Call for Papers: The Buying Center Concept: An Important Concept of Business-to-Business Marketing in Need of Consolidation and Further Development

Deadline for submission: 1st October 2021

Overview and purpose of the special issue

The idea to consider buying centers for understanding industrial purchasing decisions has a long tradition – in fact one of the influential publications turns 40 in 2021: Johnston & Bonoma (1981). The seminal works of Robinson, Faris, and Wind (1967), Webster and Wind (1972a,b), and Sheth (1973) and Bonoma, Zaltman, and Johnston (1977) can be seen as the foundation of this stream of research—thus our current understanding of buying centers builds on over 50 years of research.

Yet, there are major developments which call for deepening and rethinking our knowledge base on buying centers in business markets. With the development of the service-dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004) and customers’ value co-creation (Gr?nroos, 2011), the focus has recently been extended from buying centers to user centers (Macdonnald, Kleinaltenkamp, & Wilson, 2018). Not least, the “opening-up” of business models and practices and the rise of integrated business eco-systems demands updating of buying center insights. In addition, buying center research focused predominantly on developed economies and thus the field has left fascinating buying center phenomena in emerging economies to be explored.

In addition, the development of digital technologies for demonstrating value and negotiation as well as the current Covid-19-implied restrictions and implications for customer relationship management have not yet been sufficiently connected to buying centers. All of these developments need to be reviewed, combined, and further developed into a state-of-the-art understanding of buying centers. Following the pioneering buying-center research, relevant methodology has made considerate advances, in particular in the area of theory-in-use, social networking, in agent-based-modelling approaches or in the analysis of qualitative data.

Therefore, we initiate this Special Issue to build a platform for such development. We invite submissions that develop our understanding of the buying center concept by calling for conceptual and empirical papers. Topics for submissions may include, but are not limited to the following:

-       How do geographically dispersed buying centers function? The dispersion can be caused within multi-site and multi-national firms, but also by lockdowns.

-       How do buying centers and user centers influence each other?

-       Is account-based marketing for an appropriate way for serving buying centers?

-       How do buying centers work in a digitized world?

-       How do buyer centers integrate social media into the decision-making process?

-       How are the functions of buying centers and the roles of actors shaped by the opening-up of business models and increased division of labour across organizational boundaries?

-       How does progress in social research methods advance our understanding of buying-centers?

Preparation and submission of paper and review process

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 6,000-8,000 words in length. Copies should be uploaded on Industrial Marketing Management’s homepage through the Editorial Management system. You need to upload your paper using the dropdown box for the special issue on “Buying Center”. For guidelines, please visit: 

https://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505720/authorinstructions.

Papers not complying with the notes for contributors (cf., homepage) or poorly written will be desk rejected. Suitable papers will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence, authors must not identify themselves in the body of their paper. (Please do not submit a Word file with “track changes” active or a PDF file.)

The submission opens September 1st 2021 and closes October 1st 2021.

There will also be a Special Track “Buying Center” at the upcoming International Conference on Business and Industrial Marketing (CBIM2021) in June 2021. This track will offer ample opportunity to discuss the buying centers and to develop submissions. While thematically connected, attending the conference is not obligatory in order to submit to this special issue. Please visit the conference website for further details: www.cbim2021.org The deadline for submission to the conference is 15 March 2021.

 Please address all questions to the guest editor(s):

·      Michael Ehret, University of Graz, michael.ehret@uni-graz.at

·      Wesley J. Johnston, Georgia State University, wesleyj@gsu.edu

·      Thomas Ritter, Copenhagen Business School, ritter@cbs.dk

References

Bonoma, T. V., Zaltman, G. & Johnston, W. J.. Industrial buying behavior. Marketing Science Institute, 1977.

Gr?nroos, C. (2011). A service perspective on business relationships: the value creation, interaction and marketing interface. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(2), 240–247.

Johnston, W. J., & Bonoma, T. V. (1981). The buying center: structure and interaction patterns. Journal of Marketing, 45(3), 143–156.

Johnston, W. J., & Lewin, J. E. (1996). Organizational buying behavior: toward an integrative framework. Journal of Business Research, 35(1), 1–15.

Macdonald, E. K., Kleinaltenkamp, M., & Wilson, H. N. (2016). How business customers judge solutions: Solution quality and value in use. Journal of Marketing, 80(3), 96–120.

M?ller, K., Nenonen,S. & Storbacka, K. (2020): Networks, ecosystems, fields, market systems? Making sense of the business environment. Industrial Marketing Management. Oct2020, Vol. 90, p380-399. 20p

Robinson, P. J., Faris, C. W., & Wind, Y. (1967). Industrial buying and creative marketing. Allyn and Bacon.

Rand, W. & Rust, R. (2011) Agent-based modelling in marketing: Guidelines for rigor. International Journal of Research in Marketing. Sep2011, 28 (3), p181-193.

Sheth, J. N. (1973). A model of industrial buyer behavior. Journal of Marketing, 37(4), 50–56.

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), 1–17.

Wuyts, S. & Van der Bulte (2007). Social Networks and Marketing. Marketing Science Institute.

Webster Jr, F. E., & Wind, Y. (1972a). A general model for understanding organizational buying behavior. Journal of Marketing, 36(2), 12–19.

Webster Jr, F. E., & Wind, Y. (1972b). Organizational buying behavior. Prentice Hall.