ISBM Research Newsletter - Volume 15, Issue 2 - October 2022

Table of Contents

In This Issue . . .

As the leaves are turning in Pennsylvania, it is a good time to look back at ISBM summer highlights… the in-person ISBM PhD Camp and Academic Conference and the launch of the long-awaited second edition of the Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing. More on this, and other highlights, in this Newsletter.

First, it was wonderful to see so many of you in Chicago last August. Our warm thanks to Lisa Scheer and Kersi Antia for organizing the ISBM Ph.D. Camp. Students and faculty were thrilled. The Academic Conference that followed the Ph.D. Camp was co-chaired by Andrew Petersen and Anna Cui. A special thanks to Anna and her colleagues at UIC, for hosting us at their wonderful facilities. It was memorable, with many great research sessions and, perhaps more importantly, at last a chance to socialize without muted mics and echoing audio! In case you missed out, one of our favorite moments was the plenary session where we welcomed our new Distinguished ISBM Fellow Srinath Gopalakrishna and put Gary Lilien in the spotlight to celebrate his decades-long commitment to ISBM and B2B marketing. See Lisa’s and Andrew’s contributions on the PhD Camp and Conference here.

Second, if you joined us in Chicago, you carried some extra pounds on your way home—a hard copy of the second edition of the Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing. In this Newsletter’s Feature, Gary Lilien explains how the book is aligned with our mission, he looks back at the first edition published one decade ago, and then he gives insight into the new areas covered in the second edition. This is a critical ISBM deliverable, made possible thanks to contributions of sixty-eight B2B thought leaders.

Third, attention doctoral students (and their advisors)! The abstract submission deadline for the Doctoral Support Award Competition is coming close: November 1, 2022. We hope to award up to 3 doctoral students and provide financial support (between $3,000 and $5,000) to help them realize their B2B marketing projects.

Fourth, Andrew provides an update about the ISBM PhD Seminar Series (IPSS) offerings for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

Lynn Yanyo shares the latest from the ISBM Corporate Membership. She looks back on an inspiring Jam Session on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and hosts their first live ISBM Members Meeting since the pandemic.

Concluding this Newsletter, is an announcement about the inaugural B2B Connect Research Symposium, which will be offered this May at EMAC.

Warm Greetings,

Stefan and Andrew

Stefan Wuyts
Director, ISBM
Email: suw282@psu.edu

J. Andrew Petersen
Associate Director, ISBM
Email: jap57@psu.edu

2022 ISBM PhD Camp Recap

The Institute for the Study of Business Markets sponsored its 9th PhD Camp this year on August 9 & 10th at the University of Illinois in Chicago. 

A special thanks to Lisa Scheer (University of Missouri) and Kersi Anti (Western University), our Camp Co-Directors, who put together an exceptional program for PhD students this year. It was so great to meet and collaborate in person once again! 

In addition to receiving advice, mentoring and feedback on their own research proposals, our doctoral students heard from 19 faculty “camp counselors” on a variety of topics which included:

  • Sources of data, financial support, and research guidance
  • Working with practitioners to develop research projects
  • Obtaining secondary data creatively
  • The joys and trials of research collaborations
  • Developing a career while dealing with life’s unexpected twists

 

Our faculty counselors were joined by 27 doctoral students from 7 countries. Thank you, faculty counselors, we could not hold this event without your support and dedication.

Preceding the Camp, we featured a pre-camp workshop on Theory Construction taught by Professor Ajay Kohli (Georgia Tech); 19 doctoral students were able to join this pre-camp event. Special thanks once again to Ajay, for jump-starting our camp program with his successful and highly requested seminar by doctoral students.

Thanks to everyone who participated in and supported this program.  We hope to see continued involvement in the next Camp in 2024!

Lisa K. Scheer
Camp Director
University of Missouri
Email:  scheer@missouri.edu

Kersi Antia
Camp Vice-Director
Western University
Email:  kantia@ivey.ca

2022 ISBM Academic Conference Recap

ISBM held its 2022 biennial Academic Conference in Chicago, IL on August 10th – 11th at the University of Illinois Chicago. I want to start by thanking the University of Illinois Chicago for co-hosting the conference, specifically Anna Cui for working with us to get the conference organized at the UIC Student Center East and for Sandy Wayne, Interim Dean of the UIC Business School, for welcoming ISBM and all the conference participants. I also want to thank Lori Nicolini for her invaluable assistance in planning and organizing the conference and Chloe Nicolini for helping Lori make the conference run so smoothly.

We decided in late fall of 2021 to host our first post-pandemic in-person conference in summer of 2022. We certainly did not know what to expect. We were extremely happy to see that the B2B Academic Community was so eager to get back to in-person conferences. We received 5 special session proposals and almost 50 regular academic paper submissions from B2B scholars around the world. This translated into two concurrent tracks over one-and-a-half days with packed rooms and vibrant discussions during the networking breaks. We are confident B2B research is alive and well and its future looks bright!

In addition to the regular academic conference sessions, we were able to accomplish several other key objectives. We inducted our newest ISBM Fellow Srinath Gopalakrishna and heard about his B2B research journey. Congratulations, Srinath! We took time to celebrate (and surprise) Gary Lilien and his multi-decade contributions to ISBM and B2B scholarship and practice. Finally, we were able to provide conference-goers with the hot-off-the-press 2nd Edition of the Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing (edited by Gary Lilien, J. Andrew Petersen, and Stefan Wuyts).

We are already looking forward to planning and hosting the next biennial ISBM Academic Conference in 2024!

J. Andrew Petersen
Conference Chair
ISBM, Penn State
Email:  jap57@psu.edu

Anna Shoji Cui
Conference Co-Chair
University of Illinois Chicago
Email:  ascui@uic.edu

Lori Nicolini
Conference Administrator
ISBM, Penn State
Email: LNicolini@psu.edu

Gopalakrishna Announced as ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow

Srinath Gopalakrishna (University of Missouri) has been announced as an ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow. He was inducted to the prestigious group of ISBM Fellows during a special session at the ISBM Academic Conference that was held at the University of Illinois on August 10, 2022.

An ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow is:

  1. A recognized senior scholar and thought leader in one or more domains of B2B marketing,
  2. Dedicated to the ISBM’s mission of advancing both the theory and the practice of the discipline,
  3. Dedicated to working with practitioners, is deeply involved in B2B education, is active in field research and publication in respected journals, and
  4. Active in ISBM academic meetings, practitioner meetings and/or ISBM educational programs.

 

Srinath received multiple strong nomination letters from current Fellows, providing detailed documentation of his qualifications. Per the Fellows Protocol, Stefan Wuyts, ISBM Director and Andrew Petersen, Associate Director, appointed a selection committee, comprised of Sundar Bharadwaj (University of Georgia), Sandy Jap (Emory University), and Raji Srinivasan (University of Texas, Austin). All agreed that Srinath excelled on all dimensions noted above and will make a fine addition to the eminent group of ISBM Fellows. Congratulations, Srinath!

Feature: Just Out! Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing 2nd Edition (2022)

On behalf of my co-editors, Stefan Wuyts and Andrew Petersen, I am delighted to announce the publication of the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing, published by Edward Elgar, in Association with the ISBM!

In line with the dual mission of the ISBM–to expand research and teaching in the academia and improve the practice of B2B marketing in industry—the Handbook is again targeted at two audiences:   (1) Academics interested in the state of the art as well as research opportunities in the many domains of B2B marketing as well as (2) B2B Practitioners, interested in integrating the state of the art into their practices.

The 1st edition of the Handbook (including Raj Grewal as co-editor) was published in 2012: its 38 Chapters and 772 pages documented much of what was known at the time and what key questions remained.  Each of its chapters described the state of the art in an area of B2B Marketing and concluded with both research opportunities and managerial implicationsA decade has passed since the publication of the 1st edition.   The ensuing decade has seen many developments in the B2B domains that were represented in the first edition; those chapters, significantly updated to reflect the changes that have occurred in the last decade, are represented in the 2nd Edition, in some cases with modifications of authorship.  All authors from the first edition were invited to revise/update their chapters.  In some cases, the authors declined to revise.  (We still find it hard to believe that those authors had other uses of their time aside from revising their chapters).  In three cases, the authors had passed:  we deeply miss Robert F. Lusch,  Don E. Schultz, and Barton A. Weitz, all of whom left holes in the B2B field that are impossible to fill.  On a positive note, the Second Edition, comprising  34 Chapters and 690 pages, includes new chapters on contemporary topics (e.g., business model design and management, managing turbulence, pricing strategies) and methodological challenges (causality, endogeneity).

The Table of Contents (link below); as with the 1st edition, the chapter authors represent the global thought leaders in the many domains represented.

Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing 2nd Edition – Table of Contents

You will want to access this book as soon as possible.  The hardback edition (the only one published so far) is available at https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/handbook-of-business-to-business-marketing-9781800376861.html.  The hardback edition is targeted mainly at the Library market, and I urge you to recommend your library acquire a copy.

The softback edition is scheduled for release in the summer of 2023 and will be available at a much-reduced price.

In addition, most readers of this Newsletter are aware of the ISBM online portal, B2B Pulse (https://isbm.org/b2b-pulse/). Pulse was created by the ISBM as a global portal to B2B knowledge and B2B best practices.  Most chapters of the 1st edition are currently available there and we expect most chapters of the 2nd edition to be posted there before the end 2022.

It has been 10 years since the publication  of the 1st edition, and I know you will agree that it will have been worth the wait!

Gary Lilien
ISBM Director Emeritus
Penn State
Email:  GLilien@psu.edu

2022 Doctoral Support Award Competition

Penn State’s Institute for the Study of Business Markets announces its 32nd annual Business Marketing Doctoral Support Award Competition. 

Up to three candidates in accredited doctoral programs will receive dissertation support awards. Dissertations in any area of business-to-business (B2B) marketing or in any of the methodological areas that support advances in B2B marketing will be considered.

We welcome submissions on various B2B topics, including traditional areas such as B2B innovation, buying behavior, customer analytics, and interorganizational relationships. For more details on our most recent key priority domains (organized around Agile, Remote, Digital, Governance, Value, and Sustainability), see the whitepaper on the 2021 ISBM B2B Trend Study.  We also welcome submissions on B2B marketing topics that are not explicitly covered here.

In addition to applications from PhD students in marketing, we encourage applications from students in economics, management science, organization, organizational psychology, statistics, anthropology, and other disciplines whose developments help advance our understanding of the operation of the B2B marketplace.

Beyond a good fit with ISBM and a clear focus on a B2B marketing problem, good submissions have the following criteria:


(1) Important to B2B marketing practice;
(2) Important to B2B marketing academia;
(3) Rigorous in terms of the proposed research methodology;
(4) At a stage where ISBM support can make a difference.

Doctoral students can submit at various stages of their dissertation process.

The award consists of:

  • Up to $5,000 in financial assistance to be used for travel, conference attendance, data collection, and other expenses of conducting and presenting the results of the research.
  • Assistance, as needed, in gaining the cooperation of both ISBM member firms and non-member firms for data, interviews, etc.

 

Submission Information

PhD candidates interested in the competition should submit an abstract of their research not to exceed five double-spaced pages, along with a current vita and a vita of their dissertation advisor. The abstract should address the potential importance of their work to business marketing practice, its theoretical contributions, the research methodology, and the amount and kind of support requested. The abstract must be submitted no later than November 1, 2022. 

Electronic submissions must follow the following rules:

  • Preferred file format is Adobe Acrobat (.pdf).
  • Name all files submitted as attachments:
    • Filename for Proposal: DC22-Yourlastname.pdf
    • Filename for your Vita: DC22-Yourlastname-CV.pdf
    • Filename for your Advisor: DC22-Yourlastname-ADV-CV.pdf
    • If co-advisors, name them ADV1, etc.
  • Any other documents submitted electronically should be named in the same manner:
  • DC22-Yourlastname-description.pdf

 

Any emails relating to the competition should have the following in the subject line: “ISBM 2022 Doctoral Competition”. Submissions should be sent as email attachments in pdf format to LNicolini@psu.edu.

Proposals will be judged by an academic panel, consisting of representatives of the ISBM and qualified faculty members from other universities. The panel will not provide feedback to the entrants at this stage. Finalists will be notified by November 30, 2022.

Final proposals not to exceed 15 double-spaced pages are due on January 15, 2023. Winners will be announced by March 15, 2023. All finalists will receive feedback from the academic review panel.

Any pages of the abstract and/or proposal (not including reference pages) exceeding the page limits listed above will not be considered in the review process. Request samples of abstracts or proposals by sending an email to LNicolini@psu.edu.

IPSS Update: Current Fall 2022 and Upcoming Spring 2023 Offerings

Fall 2022:  This fall IPSS will have Mike Ahearne (University of Houston) teaching Personal Selling and Sales Management. Thank you, Mike, for agreeing to teach again in IPSS. The course will focus on academic research related to improving sales force performance. Mike will examine research using a variety of approaches including analytic models, empirical models, surveys, and lab/field experiments. He will investigate both published research as well as working papers by top scholars in the field. Many of these top scholars will join the sessions to discuss their working papers with the class. It will consist of eight sessions of 120 minutes each beginning on Monday, October 24, 2022.

Spring 2023: This spring IPSS will have Venky Shankar (Texas A&M University) teaching B2B Digital Marketing and Analytics. Thank you, Venky, for agreeing to teach in IPSS. This PhD seminar will review the foundations, major contributions, and recent developments in business-to-business (B2B) digital marketing through selected readings on different topics such as B2B digital strategy, ecommerce, channels, supply chain, social media, mobile, and analytics. The emphasis will be on frameworks of B2B digital strategy and marketing and emerging research in this domain. The seminar will review both established as well as new themes in this domain and discuss their principles and implications. The analysis and discussion will provide participants with new ways to think about B2B digital marketing. In addition, a principal purpose is to generate new ideas, new research topics, and new applications for existing B2B digital marketing problems. The seminar will not teach participants research methodologies but will facilitate their learning of methodologies. It will introduce the application of new methods such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) for B2B data. Participants are expected to fully get into the research rigor of the readings and research ideas.

Please bring these PhD seminars to the attention of your promising B2B PhD students.

Students should follow the “Admission Procedure” and can register online. The deadline to register for the Fall 2022 course is Friday, October 21, 2022. We will announce the deadline for the Spring 2023 IPSS course once we have finalized the dates of the seminar.

For the complete course descriptions and overviews visit the course page.

We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming programs. Additionally, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

J. Andrew Petersen
Associate Director
ISBM, Penn State
Email:  jap57@psu.edu

Greetings from the ISBM Membership

After two and a half years, we are delighted to report that we held our most recent Member Meeting in person (and simultaneously virtually/hybrid) in Chicago, Oct 12-13.  It has been a long time since we’ve been together sharing experiences, providing support and enjoying time with our peer network of marketing professionals, and it was so great to be back in person again.  Our meeting was hosted by member company Marmon Holdings, Inc. at Chicago’s mHub Innovation Center.

About half our our participants attend face-to-face in Chicago along with most of our speakers.

The theme of this Member Meeting was Marketing’s Post-Pandemic Role in B2B Innovation: New Methodologies and Refilling the Top of the Funnel.  You will be able to find all of the presentations after Oct 26 on ISBM.com or B2B Pulse.

Earlier this year we held a one-day, virtual Jam Session for our membership on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).  This topic area was identified by our research group as a high area of interest.  All of the presentations and the closing discussion are available on B2B Pulse.  We also shared a great workbook The Inclusive Language Handbook: A Guide to Better Communication and Transformational Leadership by Jackie Ferguson and Roxanne Bellamy with attendees. 

We continue to expand our educational offerings to practitioners and companies.  We are currently running our second B2B Marketing Mastery TRACK, which provides a new B2B Marketer with all the basics of B2B Marketing over 4 months.  We have begun adding in-person sessions for the TRACK as well.

We look forward to getting all of us back together in 2023.  Best wishes to everyone for continued good health.

Lynn

Lynn Yanyo
Executive Director, ISBM Corporate
Email: Lynn.Yanyo@isbmb2b.com

Inaugural B2B Connect Research Symposium - May 2023

The inaugural B2B Connect Research Symposium, cohosted by the (AMA) Interorganizational Special Interest Group (IOSIG), the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) B2B Marketing Special Interest Group (BROSS), and the Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) B2B Marketing Special Interest Group, will take place in May 2023 at the EMAC Conference in Odense, Denmark! 

As the name suggests, our goal is to bring together B2B marketing scholars from around the globe to develop ideas that transform research and practice in the B2B research area. 

In doing so, we are suggesting a brand-new approach to participating. Specifically, we are seeking B2B scholars to join the working groups led by our B2B thought leaders in order to develop cutting-edge research ideas over the course of a few months before the conference.

If you are a B2B scholar, are interested, or work in closely related fields of strategy such as sales, you can apply to join one of the existing working groups.

To apply, please kindly fill out the survey on the website. Given the limited space, we are working on a first-come, first-served basis. 

For more information, please contact:  Qiong Wang or Jody Crosno.

Qiong Wang
University of Oklahoma
Email: qiongwang@ou.edu

Jody Crosno
West Virginia University
Email: JLCrosno@mail.wvu.edu