Conference Tracks

 

Track 1: “Relational Disruptions in Sales and Sales Management”

Chair: Brian Rutherford

Publication opportunities: Special Issue Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing “Relational Disruptions in Sales and Sales Management”. 

Guest Editors: Brian Rutherford, Nathaniel Hartmann, Nwamaka Anaza, Scott Ambrose

 

Link to VIDEO Interview with Brian Rutherford

 

We seek contributions to advance the understanding of disruptions and disruptive events (e.g., pandemics, natural disasters, new suppliers, disruptive products, suppliers unable to deliver materials, labor strikes, etc.) on B2B buyer-seller relationships. Specifically, there is a need for additional research that examines how salespeople and individuals that interact with salespeople have responded to maximize value creation.

Track 2: “Exploring engagement in B2B”

Chairs: Lorena Blasco-Arcas & Jaylan Azer

Publication opportunities: Special Issue in Industrial Marketing Management “Extending and sustaining B2B engagement in a digitalized and automated world: future challenges”

Guest Editors: Lorena Blasco-Arcas, Jaylan Azer, Matthew Alexander & Christian Kowalkowski

 

Link to the VIDEO interview with Lorena Blasco-Arcas & Jaylan Azer

 

We seek contributions to advance the understanding of engagement in the business-to-business context. We invite papers that explore the nature, scope, and impact of engagement between business actors, the role of technologies in facilitating sustainable engagement over time, and the impact of the increasing digitalization and automation in business relationships. We are interested in conceptually and empirically sound contributions of relevant issues to advance knowledge of actor engagement in business-to-business networks.

Track 3: “Digital platforms and ecosystems: a multidisciplinary approach for new and sustainable business models”

 

Chairs: María Luz Martín-Peña, Pablo Cabanelas & Natanya Meyer

Publication opportunities: Special Issue in Review of Managerial Science. This Journal sponsors the Conference and will consider a selection of papers presented in our Conference in the Track for the Special Issue “Digital platforms and ecosystems: a multidisciplinary approach for new and sustainable business models”

 

Guest Editors: María Luz Martín-Peña, Pablo Cabanelas & Natanya Meyer 

 

Link to VIDEO Interview with María Luz Martín-Peña, Pablo Cabanelas & Natanya Meyer

 

Current research on digital platforms, ecosystems and business models is noteworthy, but its dynamic nature requires an ongoing investigation as many important and relevant research questions are yet to be answered. The significant growth of digital technologies and the associated data created when different actors interact open new scenarios for managers and academics to address new challenges that are transforming existing business models. This track aims to promote a contemporary theoretical and empirical background to investigate the phenomena of digital platforms and business ecosystems through a multidisciplinary approach that provides novel research for a better understanding of these phenomena. 

Track 4: “Service-driven business transformation”

Chairs: Kristina Heinonen, Jose L. Ruiz-Alba, David Sörhammar & Cristina Mele.

Publication opportunities: Special Issue in Journal of Service Theory and Practice “Service-driven business transformation”

Guest Editors of the Special Issue: Kristina Heinonen, Jose L. Ruiz-Alba & David Sörhammar.

 

This track welcomes innovative papers that address the role of service in creating transformative changes within companies and beyond. We also welcome papers using multi-actor perspectives that help break fresh ground in our understanding of how companies can develop, implement and support transformative service strategies to better serve their customers and other stakeholders. We encourage both conceptual and empirical papers with strong theoretical and practical contributions to service research. 

 

Track 5: “Innovation, communication and value co-creation in digital marketing”

Chairs: Sergey Kazakov, Pablo J. López Tenorio, Maria J. Quero

Publication opportunities: Special Issue International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising

Guest Editors: Sergey Kazakov, Pablo Lopez Tenorio, Maria J. Quero

 

 We invite authors to make contributions that evolve a holistic comprehension of digital marketing strategies by B2B organisations to enhance customer relationships. This research track seeks to discern how B2B organisations capitalise on and benefit from the latest technologies to communicate and co-create value with their customers.

 

Track 6: “B2B Marketing and Tourism”

Chair: Enrique Bigne

Publication opportunities: The Journal Tourism Review sponsors the Conference and will consider for fastrack a selection of papers presented in our Conference in the Track B2B Marketing and Tourism.

 

We seek contributions to advance the understanding of marketing in the business-to-business tourism and hospitality domains. We invite papers that address the B2B relationships between tourism actors. We are interested in destination governance, interrelationships between tourism actors as a part of the customer experience, the role of providers, intermediaries, and service providers within the customer journey, data integration for managing destinations and firms and tourism networking.

Track 7: “B2B Marketing in Africa: Strategies for succeeding in a Dynamic Emerging Market”

 

Chairs: Ogechi Adeola, Richard Afriyie Owusu, Nnamdi Oguji, & Robert Ebo Hinson.

Publication opportunities: The European Journal of Management and Business Economics sponsors the Conference and the best paper of this track will receive a special invitation to submit to this journal. 

 

The fast economic growth experienced in Africa in the last two decades has heightened the importance of successful B2B marketing and management. A thriving B2B sector is essential to ensure seamless value chains, which lead to competitive purchasing and supply at all stages of the value chain and, finally, towards the consumer market. We seek papers exploring the development of African business markets, marketing, management opportunities and challenges, relationship management and dynamics of value chains, the impact of internationalization, competition, and success strategies. Submissions are not limited to the above topics.

 

Link to the VIDEO interview with Ogechi Adeola & Richard Owusu

 

Track 8: “Happiness Management and CSR in a sustainable economy”

Chairs: Pedro Cuesta-Valiño, Pablo Gutierrez-Rodriguez & Rafael Ravina-Ripoll

 

Publication opportunities: “The Journal Management Decision sponsors the Conference and will consider a selection of papers presented in our Conference in the Track Happiness for the Special Issue “Happiness and corporate social responsibility: the role of organizational culture and consumers in a sustainable economy (Management Decision)”

Guest Editor: Pedro Cuesta-Valiño, Pablo Gutierrez-Rodriguez, Rafael Ravina-Ripoll

 

We seek contributions to highlight the fact that the intangible resource of happiness will play a key role not only in the transformation of the green economy, which is currently underway, but also in providing a corporate image of companies committed to the working passion of their human capital and the satisfaction of their customers, under the philosophy that monetary benefits are not mutually exclusive with the guiding principles of corporate social responsibility, respect for the environment, emotional consumption and happiness management. 

 

Track 9: “Reimagining innovation in B2B Marketing and Sales: turbulent ecosystems, empowered buyers and runaway inflation” 

 

This is the general track of the Conference.

 

There will be a Special Issue in the Journal of Business Research with the title “Crisis and Turbulence management in B2B settings” the Guest Editors, Wesley Johnston, Michael Ehret and Roberto Mora can provide specific information.

 

Turbulent ecosystems are difficult to make predictions, however there are many interesting opportunities. Companies are forced to keep innovating to stay ahead of the competition. The traditional roles of buyers, sellers and intermediaries are in constant disruption. Empowered actors are adding tensions to business relations. Runaway inflation is increasing even more uncertainty to B2B markets. We seek contributions that improve the theoretical and empirical approaches to a better understanding of the role of main actors in business ecosystems and how innovation is shaping markets.

 Track 10: “Using Customer Data for Growth”

Chairs: Thomas Ritter & Carsten Lund Pedersen

 

All firms have customer data – but how do they use such data for growth? What kind of customer data are firms missing for better results? And what may stand in the way for using customer data? We seek contributions to advance the understanding of the role of customer data for improving business performance. We are interested in conceptually sound contributions and empirical illustrations of relevant issues surrounding the use of customer data in the field of business-to-business marketing.

Track 11: “Challenges and trends in Key Account Management”

Chairs: Barbara Niersbach & Fawaz Baddar

 

We seek to understand the multiple challenges in KAM on a multi-lateral level: the KA Manager as an individual, KAM as a team effort, KAM in the organization as a whole. In this understanding, we not only want to invite scholars to present intra-organizational aspects of KAM, but of course also inter-organizational challenges in KAM between a supplier and a KA firm. Especially new challenges in KAM due to the pandemic or other actual market challenges are of high interest and will enrich this track. 

 Track 12: “Product & Brand Management in B2B”

Chair: Juan Carlos Sosa

 

This track aims to explore how B2B Marketers undertake their strategic branding decisions. We invite contributions studying the analysis and planning on how a brand is positioned in the market, most relevant B2B branding dimensions, how the brand helps create a relationship or a connection between a company’s product and emotional perception on suppliers or intermediaries, and how it can help to fulfill customer expectations and consistent customer satisfaction.  

Track 13: “Supply chain management”

Chair: Ceren Altuntas Vural

 

In this track, we invite research that focus on how global or local disruptions impact different supply chain issues such as supply chain design, structures, relationships, management, risks and sustainability. The contributions are, of course, not limited to these issues and cover the larger debate around supply chain management. The challenged conceptualization of supply chain resilience concept, how to build supply chain resilience based on the new learnings from recent disruptions and the implications on B2B marketing are of particular importance.