The Essence Of Business Marketing Theory, Research, and Tactics: Contributions from the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing

ABSTRACT

During its first thirteen years ¹ of publication, this journal has been an innovative leader for topical development of business marketing literature. To mark this milestone, this special issue takes stock of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing (JBBM)—characterizing its growth and accomplishments as well as summarizing its contributions. The JBBM has published over 150 papers that have rich theoretical underpinnings.

The JBBM's editorial position has been about access and this has been largely achieved through successful implementation of editorial policy, participation in Meet-the-Editors sessions, fostering geographically broad-based board appointments with stability, and publication of four special issues.

This article provides an overview of the history of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing in the context of similar efforts by other lead journals. The dynamics of our editorial posture are subsequently examined with an eye toward how JBBM policy and procedures are formulated and implemented. Next, salient content features of JBBM literature are highlighted, and the appendix contains a detailed summary for each article (since inception) noting author(s), key research issue, theory, methodology, findings, and contribution (organized by seventeen topics within the business marketing management general model). Finally, thoughts regarding the future content and context for of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing are presented.

Notes

1. Net years of publication from Volume 1 (1993) to Volume 13 (2006) inclusive.

2. First year of actual publication for Volume 1 was 1993.

3. Industrial Marketing Management started publishing in 1971. R. Derek Medford was the founding editor: 1971–1974 (Volumes 1–3); James D. Hlavacek was the second IMM editor: 1974–1993 (Volumes 4–22); Peter J. LaPlaca is the third IMM editor since 1994 (Volumes 23–); Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing started publishing in 1986. Peter J. LaPlaca was the Founding JBIM editor from 1986 to 1993 (Volumes 1–8); Wesley J. Johnston, the second JBIM editor since 1994 (Volumes 9–); Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing started publishing in 1986 and Arch G. Woodside, Jr., the founding and current editor, 1986– (Volumes 1–).

4. Furthermore, except for an occasional article in the JM and even fewer in JMR, none of these traditional marketing outlets provided any focus on industrial or business marketing (La Placa and Johnston 2006).

5. As of 2005, JBBM content is tracked internationally by over fifteen abstracting and indexing services including Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences (CC/S&BS), ABI Inform, LexusNexus Academic Universe, and Business Source Premier, to mention a few examples. For a complete list see http://aux.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/jbbm/Sources.htm

6. From 1981 to 1984, Wilson was the industrial marketing section editor for the Journal of Marketing.

7. Some of the shift is attributable to some scholars migrating to North America.

8. Founding Editor Wilson tenaciously worked over four years assembling what was to become the content of the first two years of the JBBM's publication (Volumes 1 and 2). All new journals (in varying degree) lack viability/credibility and this fact leaves an editor to cull for manuscripts with the advice and consent of a newly coalescing board, to set a standard for ideas and approaches. and try to attract top/emerging scholars as well. This pattern occurs in the fragile early new product launch stage of most journals and a few sources document these unsteady days/months or even years (e.g., Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science—first twenty years; Berkman 1992). The survival of any journal is in question during this formative time. In fact, in 1994, the JBBM did not publish a volume, choosing to wait until 1995 to publish Volume 2.

9. It was noted then and we agree now “Whether the distribution of articles by subject matter is commensurate with relative importance of each subject or whether, it reflects the emphasis of interests of the authors or of the editor of the Journal is a matter of further study” (Applebaum 1947). It is also mediated by editorial board review. Coincidently, the JM and JBBM both had approximately the same number of subject areas at the time of the first accounting (year ten) of their content and essentially the same ratio of articles to book reviews (approximately 50/50).

10. From a “sample” of over 600 manuscripts submitted for review.

11. Review and descriptive papers made up over one third of the published content in the JBBM and this is commensurate with other top journals such as JAMS (Malhotra 1996, 1988).

13. Karl E. Weick (1996), who served as Administrative Science Quarterly's editor from 1977 to 1985, characterized stock-taking as a “complex mixture of appreciation, wariness, anticipation, regret, and pride all fused into thoughts of renewal.”

14. Lichtenthal et al. (2006) also note that several individuals acting very much like a cross-functional team in a business marketing firm execute the review process roles as enacted during the review process. These temporary teams, one per MS, create a small study group (the author(s) and 2–4 reviewers  +  editor  =  typically 4 to 9 people) that never meet fact-to-face yet is moderated by an editor, to act cooperatively. The anonymity allows striving for relevant truths, devoid of personality and managed for inevitable biases. The process should be characterized by coherence and circumspect analysis with the members of a review team capable of assessing all salient facets of any given MS.

15. It was not until the 1950s that the first textbooks devoted to industrial marketing endured to multiple editions: Richard M. Hill, Ralph S. Alexander, and James S. Cross, Industrial Marketing (1956, 1961, 1967, 1975); E. Raymond Corey, Industrial Marketing: Cases and Concepts (1962, 1976, 1983, 1991); Robert W. Hass, Industrial Marketing Management (1976, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1992, 1995); Frederick E. Webster, Jr., Industrial Marketing Strategy (1979, 1984, 1991), to mention a few from the United States. Currently, there are twenty-eight exclusively B2B textbooks (1995 to 2005), of which twelve are non-English based (Backhaus 2008).

16. Cooke (1986) notes that defining industrial marketing starts with one of three approaches: (1) product approach (types of goods), (2) market definition approach (types of buyers), or (3) marketing activity approach (tactical marketing mix). Authors of basic textbooks also give a definition that emphasizes (1) and (2) with exchange as the unit of analysis. He goes on to delineate the characteristics of industrial marketing, which include: derived demand, concentrated markets (number of buyers and location), rational buying motives, reciprocity, stable buying relations (long-term relationships), multiple buying influences, various differences across marketing mix elements (e.g., personal selling dominant promotional force, channels are shorter and distribution is more selective). The main defining characteristic then is the motivation for the purchase by organizations for creating another offering, rather for personal consumption by the final consumer. With these distinctions in mind it is not feasible to say that consumer and industrial marketing are the same.

17. B2B involves antecedent market activity so it is not seen as often as B2C by members of society and therefore is not as well understood as B2C. B2B involves inherently different marketing phenomena for the most part.

18. These editorial statements are modeled after those of the American Marketing Association's Journal of Marketing, which has set a standard for the field since 1936, and have been adapted to fit the domain context and methods emphasis for the field of business-to-business marketing and are on our website: www.aux.baruch.cuny.edu/jbbm/

20. There are degrees of business marketing scholarly involvement, we believe: a bona fide and exclusive interest = at least 85 percent of a scholar's work is in B2B with the other 15 percent in methods, general marketing thought, or potpourri; a bona fide interest = at least 65 percent; an ongoing interest = at least 35 percent; and an occasional interest = approximately 15 percent.

21. ASQ at 50 (Palmer 2006) set out five arenas for concern: the field's object of inquiry, devotion to theory building, paradigmatic heterogeneity, modes of building theory and conducting research, disciplinary status and foundation and relevance to practitioners and cultural anchors.

22. And we feel that both will expand as they move toward convergence.

23. Asked by the JBIM editor, Wes Johnston, to comment on where our field is heading. Invited luminaries include Richard Bagozzi, Gregory Gundlach, Mike Hutt, Peter La Placa, Jag Sheth, Jerry Wind, and others.