ISBM Research
Q U A R T E R LY
Fall 2008
Volume 1, Issue 4
IN THIS ISSUE . . .
In This Issue. . .
T
In This Issue ................................ 1
Ph.D. Student Camp 2009 ............. 1
wenty five years? Hard to believe. This past August, the ISBM did indeed
celebrate its 25th anniversary, and we used that occasion to do a brief research
retrospective. It seems that we have indeed accomplished quite a bit.
This issue also reports on our biennial academic conference, held this past August
6-7 at the University of California, San Diego, which was a great success. Qiong
Wang provides an update on the ISBM’s Data Resources Program (DRP), this
issue focusing on Gartner Research’s Business Data Service.
ISBM Research: A 25th ................ 2
Anniversary Perspective
ISBM Data Resources Program ... 5
Gary L. Lilien
University of Houston to Host ...... 5
Educational Resources Program
Abbie Griffin, ISBM’s Ph.D. camp director, reports on early plans for the 2009
Camp, to be held August 5-6 at Northwestern University. We are delighted that
the camp will be hosted there by Anne Coughlan. Raj Grewal reports on the
ISBM Ph.D. Seminar Series (IPSS) plans for Spring 2009, featuring courses on
Sales Management and B-to-B Research Methods.
Finally, we are delighted to announce a strategic relationship with the Sales
Excellence Institute (SEI) at the University of Houston. Mike Ahearne, the SEI
Executive Director, will direct and manage the Educational Resources Program,
developed jointly with the ISBM.
Reflections on the 2008 ISBM ... 8
Academic Conference
All the best.
IPSS Update: (ISBM Ph.D. ........ 8
Seminar Series) . . .
Gary and Raj
Raj Grewal
Gary L. Lilien
Research Director
Institute for the Study of Business
Markets
Raj Grewal
Associate Research Director
Institute for the Study of Business
Markets
ISBM Announces 2009 Ph.D. Student
Camp for Research in B-to-B Markets
W
e are pleased to announce that the third Ph.D. Student Camp for
Research in Business-to-Business Markets will be held in Chicago, IL
the Wednesday afternoon and Thursday just prior to the American
Marketing Association’s Summer Educator Conference (August 5-6, 2009).
CONTACT INFORMATION
Research Director
Gary L. Lilien, ([email protected])
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
Abbie Griffin
The camp is designed for students who have completed at least one year of
doctoral work and have interest in or are thinking of pursuing work in B-to-B
marketing and management. There are no geographic or field restrictions;
we anticipate that students studying in fields including marketing, strategy,
management, R&D management, information systems, and business logistics/
supply chain management will find the Camp attractive and beneficial.
The purpose of this event is to enable students to interact with prominent
faculty members and young, promising scholars, get acquainted with research
paradigms and topics in business-to-business strategy, marketing, and
management, understand how to develop and publish quality business research
articles in top academic journals and give students opportunities to have their
research ideas and projects constructively critiqued.
continued on page 8
PA G E 2
ISBM Research: A 25th Anniversary Perspective
F
oreword: Twenty-five years ago, Irv Gross, Dave Wilson and I founded the Institute for the Study of Business Markets.
Like many true marketers, we sold the product to a few key firms before we had actually built it. As we look back, we have
accomplished quite a lot; the product has been more successful than we dared hope. In this newsletter, we’ve asked our Ph.D.
student, Mahima Hada, to provide some commentary. - Gary Lilien.
The fundamental research mission of the ISBM is the creation of new, important knowledge in the B2B domain. But how
successful has the ISBM been in fulfilling this mission since it was founded 25 years ago? To answer this question, we
tried to measure the impact that ISBM has had on academia through its various activities – some with easier to measure
impact factors, than others. The ISBM academic conferences, data resources program, Ph.D. seminar series, dissertation
support awards etc., that you participate in and read about here, are activities whose impact is hard to measure. A tangible
Mahima Hada
element that can be more readily assessed is the impact of the published research papers that ISBM has supported. To
address this element of research impact, we did an electronic search and located published articles that acknowledge ISBM
support. We catalogued those articles using their keywords, and used their Google ScholarTM citation results as a citation measure. Here is what we found:
ISBM’s support has led to 127 published papers since 1997 in peer-reviewed journals (electronic search becomes less reliable the farther back you go, so we
arbitrarily decided to use a decade). If we assume we are in steady state, that means that the ISBM is sponsoring about 13 refereed publications per year.
That research covers a wide range of B2B research topics (Figure 1). The dominant domains have been inter-firm relationships (which includes relationship
marketing), and product development. That focus reflects the interests of B2B academics as well as the importance of these topics to practitioners: building
and selling products in an inter-firm setting represent core elements of B2B marketing.
Figure 1: ISBM Funded Published Research: Main Domains
Considering citations as measure of impact, 24 ISBM supported papers have been cited more than 100 times, and 12 papers between 50 and 100 times.
These 36 papers have contributed to the domains of product development, and inter-firm relationships, closely followed by decision support systems
and sales (Figure 2). The ten most cited ISBM supported research papers, as of July 2008, are reported in Table 1. It is fitting that the most cited ISBM
supported research paper is by one of the ISBM’s founders, Dave Wilson (698 citations; read it here).
Figure 2: Domains of Impact of ISBM funded research
continued on page 3
PA G E 3
ISBM Research: A 25th Anniversary Perspective
continued from page 2
Table 1: Top-ten most cited ISBM supported papers
In an attempt to bridge the academic-practitioner gap, the ISBM aims to focus its research funding on topics that have potential for long term
practitioner impact, topics identified through the ISBM trends studies (see ISBM’s 2010 trends study for the most recent one). As shown in Table
2, the ISBM is currently funding 26 projects that are linked to the top 2010 trends studies topics. Not only does the historic focus on new product
development and relationship marketing continue, but currently funded projects (since 2006), show increased focus on sales management and B2B
brand management projects compared to previous years (Figure 3).
Since 1983, ISBM’s academic mission has been to advance research and teaching in the field of business-to-business marketing. We hope that, while
fulfilling that mission, the ISBM can continue to contribute to the entire domain of academic research in marketing.
continued on page 4
PA G E 4
ISBM Research: A 25th Anniversary Perspective
continued from page 3
Table 2: Currently funded Projects aligned with 2010 Trends Study
Figure 3: Currently funded ISBM Research projects: Main Domains
Mahima Hada
Ph.D. Candidate and ISBM Doctoral Fellow
Penn State and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets
[email protected]
PA G E 5
Data Resources Program: Update and
Highlight on Gartner Research’s
Business Data Service
I
n this issue of the ISBM quarterly newsletter, we highlight the data resource provided by Gartner
Research, which may benefit researchers who are interested in how information technology (IT) and
services will deliver greatest business value.
Gartner retains 1,200 research analysts and consultants who advise executives in 80 countries. A
snapshot of Gartner is depicted as below:
Research
•
World leader in technology & industry coverage
•
Global reach (75 countries)
•
10,000+ Client organizations (300+ Higher Education)
Events
Executive Programs
•
3,300 members (75+
Higher Education)
•
High-level peer
networking and
information sharing
•
Customer-driven
agenda
Benchmarking
•
35,500+ people at 70
events
Gartner
Advantage
Events
World’s largest
repository of IT metrics
•
1200 benchmarks
per year
•
Helps clients measure,
understand and
manage performance
•
Worldwide events
that bring executives
together to learn,
compare experiences
and solve problems
Research
Executive
Programs
•
•
Consulting
Consulting and
Benchmarking
•
Delivers high-impact IT
projects
•
Direct application of
best practices to your
business
•
Basis for fact-based
analysis
65 percent of Global
500 are customers
Financials
•
$1.060 Billion in Revenue (2006)
•
3,800 Employees
•
Founded in 1979
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON TO
HOST EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
PROGRAM
As Executive Director of the University of
Houston’s Sales Excellence Institute at the
Bauer College of Business, I am pleased to
announce that the Institute is partnering with
the ISBM to develop and support the SEIISBM Educational Resources Program (ERP).
This program is designed to create a forum for
communication between business-to-business
educators around the globe creating a sharing
of educational support materials such as
syllabi, texts, case materials, exercises, and
materials that have been useful in courses
in B2B marketing, channels, sales, and sales
management, product management and the
like.
The ERP will take the form of a website at
the SEI as well as a sub site to www.isbm.
org that will serve both as a repository for
such material as well as a forum for faculty to
communicate with one another concerning
educational topics.
We are in the process of collecting syllabi and
other teaching materials; we are also seeking
links to useful course websites. In the coming
months, we will be reaching out to you to
share such material and also to solicit your
insights into what has worked for you.
The site is currently under development with a
planned launch of January 2009. Please send
me your materials so that we can include them
in the inaugural version of the website!
If you have materials or information that you
would be willing to share, or questions or
suggestions about the Program, please e-mail
Mike at [email protected].
As a major IT research and advisory firm, Gartner focuses on (1) evaluating market players across
industries, (2) measuring the real cost of IT investment, (3) learning about emerging technologies, (4)
monitoring players in mature and emerging markets, and (5) assessing individual vendors.
Mike Ahearne
Executive Director
University of Houston’s Sales Excellence
Institute
[email protected]
Mike Ahearne
continued on page 6
PA G E 6
Data Resources Program: Update and Highlight on
Gartner Research’s Business Data Services
continued from page 5
Gartner provides data sources across 5 key technology sectors and multiple industries, as illustrated below:
Gartner collects business data from both primary and secondary sources as detailed below:
continued on page 7
PA G E 7
Data Resources Program: Update and Highlight on
Gartner Research’s Business Data Services
continued from page 6
Furthermore, Gartner houses 5 types of business data as shown below:
Market Forecast Data Overview
Market Trends Report Overview
•
Five-year market growth forecasts with historical year-to-year market size
comparison identify the market leaders and the products/services that are
driving the market.
•
Identifies and analyzes key market dynamics, including supply-side, demandside, technology and/or competitive that are impacting the relevant market
and its subsegments, regions, countries or industry.
•
Forecast data projects up to five years into the future:
typically units, revenue
worldwide, region, and countrylevel data
•
Taken together with the quantitative forecasts and market shares, these
reports enable providers to identify, quantify and profile market growth
opportunities.
•
Forecast data is not reported by company.
•
Typically delivered on an annual basis.
•
For certain markets, Market Trends Reports are updated on a quarterly basis.
•
Data can be downloaded from gartner.com as an Excel file.
•
Forecast data is updated annually.
•
Market Share Data feeds the Market data Book, which rolls up all tech sector
end user spend by region and technology segments to create an integrated
view of IT spend.
User Survey Report
•
Detailed analysis of buyer behavior and patterns based on primary research.
•
Typically includes information about what customers say they want, would buy,
why they buy/don’t buy and how they make vendor and technology selection
decisions.
•
Helps clients understand the likely profile and requirements of targeted enduser groups for products and services.
•
Combines statistical analysis of survey response with analyst interpretation of
the implications and impact on markets and suppliers
•
Typically delivered on an annual basis, but timing and coverage vary by client
demand.
Market Share Data Overview
•
Provides revenue analysis of a specific market segment’s largest vendors, by
technology, line of business, regions/country as appropriate.
•
Data is available in units, currency, and licences.
•
Updated annually.
(sometimes more frequently depending on market needs)
•
Available as a downloadable Excel file.
•
Quarterly Statistics (QStats) include data and analysis for personal computers,
servers, workstations, & printers, PDA and smartphones, and disk array
storage. Regional breakdown for all except semiconductors.
•
Market Share Data feeds the Market data Book, which rolls up all tech sector
end user spend by region and technology segments to create an integrated
view of IT spend.
Market Analysis Reports Overview
•
Market Analysis Reports analysis of events that impact market opportunity
•
Typically comprise a comprehensive analysis of a specific issue such as:
an emerging technology or market opportunity
a major industry event such as a merger
We invite researchers to consider using Gartner when conducting B2B research and to contact us if help is needed in connecting with Gartner.
In addition to informing researchers about numerous data resources, the DRP is interactive. It includes a feedback mechanism so that the research
community may share experiences and knowledge specific to the data sources that members have evaluated and used. We encourage B-to-B
researchers to share both their comments to the DRP and their experiences with specific data resources.
Qiong Wang
Data Resources Program Director
Institute for the Study of Business Markets
[email protected]
http://drp.smeal.psu.edu
Qiong Wang
PA G E 8
REFLECTION ON THE 2008 ISBM ACADEMIC
CONFERENCE
The 2008 ISBM biennial conference, Advances in B-to-B
Marketing, was held at the Rady School of Management
at the University of California, San Diego, August 6-7.
We were greeted by the School’s founding Dean, Robert
Sullivan, who welcomed us to their new facility, a truly
excellent venue for the conference. The conference
attracted 82 participants from four continents, including
17 Ph.D. students. Following 20 sessions including 60
stimulating presentations on a wide range of research
topics, the conference closed with a meet-the-editors
session, attended by the editors of Marketing Science,
the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing
Research, the Journal of Product Innovation
Management, the Journal of Business and Industrial
Marketing and the Journal of Business Marketing
Management. As conference organizers, we were
pleased both by the quality of the contributions and by the
enthusiasm of interaction and look forward to the next
ISBM academic conference in Boston, MA, August 11-12,
2010.
Raj Grewal and Gary Lilien
Conference Co-Chairs
Institute for the Study of Business
Markets
IPSS Update: ISBM Ph.D.
Seminar Series
T
his semester (Fall 2008) IPSS is currently offering two courses: (1) the first
IPSS Pro-Seminar, being taught by Professors F. Robert Dwyer, Srinath
Gopalakirshna, V. Kumar, Aric Rindfleisch, and Barton A. Weitz, and (2)
Organizational Buying Behavior and Market Design, co-taught by Professors Sandy
Jap and Wes Johnston. Feedback to date indicates that both courses are being very
well received. We were surprised and delighted to find that we now have an entirely
new group of students taking these two courses. Thus, we have turned over a leaf at
IPSS with our (new) second batch of students!
In Spring 2009, IPSS will offer Sales Management and Personal Selling, taught by
Barton A. Weitz, who previously taught this course in Spring 2007 (with a new
batch of students, we will be recycling several of the previously-offered courses in
the coming semesters). We will also offer a research methods course that will be
co-taught by Professors Srinath Gopalakrishna and Gerrit van Bruggen. Watch your
mail and email for an updated IPSS brochure with details on both courses.
As usual, I look forward to the thoughts and feedback from the community and
please do encourage your students to take these courses.
Raj Grewal
Associate Research Director
Institute for the Study of Business Markets
http://www.ipss.isbm.org
Raj Grewal
Ph.D. Student Camp 2009 continued from page 1
The camp is being sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM)
at Penn State and Northwestern University, with the support of the American Marketing
Association, the Marketing Science Institute, and Georgia State’s Center for Business
and Industrial Marketing, and co-chaired with Northwestern University who will also
host this event. This camp is a biennial event designed to focus more attention on
research needs and opportunities in the domain of business-to-business markets, a goal
of each of the supporting institutions.
There is a nominal registration fee for attending, and most meals will be provided.
Attendees and their schools will be responsible for travel and lodging costs, although
a limited number of scholarships may be available on a competitive basis to partially
defray lodging and travel expenses for student attendees.
If you have any additional questions, please contact Abbie Griffin at abbie.griffin@
business.utah.edu. We hope students and faculty from all over the globe will attend this
event.
Abbie Griffin
Royal L. Garff Presidential Chair in Marketing
University of Utah
abbie.griffi[email protected]
COMMENTS... IDEAS...
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