The future of business and industrial marketing and needed research

There are usually no shortages of predictions of what the future will be like. In fact life would be impossible without them. We predict that tomorrow will be similar to today and that our students or customers will still need what we have to offer. That our car will start or the bus will be there at the usual time. The building we work in will still be standing and the visual recognition software will open our office door. It is only when we start to look further into the future that our predictions become less certain. Two recent predictions of the future of marketing serve as interesting examples

Using PDSAs to Optimize Surgical Screening

This poster describes a project that used a patient-centered medical home model to improve cervical cancer screening for patients at Duffy Health Center in Hyannis. Lessons learned include: identifying existing opportunities to provide whole-person care may provide revenue enhancement opportunities; practice workflow tools require user input in their development to be accepted and effective; buy-in from all team members is crucial and it is important for the team to agree on the process; and data collection is essential, along with ongoing quality improvement and practice transformation coaching

Contagion and learning in business networks

The purpose of this study is to examine network learning through the application of contagion theories. The transmission of knowledge, sharing of resources, and facilitation of learning through contagion has interested both business-to-business and economic geography researchers. This study responds to calls in both research traditions for research into knowledge and learning at the level of an interfirm network. More specifically, it focuses on developing an understanding of how the contagion of knowledge and ideas and the co-ordination of activities within a network tales place. We achieve this by drawing upon research in both network relationships dynamics and learning processes to investigate the causal mechanisms that drive contagion. We focus on two types of contagion: contagion by cohesion (i.e. the presences and closeness of direct contact with others in the network), and contagion by structural equivalence (i.e. where influence is related to the structural patterns of relationships in the network). We also identify two key mechanisms that act as a barrier to such contagion: isolation and immunity. We explore the implications of these findings for network learning opportunities, specifically learning-by-doing, learning-by-using, and learning-by-interacting

Managing the content of LinkedIn posts: Influence on B2B customer engagement and sales?

This study investigates whether LinkedIn content in a business-to-business (B2B) service setting affects how firms generate engagement and sales revenue. Drawing on social media marketing theoretical underpinnings, we explain how a new post typology (sales, technical, and social) and customer engagement (likes, clicks, shares, and comments) are relevant to increase firm performance. We specify a VAR model with exogenous variables (VARX) using 106 weeks of data from a new, steadily growing B2B firm. We focus on the cumulative effects (i.e., short- and long-term effects) of the types of posts, website visits, new followers, and a composite of engagement behaviors over time and compute elasticities with impulse response functions (IRFs). Our findings indicate that followers and website visits positively affect the amount of sales revenue, and sales posts and website visits drive the number of followers. In addition, we find that social posts, new followers, and sales revenue positively influence engagement. These findings demonstrate the utility of LinkedIn at the firm level, preventing top management from perceiving social media as an ornamental accessory, and provide guidance for B2B marketers about what content to post on LinkedIn

Contingent factors affecting network learning

To increase understanding of the impact of individuals on organizational learning processes, this paper explores the impact of individual cognition and action on the absorptive capacity process of the wider network. In particular this study shows how contingent factors such as social integration mechanisms and power relationships influence how network members engage in, and benefit from, learning. The use of cognitive consistency and sensemaking theory enables examination of how these contingent factors influence the learning processes of two construction industry design teams embedded within more permanent home-organizational structures. A number of practical ways arise by which firms can facilitate organizational learning through their interactions with network partners. Enhancement of learning in and between organizations occurs when members are cognizant of the means by which they connect within a network to create shared meanings, and the way in which they forge ties and share expertise in the learning process they engage in

Salesperson goal orientations and the selling performance relationship: The critical role of mediation and moderation

Over the last two decades studies have demonstrated the importance of goal orientations in the context of selling and established a body of the main antecedents and outcomes. A closer look at the empirical findings reveals that the relationship between goal orientations and performance remains partly inconsistent as there is mixed evidence of the learning orientation performance relationship partly conflicting with theory. We propose that these findings can be clarified by studying moderation effects related to the nomological network of goal orientations. In testing a research model focused on the interrelations of goal orientations, selling experience, adaptive selling and salesperson selling performance, we confirm the established relationships and show that the learning orientation performance relationship is more complex than earlier studies suggest. The findings indicate that the effectiveness of learning orientation is contingent on selling experience and it affects performance also indirectly by helping salespeople adapt their sales styles more effectively. Ignoring these interaction effects will undermine the role of learning orientation in selling performance bearing also concrete implications for sales management

Involving customers in innovation: knowledgeability and agency as process variables

Purpose: Recent research places an increased emphasis on the inclusion of the customer in value creation, learning, and innovation processes yet there remains a gap in our understanding of just how such customer involvement may work. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining two aspects of customer involvement; their knowledgeability and their agency. In addition, we explore three boundaries (semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic) across which relationship development occurs and which mayfacilitate and/or inhibit value co-creation, collaborative learning, and innovation processes. Design/methodology/approach: We utilised three case studies. Two were large scale construction projects in the UK, and one was a global professional accounting firm in the USA. Findings: Customers may become frustrated if not allowed to exercise their agency. However, their involvement can create tensions for suppliers who may have to become more tolerant of divergent goals. In respect of knowledgeability, we found that constraint satisfaction is important in allowing customers to reconcile their personal knowledge schema with that of the collective schema. However, we also noted that customer knowledgeability brings with it challenges for suppliers, who must find ways to add value for such customers. Research implications: We pose a number of further questions relating to the agency and knowledgeability of customers and their inclusion in value co-creation, collaborative learning, and innovation processes. We also highlight the need for guidance in identifying and minimising the barriers to crossing semantic, syntactic and pragmatic boundaries between customers and suppliers. Originality/value: We make an important contribution to research in the field in that we investigate how the inclusion of the customer in business networksalters current assumptions and practices

Entrepreneurship, Muddling Through, And Indian Internet-Enabled SMEs

Advancements in internet technology are enabling Indian entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurial activities and innovations using new business models to achieve scale and scope as they begin to compete in a global marketplace. An understanding of how these Indian entrepreneurs are successfully growing and rapidly expanding their businesses is critical, not only from research perspective, but also from a practitioner view. This paper contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship in SMEs in emerging markets such as India. This aim is accomplished through the examination of companies that adopt the incremental decision making methods proposed by Lindblom (1959)