ISBM Research
N E W S L E T T E R
December 2013
Volume 6, Issue 3
IN THIS ISSUE . . .
B2B Leadership Board Update: Buying
Decisions, Behaviors, and Patterns in
Business Markets: A Call to Action
(Raj Grewal & Fred Wiersema) ..............2
From the Membership: Points of Focus:
Lessons and Insights from 30 Years of
ISBM Research, Practice, and Progress
(Ralph Oliva) ......................................4
ISBM Ph.D. Student Camp for Research in B2B
Markets - July 2014 ............................6
San Francisco State University to Host 2014
ISBM B2B Academic Conference - Call for
Papers and Special Sessions ................7
IPSS Update: Spring 2014 Lineup
(Raj Grewal) .......................................7
In This Issue . . .
A
s we enter Winter 2013/2014, we seek
ways to brighten the dark and dreary days.
We hope we can bring you a few rays of
sunshine with this newsletter.
Our feature is by Raj Grewal and Fred Wiersema,
announcing the launch of a key ISBM strategic
initiative emerging from Fred’s B2B Agenda: B2B
Buying Behavior. The main differences in research
issues facing B2B versus B2C, marketers derive
Gary L. Lilien
Raj Grewal
largely from how their respective customers make
purchase decisions. B2B buying in today’s digitally networked global economy differs
dramatically from that behavior in the days when the foundational research in B2B (or
Organizational) buying behavior emerged. Raj and Fred describe a key ISBM initiative to
focus attention on this domain.
Ralph Oliva’s From the Membership column reports on our very successful September 2013
Members’ Meeting—our 30th Anniversary Meeting, that featured stimulating panels of
academics, CMOs and CEO’s in the B2B domain. Ralph summarizes some of the exciting
ideas that emerged from that meeting.
Raj introduces the Spring 2014 IPSS lineup—Stefan Wuyts will be offering a course on
B2B Social Networks and Gerry Tellis will be offering one on Innovation. Please bring the
availability of these excellent courses to the attention of your PhD students.
We close with two hold the date notices:
The biennial ISBM PhD Camp will be held in San Francisco on July 29-30 (just before
the AMA Summer Educator’s conference. Abbie Griffin and Lisa Scheer are organizing the
camp, which will include an (optional) pre-conference workshop on “Theory Construction
in B2B Markets” offered by Ajay Kohli on 28-29 July and an (optional) post-camp
workshop by Gary Lilien on “Writing for Academic Publication” on August 1.
CONTACT INFORMATION
The biennial ISBM B2B Academic Conference will also be held in San Francisco July 3031; we seek your abstracts and proposals for special sessions.
Research Director
Gary L. Lilien, ([email protected])
On behalf of the entire ISBM family, we wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season and
new year!
Associate Research Director
Rajdeep Grewal, ([email protected])
Executive Director
Ralph Oliva, ([email protected])
Institute for the Study of Business Markets
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University
484 Business Building
University Park, PA 16802
USA
+1-814-863-2782 • WWW.ISBM.ORG
Gary L. Lilien
Research Director
Institute for the Study
of Business Markets
Raj Grewal
Associate Research Director
Institute for the Study
of Business Markets
As always, we hope you find this issue a valuable resource to connect with the ISBM community
(practitioners, faculty, and students) around the world. If you would like to suggest or contribute
items, please let either of us know. This issue and past issues or our newsletter can be found at
http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/research/isbm-research-newsletter.
PAGE 2
B2B Leadership Board Update:
Buying Decisions, Behaviors, and Patterns in Business
Markets: A Call to Action
T
he August 2012 Issue of the ISBM
Research Newsletter1 identified
key challenges for B2B that will
be core to the ISBM research agenda in
coming years; these challenges include
the study of buying decisions, behaviors
and patterns in business markets. To
quote the Newsletter:
Raj Grewal
Fred Wiersema
While buying patterns are evolving
greatly, our knowledge and models have
not kept up with changing market
conditions, new buying practices (e.g., in
emerging global markets), influencing
factors such as new technologies/social
media and cross-industry differences. We
are in need of new insights and an up-todate taxonomy as a foundation for future
research and practice development. (p. 4)
The purpose of this article is to begin progress on this
issue: to focus the attention of the academic and practice
communities and to invigorate research on the nature of
B2B buying decisions, behaviors, and patterns that are
emerging in today’s connected global marketplace. The
ISBM will be taking concrete steps, including focused
funding decisions and specialized conferences to invigorate
research on buying behavior in business markets. The new
research challenges on buying behavior in business markets
emanate from business trends that include:
organizational buying practices with strategic long term
implications.
2. Changes in the structures and processes of buying firms
that include the following trends:
(a) Centralization of buying at a global level which has
resulted in selling firms’ focus on global key account
management practices.
(b) Changes in buying center activities:
•
Increasing buyer discretion that is shifting the
balance of power in their favor. Contributing
factors are buying firms’ ready access to pertinent
information, and their having multiple viable
options to choose from. These factors increase
the pressure on selling firms to differentiate their
offerings from those of their competitors.
•
The most important customers (growth-wise,
volume-wise or otherwise) are also often the most
sophisticated and demanding. It is thus very
important to understand how these customers’
buying behaviors differ from those of others, and
whether their behaviors will become commonplace.
•
The composition of buying organization seems to
be changing – with broader representation and
heavier weight from non-procurement functions.
Yet, no clear picture has emerged of what drives
such changes, and how those changes impact
buying processes.
•
Buying centers are paying more attention to
customers’ customers’, i.e., greater weight may be
being given to input from outside the customers’
organization than ever before.
1. Technological developments such as:
(a) Advances in information and communication
technologies that foster the emergence of electronic
markets with various configurations (such as auctions,
reverse auctions, and two-sided exchanges), and the
increasing use of the internet as a source of information
for buying decisions involving routine products
(resulting in an expanding role for marketing and a
reduction in the role of sales).
(b) Advances in R&D technologies: R&D and as
a result innovation activities are no longer the sole
domain of developed nations as there is a rise in skilled
labor force in countries such as Brazil, India, and
Philippines among others. These changing are altering
1
3. Changes in the structures and processes of the selling
firms that include:
(a) An increasing emphases on providing solutions
for customer firms as opposed to selling products and
services.
(b) Providing a superior and unique customer
experience.
http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/research/research-newsletter/2012-academic-newsletter/isbm-research-newsletter-volume-5-issue-2
continued on page 3
PAGE 3
B2B Leadership Board Update:
Buying Decisions, Behaviors, and Patterns in Business
Markets: A Call to Action
4. The above-average growth of industrializing markets
such as China and Brazil with buying decisions,
behaviors, and practices that are not rooted in Western
cultures raises question about the transportability of
existing knowledge about B2B buying.
These trends in business markets raise research questions in
areas such as:
•
•
•
The Evolution of the Buying Process: To what extent
is extant knowledge on buying centers and buyer
behaviors, such as the typology of categorizing
purchase decisions as new buy, modified rebuy,
straight rebuy, still valid? How does the emergence
of B2B electronic commerce and global purchasing
practices impact that typology or are new
typologies needed?
Geographic/Cultural Differences in the Buying
Process: How do theories of buying centers and
buyer behaviors differ across countries? What
factors drive these differences? Are these differences
pertinent for multinational corporations that
operate in developed, emerging, and developing
markets?
Sales Force Management and Behavior: Changes
in B2B buying require that B2B selling strategies
adapt. The emergence of solution selling and
global key account management practices require
more adaptive sales teams. How should one
study these new types of sales teams – how does
once conceptualize pertinent organizational sales
structures and processes that are adapting and
changing to buyer situations? How does one
motivate and provide incentives for such sales
teams?
•
The Customer Experience. The trends above imply
that the B2B customer experience is changing: B2B
customers increasingly search for information and
seek solutions online for their firms in a fashion
similar to the way they shop for themselves. How
does one conceptualize the changing nature of
customer experience in business markets? What are
the dimensions of this customer experience? How
does the customer experience change with buying
situations and buying roles?
The ISBM will be hosting a formative conference in
February 2014 to refine and deepen these questions, leading
to a set of research priorities. We expect our next newsletter
to include a Call for Proposals for the associated, needed
research along the topics suggested above and others that
emanate from the trends we described.
Please contact Raj Grewal for more information or to
provide input as we pursue this important initiative.
Raj Grewal
Irving & Irene Bard Professor of Marketing
Smeal College of Business
Penn State University
[email protected]
Fred Wiersema
ISBM Fellow and
Chair, B2B Leadership Board
[email protected]
PAGE 4
From the Membership:
Points of Focus: Lessons, and Insights from 30 Years
of ISBM Research, Practice, and Progress
A
t the ISBM
30th
Anniversary
Members Meeting,
September 24-25,
2013 on the Penn
State University
Park Campus, we
asked speakers to
reflect on the most
Ralph Oliva
important developments in business-to-business marketing over the past few years and what
they saw as the most important points
of focus as they look to the end of the
decade.
Michael Raynor of Deloitte kicked off
the meeting, drawing on the research
that resulted in his new book “The
Three Rules: How Exceptional
Companies Think.” He summarized
the results of a study of the performance of over 25,000 companies over
44 years, using publically available
data. His analysis showed that high
performers were doing better than
ever; everyone else was doing worse
than ever, staying on top is harder than
ever, and that a “parade to mediocrity”
is the norm for many firms. Consistent
top performers followed three rules.
•
•
•
How do you create value for
customers? Rule #1 - better
before cheaper
How do you capture value for
yourself? Rule #2 – revenue
before cost
What do you change when
the world around you
changes? Rule #3 – there are
no other rules
We then moved to a panel of three
CEOs chaired by Liam Fahey, Each
panelist outlined his key points of
focus.
Kees Verhaar, CEO of Arizona
Chemicals stressed the importance of
constantly training and developing the
new skills needed to develop a truly
great firm, a journey that can take 10
years.
creating digital experiences since their
customers expect the digital
experiences they get as consumers with
Amazon, Google, Yahoo and the like.
Art Anton, President and CEO of
Swagelok stressed knowing what you
want your brand to mean – and
making sure that everyone throughout
the firm understands that. Art shared
a video showing how Swagelok was
“the firm to call” when one of their
customers - Avantech – was engaged
in wake of the Fukushima Earthquake
disaster in Japan. Avantech knew that
they could rely on Swagelok not only
for the best fluidic control offerings,
but for the kind of response needed to
rise to the challenge and save
Fukushima from further disaster.
An ISBM Fellows panel followed,
moderated by Raj Grewal. Jim
Anderson from Kellogg shared research
on what he termed “The Justifier”. As
business markets mature, firms wind
up with two or three competitors with
essentially identical offerings at 1-to
1 ½ percentage points difference in
price. Jim – a champion of “valuebased marketing” – asserts that selling
on value in such situations becomes
less important than building a
“justifier” as to why the firm should
buy from you and not the
competition.
Nino Vella, President of New Pig,
talked about how his firm has adopted
the philosophy “lead with need” and
presented their sophisticated approach
on gathering real “voice of the
customer” inputs and their process to
sort, analyze, crash, stretch, and
synthesize a few things to focus on.
Bob Thomas from Georgetown shared
insights on how firms could be more
productive in mobilizing segmentation, targeting and positioning. He
outlined some of the change management challenges needed to be met to
mobilize the outputs of an effective
segmentation.
These presentations suggested some
research opportunities: What are the
most effective marketing “points of
focus” for the C Suite? Which points
of focus have produced the best
results? Which have produced the less
than desirable results? How can we
as a research community better direct
CEOs in navigating rapidly changing
markets?
Gary Lilien from Penn State shared
research on the impact of deploying
marketing analytics. He reported that
if the deployment of analytics were
scored on 1-7 point scale, the impact
of a one unit increase can have an
impact on ROA of over 8%, in an
average competitive industry, and
up to 21% in a highly competitive
industry.
We then heard a case in process at
Parker Hannifin. Victor Hunter, a
consultant, began by categorizing
“famous false starts in digital businessto-business.” Alan Gaffney following,
going through the approaches that
Parker Hannifin has taken in building
a digital strategy. A key point is that
Parker Hannifin does not benchmark
other business-to-business firms in
The work that all three panelists
presented provided rich opportunities
for future research.
That evening we celebrated our 30th
anniversary, in a gala event hosted
by Gary Lilien. Gary’s presentation
highlighted the foundational work that
he, Irv Gross and Dave Wilson did in
1981 to get the ISBM (initially the
continued on page 5
PAGE 5
From the Membership:
Points of Focus: Lessons, and Insights from 30 Years
of ISBM Research, Practice, and Progress
“Institute for Industrial Marketing.”)
off the ground. Gary chronicled key
milestones in the Institute’s history, the
companies that helped get us started,
the support of the administration at
Penn State and the many accomplishments of the ISBM over the past three
decades.
Dr. Frank Newport, Editor in Chief
of the Gallup Poll, opened the second
day of the meeting. Gallup’s tracking
of American public opinion pointed
out that current dissatisfaction with
the federal government is now moving
towards fear. Fears over the economy
in general, unemployment, and other
things that impinge on the economy
were beginning to pale by comparison
to the general feeling of dissatisfaction
with the way our government and
congress was working. Neither
individuals nor firms are insulated
from the ineffectiveness of these
institutions. The institutions that are
seen to have the highest confidence
right now are the military and small
business, with the latter seen as
possibly the saving grace for the
economy.
In our closing session, Fred Wiersema
led a panel of chief marketing officers.
Fred’s message had a consistent theme:
focus. Fred highlighted three key
research focus points for ISBM
moving forward:
•
•
•
The innovation-marketing
interface
B2B buying behavior and
customer experience
management
B2B data analytics
John Jacko, CMO of Kennametal
presented “the things keeping him up
at night,” which included
channel disruption, the ability to
harness data, and how to grow share
in the face of competitive markets. Joe
Vesey, CMO of Xylem advocated
simplicity, centered on 3 elements:
“find more”, “win more”, and “keep
more”. Finally Victor Maurtua, the
chief marketing officer at Pall
Corporation cited two points of focus:
Where do we play? How do we win?
These three CMOs are all dealing with
complex and changing environments.
They all advocated simplicity: keep the
centralized message and tools for focus
simple. Pick a few things and do them
well.
to better understand how to frame
these points of focus, provide them
tools to enable them to communicate
and provide the results they can expect
when they do?
Focus and prioritization may be the
defining personal core competency of
the rest of this decade. Find simple
rules. Always be learning. Brand before
strategy. Lead with need. Diverge but
then converge. Short visible experiments that produce results (things that
can be seen in 90 days or less).
This ISBM Members Meeting
provided a broader perspective than
most. Practitioners were engaged in
discussing the questions we raised –
and are looking for answers: Where
should we focus? Are there better tools
than we have now to help us? What
can we expect as a result?
Ralph A. Oliva
Executive Director
Institute for the Study
of Business Markets
Professor of Marketing
[email protected]
A question then, for the research
community: Can we help our CMOs
Next Meeting
For meeting details http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/professional-development/isbm-members-meeting-winter-2014. Make sure
you ask for the special $100 academic rate when you register.
PAGE 6
ISBM Ph.D. Student Camp for Research in B2B
Markets - July 2014
W
e are pleased to announce that the next Ph.D. Student Camp for Research in B2B Markets will be held in San
Francisco, CA on July 29-30 (immediately preceding the AMA 2014 Summer Marketing Educators Conference).
Our venue is the Downtown Center, San Francisco State University, College of Business, 835 Market Street.
Students are encouraged to attend the ISBM B2B Markets Academic Conference that begins on the afternoon of July
30 and continues through July 31, which also will be held at the Downtown Center. In addition to applications from
PhD students in marketing, we encourage applications from students in economics, management science, organizational
psychology, statistics, anthropology and other disciplines whose developments help advance our understanding of the
operation of the business marketplace.
In addition, there will be a pre-camp full day seminar on Theory Construction taught by Professor Ajay Kohli (July 28-29)
and a post-camp half day seminar on Writing for Academic Publication taught by Professor Gary Lilien (August 1).
The camp is designed for students who have an interest in or are thinking of pursuing research in B2B marketing and
management. There are no geographic or field restrictions; we anticipate that students studying in fields including
marketing, strategy, management, innovation and R&D management, information systems, and business logistics/
supply chain management will find the camp attractive and beneficial. Students who participate in the camp should have
completed at least one year of doctoral work.
The purpose of this event is to enable students to interact with prominent faculty members and young, promising scholars;
to get acquainted with research paradigms and topics in B2B strategy, marketing, and management; to understand how to
develop and publish high quality business research articles in top academic journals; and to give students opportunities to
have their research ideas and projects constructively critiqued.
There is a small fee to attend and most meals will be provided. Attendees and their schools will be responsible for travel
and lodging costs. The camp is jointly sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at Penn State
and San Francisco State University, with support from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).
We are accepting applications for the 2014 camp. Applications are due by April 1, 2014. Look for further details and
announcements on elmar and the ISBM website (http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/research/academic-conferences-and-events/
phdcamp14.isbm.org ) in early 2014. Useful information can also be found at the Facebook group: ISBM PhD Camp &
Conference.
If you have any additional questions, please contact either of the Camp Directors: Lisa Scheer or Abbie Griffin.
In 2012, 37 students from 12 countries attended the B2B Camp, interacting with 25 faculty (see photo below from 2012
Camp hosted by the University of Chicago at its downtown location). We hope students and faculty from all over the
globe will attend this event in 2014.
Lisa K. Scheer
Lisa K. Scheer
Camp Director
University of Missouri
[email protected]
Abbie Griffin
Abbie Griffin
Camp Director
University of Utah
[email protected]
PAGE 7
San Francisco State University
to Host 2014 ISBM B2B
Academic Conference, July
30-31: Call for Papers and
Special Sessions
M
ark your calendars!
We are pleased to announce that the San Francisco State
University will be hosting the 2014 ISBM B2B Academic
Conference in San Francisco, July 30-31 (immediately preceding the
Summer AMA Educators Conference). The venue is the Downtown
Center, San Francisco State University, College of Business, 835
Market Street. The conference will kick‐off Wednesday, July 30th
at noon and continue until 5:00PM on Thursday, July 31st, ending
with a cocktail reception.
The Conference will be preceded by the 2014 B2B PhD Camp (see
notice elsewhere in this newsletter); please pass that information on
to appropriate Ph.D. students.
The objective of the conference, as always, is to develop new ideas
and new ways to address the pressing issues at the interface of the
B2B academic communities; generate new research approaches and
ideas; and to provide a forum for interaction amongst the world’s
leading B2B researchers.
As at past conferences, there will be invited plus competitive paper
sessions. We are entertaining proposals for special sessions on any
relevant B2B topic. We are particularly interested in papers or
special sessions on topics that are aligned with the ISBM’s three
strategic priorities:
1. B2B Innovation to Enhance Business Growth
IPSS Update
T
wo well received IPSS courses are
currently wrapping up; Abbie Griffin is
teaching Qualitative Research Methods
and Raji Srinivasan is teaching Marketing
Metrics. I want to thank both these scholars
on behalf of the Ph.D. student community
for spending their valuable time on what is
truly a service to the discipline.
I am pleased to announce tthe two courses we
will be offering this coming Spring semester:
Gerry Tellis will return to teach Innovation
Strategy and Stefan Wyuts will make his
debut and offer Social Networks Analysis. The
details on the courses will be available from
the ISBM website http://ipss.isbm.org. Both
courses are slated to run March & April
2014.
Please bring these two seminars to the
attention of your promising B2B Ph.D.
students. Students should register online at
http://ipss.isbm.org. Additionally if there is
any other feedback or suggestions, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
Raj Grewal
Director - IPSS
[email protected]
COMMENTS... IDEAS...
2. B2B Buying Behavior
3. B2B Marketing Analytics
If you have a paper or special session proposal on one of these three
topics, please indicate that in your proposal.
For conference details visit http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/research/
academic-conferences-and-events/aca14.isbm.org. As the website
indicates, we invite you to submit an abstract and/or special session
for the conference before the due date of 1 March 2014. Please
email your abstracts to Lori Nicolini, Conference Administrator
([email protected]).
In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions for the
conference, please feel free to contact either of us.
We hope to see you there!
Raj Grewal, [email protected]
Gary L. Lilien, [email protected]
Conference Co-Chairs
We would love to hear from you. If
you wish to comment on any of the
articles (or have thoughts for future
articles), please pass them on. Your
suggestions will make the newsletter
better and more responsive to
your needs. Please email your
correspondence to:
Newsletter Editor
Lori Nicolini ([email protected])
Institute for the Study of Business Markets
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University
484 Business Building
University Park, PA 16802
USA
+1-814-863-2782 • WWW.ISBM.ORG