Call for papers
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

Special Issue on:
Digital communications in industrial marketing

Guest editors:

Prof. Heikki Karjaluoto, (heikki.karjaluoto@jyvaskyla.fi),
Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics

Prof. Pauliina Ulkuniemi, (pauliina.ulkuniemi@oulu.fi),
University of Oulu, Oulu Business School

Topic of the Special Issue

The special issue will focus on recent advances in communications and information technology and their impact on industrial marketing. Digital marketing in industrial marketing here refers to the use of digital communications channels such as a company website, web analytics, online advertising, search engine marketing, intranet and extranet channels, e-mail marketing, digital sales support material, and social and mobile media to manage the various relationships an industrial company maintains like firm-client and firm-stakeholder relationships.

The special issue will have a particular focus on the use of social media and mobile communications as elements of marketing communication in an industrial context. Both practitioners and academics agree that the social revolution occurring through digital channels will have a profound impact on how people interact with each other and how companies manage their relationships in the changing communications landscape (Greenberg, 2010; Kietzmann et al., 2011; Dennis et al., 2009). The digital environment with two-way communication channels and user-generated content has changed the role of the customer to one of content creator and active discussant. Consequently, the balance of power has shifted from firms to customers.

Although the use of new digital media such as social media and the associated increasing mobility have been broadly covered under consumer marketing, the changes they have brought to the ways industrial companies serve their customers, manage their sales channels, set up marketing campaigns or interact with their current customers remains relatively under-researched. In industrial markets, digital marketing has been used in pursuit of cost efficiencies in managing brand and customer relationships (e.g., Drèze & Hussherr, 2003). Recently, in terms of consumer marketing, research has stressed the role of the social user who generates content and actively discusses, shares, and comments on products and services, and by doing so generates positive word-of-mouth (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011). Despite the acknowledged role of the social user in creating content as a part of marketing communications in consumer markets, the role of such an actor and the social media in industrial marketing has not been examined to any great extent. Yet, as social media seems inevitably destined to change the way people communicate, it is apparent that these changes will become a part of communication behavior within industrial markets as well. Nevertheless, questions remain over how social media will be employed in industrial marketing. What will the role of mobility be in such communication? What kind of marketing skills or competencies will be required?

This special issue attempts to provide answers to these questions and open up new research agendas for digital marketing in B2B industrial settings. We are interested in both conceptual and empirical papers dealing with the topic. In addition to success stories on the use of digital media among industrial firms, we would also welcome papers that provide new, even if critical, insights into the utilization of digital media in industrial firms.

Target topics relevant to this special issue of JBIM include, but are not limited to:

• The measurement of digital marketing communications among industrial firms
• Industrial branding using digital channels
• The use of social media in industrial marketing
• The impact of social networks and social media on industrial marketing
• The use of mobile media in industrial marketing (both in firm-client relationships and in managing the sales force)
• Content/inbound marketing in industrial firms
• Barriers to and enablers of digital marketing adoption in industrial firms
• Marketing competencies required to manage new digital marketing communications in an industrial setting
• Single company case studies are also encouraged

Submission of papers

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication in any other journal. Submissions should be approximately 6,000 words in length. Submissions to the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing must be made using the ScholarOne Manuscript Central system. For more details, please visit

www.emeraldinsight.com/jbim.htm

and consult the author guidelines. A separate title page containing the title, name of author/s, and contact information for the author(s) must be uploaded. Suitable articles will be subject to a double-blind review. Hence, authors should not identify themselves in the body of the paper.

All papers will undergo a blind refereeing process conducted by at least two referees.

• Submission deadline: 15 April 2013
• Reviews returned: 15 July 2013
• Resubmission of papers: September 15 2013
• Final decision: September 30 2013
• Publication: November 2013 (Vol. X No. X)

Please send papers by e-mail to the guest editors:

Professor Heikki Karjaluoto
E-mail: heikki.karjaluoto@jyu.fi
University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics
Finland

Professor Pauliina Ulkuniemi
pauliina.ulkuniemi@oulu.fi
University of Oulu, Oulu Business School
Finland

References

Dennis, C., Merrilees, B., Jayawardhena, C., & Wright, L. T. (2009). E-consumer behaviour. European Journal of Marketing, 43(9/10), 1121-1139.

Drèze, X., & Hussherr, F.-X. (2003). Internet advertising: Is anybody watching? Journal of Interactive Marketing, 17(4), 8-23.

Greenberg, P. (2010). The impact of CRM 2.0 on customer insight. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 410-419.

Hanna, R., Rohm, A., & Crittenden, V. L. (2011). We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem. Business Horizons, 54(3), 265-273.

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241-251.

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