Business-to-Business Marketing in the Light of the Evolution of the Business Environment

Abstract

Introduction and overview of the special issue Organizations are undergoing deep transformation pertaining to, financialization, globalization and digitalization. In recent decades, “financial markets” shaped western societies and emerging markets. Besides, globalization has transformed economies and societies in distant parts of the world (Arnold and Sikka 2001). Transformation is also associated with digitalization. Indeed, significant and substantial data are exchanged instantly and continuously within and between organizations as well as individuals. In this context, new opportunities as well as threats, e.g. new markets, more efficient management strategy, stakeholders power balance, blurry organizational frontiers, constantly expose decision makers to new challenges. These deep transformations influence the way organizations design, perform and monitor many of their activities, e.g. marketing management, internal marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing, information and knowledge management, business ethics etc. (Bouwman et al. 2018; Christen et al. 2019; Parviainen et al. 2017; Riedl et al. 2017). Whilst a large number of organizations are adhering to this dynamic, many others are still lagging behind. In order to change, organizations need to implement creative solutions taking into account issues such as organizational structure, timeframe, expected outcome, their location/ place/physical/digital environment, their ethical conduct among others. Such issues call for new insights into how organizations from different backgrounds are surfing such complex realities. Against this background, the development of this special issue has been inspired by both the aforementioned advances and the 4th Edition of the LIGUE International Conference – in collaboration with Bournemouth University, the Academy of Marketing Business-to-Business Special Interest Group (UK), the Retailing and Digital Marketing Research Center (Canada) and the Association for the Promotion of Innovation and Quality (APIQISCAE, Tunisia) – addressing the theme of “Deep Transformation and the Future of Organizations”, in Tunis, 6 & 7 December 2019. This special issue “Business-to-Business Marketing in the Light of the Evolution of the Business Environment” was developed by Nektarios Tzempelikos (Anglia Ruskin University, School of Management) and brings together six superb articles discussing the latest thinking about recent changes in the business environment and their implications for business-tobusiness marketing. The papers are positioned both in terms of the recent changes in the economic and business setting such as digital/social media interaction between buyers and sellers and in terms of how business-to-business companies can utilize advancements on the information technology field such as digital transformation and social media applications to respond to the evolution of the complex business environment. We next elaborate on the specifics of the special issue and present the articles that are included in it. At this point, we would like to thank David Lichtenthal, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing Editor-in-Chief, for welcoming our idea and for kindly allowing us to develop this special issue.