Survey Research in B2B Marketing: Current Challenges and Emerging Opportunities
Since its earliest beginnings, and throughout its ongoing development, the marketing discipline in general and business-to-business research in specific has heavily relied upon the survey method. The advent of alternative data collection techniques has given us pause for thought with respect to the continued use of survey research methods. Our chapter seeks to provide an overview of survey methods as applied by marketing scholars in the business-to-business relationship context. We identify and address several challenges currently facing survey research. In addition, we outline several promising new developments in the conduct of, and analysis based on, survey research. Our hope is that a thoughtful and balanced consideration of the benefits, limitations, and future potential of survey research will serve current and future marketing scholars alike in their efforts to shed new light on business-to-business research.