.

Personal experiences along with evidence from the literature provide a foundation for discussion, which is further enriched by integrating industry practitioners’ points of view.

Single-perspective and technology adoption studies have dominated ICT research in the hospitality literature. Technology effectiveness has often been measured indirectly. Oversimplifying technological issues has limited the generalizability of research findings.

Future studies are suggested to go beyond examining technology adoption, embrace multi-perspective approaches and incorporate a wider range of situational and contextual factors.

Through a unique perspective, this study highlights the limitations of previous ICT research in the hospitality literature and provides suggestions for future research to better meet the needs of practitioners. The arguments presented are not purely from an academic standpoint, as they have been endorsed by senior industry executives.

This study aims to present a comprehensive integrative review of capitation payment for primary healthcare (PHC) in the Indonesian national health insurance (Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional,JKN).

Whittemore and Knafl’s integrative review method is used within this review and analysis framework. Multiple types of academic literature were included in this review, including all studies related to capitation payment in the JKN from 2014 until 2022.

This review found that several practices of capitation payments in the JKN in Indonesia deviate from basic economic concept of capitation. It does not yet incentivize PHC to create a competitive environment in attracting members and it does not incentivize health promotion and prevention. Moreover, the capitation model uses the same scope of primary care services for all PHC throughout the country – which in fact has disparities in providing 155 medical conditions as required competencies for PHC. The authors recommend that the JKN apply bottom-up costing and pricing methods to set market prices of capitation rates.

This is the first study that reviews theory-practice gap of the capitation payment model using an integrative review that covers academic literature, journal articles and regulations in Indonesia.

Although virtual worlds, such as the Metaverse, can disrupt the hospitality sector, few empirical investigations have critically evaluated the scope and scale of this disruption from an industry perspective. This study aims to rectify this knowledge gap by exploring the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse as seen by hospitality professionals.

This is a Delphi study conducted with UK-based senior hospitality industry practitioners experienced in designing and implementing digital innovations within their organisations.

The Metaverse is most likely to be adopted by hospitality organisations willing and able to take risks, such as large and/or chain-affiliated enterprises. The Metaverse will not replace traditional hospitality services but supplement and enhance them with new layers of service. The main applications are in the context of events and experiences. The Metaverse will also provide the “try before you buy” option, revealing the opportunities to design digital twins of physical businesses. Young and technology-savvy individuals are most likely to first adopt the Metaverse. The key challenges of the adoption are attributed to the technological unpreparedness of hospitality organisations; market immaturity; inflated customer expectations; a skills gap among hospitality employees; and regulatory issues. These challenges require the engagement of various stakeholders to create an operational and monitoring framework for hospitality organisations to embrace the Metaverse.

This study highlights how the Metaverse can disrupt the hospitality industry at the level of strategic planning and business operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical investigations of the potential of the Metaverse from the viewpoint of hospitality industry practitioners.

Effective inventory management is crucial for SMEs due to limited resources and higher risks like cash flow, storage space, and stockouts. Hence, the aim is to explore how technology and know-how can be integrated with inventory practices and impact operational performance.

The basis of the analysis was collecting papers from a wide range of databases, which included Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. In the first phase of the process, a search string with as many as nine related keywords was used to obtain 175 papers. It further filtered them based on their titles and abstracts to retain 95 papers that were included for thorough analysis.

The study introduced innovative methods of measuring inventory practices by exploring the impact of know-how. It is the first of its kind to identify and demonstrate how technical, technological, and behavioral know-how can influence inventory management practices and ultimately impact the performance of emerging SMEs. This study stands out for its comprehensive approach, which covers traditional and modern inventory management technologies in a single study.

The study provides valuable insights into the interplay between technical, technological, and behavioral know-how in inventory management practices and their effects on the performance of emerging SMEs in Industry 5.0 in the light of RBV theory.

The RBV theory and the Industry 5.0 paradigm are used in this study to explore how developing SMEs' inventory management practices influence their performance. This study investigates the effects of traditional and modern inventory management systems on business performance. Incorporating RBV theory with the Industry 5.0 framework investigates firm-specific resources and technological advances in the current industrial revolution. This unique technique advances the literature on inventory management and has industry implications.

Operational excellence (OpEx) is a proven philosophy focusing on continuous improvement in processes and systems for superior performance and efficiency. It plays a crucial role in the energy sector, acting as a catalyst for safety, customer satisfaction, sustainability and competitiveness. This research aims to assess OpEx methodologies in Oman’s energy sector, examining methods, approaches, motivations and sustainability.

This study applies qualitative analysis methodology, involving interviews with 18 industry experts, from the energy sector in a sizeable energy country.

The analysis revealed a growing demand, particularly, in the oil and gas industry, driven by emerging business needs. Qualitative data analysis has identified 10 themes such as implemented methodologies, motivation drivers, deployment approaches, sustainability factors, benefits and challenges. Additionally, new themes emerged, including influencers to start OpEx, resource requirements, enablers for successful OpEx and systems.

This research was limited to Oman and the findings drawn from Omani energy companies may have limited applicability to energy companies in other regions. Therefore, if these findings were to be used, the validation of the findings in relation to other countries should be conducted, to ensure the validity of the context and outcome.

These findings contribute to understanding OpEx dynamics in the Omani energy sector, offering valuable insights for effective utilisation and organisational goal achievement. Furthermore, the study offers valuable insights on how to effectively employ OpEx initiatives in the energy sector to achieve their goals and create value. It addresses the lack of knowledge, offers a framework for successful OpEx implementation, bridges the theory-practice gap and provides insights for optimal utilisation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study on assessing OpEx methodologies in the energy sector, and therefore it serves as a foundation for many future studies. The study provides a theoretical foundation for the OpEx methodologies in terms of organisational readiness for successful OpEx implementation.

This study aims to focus on a specific project marketing concept, i.e. “discontinuity,” and analyzes how this concept emerged in project marketing, becoming its key scholarly embodiment, how it became decoupled from the increasingly service-intensive project business practice and what the relevance of discontinuity is for project marketers moving forward.

This study is built on a systematic literature review of 31 years (1993–2023) of publishing data from major marketing and management journals.

This study provides three findings. First, the author reveals the risks related to marketing scholars and practitioners losing sight of each other as business practices evolve much faster than scholarly research can keep up. Second, the author highlights the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing conceptual innovations. Finally, the research elucidates the need for broader metatheoretical reflection to keep this research tradition on an upward trajectory.

The aim of this study is not to criticize project marketing, as many strands of business-to-business (B2B) marketing face the same challenge, but to elucidate a need for conceptual innovations, collaboration with practitioners and other disciplines and broader metatheoretical reflection to keep this research tradition on an upward trajectory.

This study makes several contributions to the project marketing research tradition. First, it reviews the emergence and dissipation of the concept of discontinuity, drawing on semantical, etymological and epistemological insights. It also reflects on recent disruptions in the marketplace and envisions future research trajectories for this elusive concept. In addition, the author develops a conceptual framework that combines project types with exchange elements in project and service businesses. This conceptual framework helps elucidate what part of the exchange is continuing and what is discontinuing in the resulting business relationships. Furthermore, the research contributes to B2B marketing more broadly by highlighting the fleeting correspondence between theory and the real world. It underscores the need for constant updates to maintain relevance.

The aim of this study is to report and reflect on the development of a tailored executive education programme rooted in state-of-the-art research and focused on enhancing and embedding project leadership competences in a multi-national project-based organisation.

Through a detailed description of an example of a leadership development programme, the paper reflects on the learning journey. Drawing on research in management education, leadership and project management competence development, the authors present the rationale, design, delivery and participant and organisational experiences.

Reflections on the learning journey identify five key points: a) the fundamental role of a programme champion, b) the importance of balancing rigour and relevance in executive education programme design, c) the importance of attending to the milieu of the clientele in terms of culture, demands and where they are in terms of their learning journey, d) the significant role that reflection can play in personal development and e) the competences necessary for project leadership.

This paper reflects on a single programme for a single organisation and is therefore at risk of being idiosyncratic and not generalisable. This is indeed a limitation. However, the authors are all experienced in delivering executive education – and therefore can use those experiences to view the reflections. Many of the considerations noted here resonate with other programmes (both in support and through experience of omission having detrimental effects).

The paper provides new insights into developing enduring and effective leadership competences in complex project management, i.e. one that has a lasting impact on the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits. The reflections on how the authors charted a course and embarked on a journey are deemed of relevance to academics and industry.

The paper provides, for both industry practitioners and academics, new insights into effective leadership development in complex project management, one that has a lasting impact on the individual and the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits.

The purpose of this study is to, first, analyze the past years of research on international branding and, second, building on an early literature review, to analyze patterns in the field and suggest future research.

The analyzed papers were compiled using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The author searched papers published between 2007 and 2023 that used terms related to international branding in their title, abstract and keywords.

This paper structures and identifies key institutions, papers, regions and authors in the field. It provides an overview of the past years of research in the area. The study identifies important gaps in the literature and suggests further research dealing with, for example, the B2B sector and emerging markets.

Despite the increase in international branding studies, few literature reviews have been published since 2007. This review fills this research gap. It identifies future research areas dealing with branding in the B2B sector, branding in emerging markets, branding process and implementation studies using longitudinal methods and more practical research.