Industrial Marketing Management
Call for Papers
B2B Service Innovation and Global Industrial Service Management

Deadline for submission: 31 December 2018

Overview and Purpose

This special edition of Industrial Marketing Management aims to develop knowledge and generate new insights and applications of service innovation in B2B context, and global industrial services management relevant to scholars and managers.

Globalization and increased competition have made service innovation and internationalization inevitable competitive strategies for service organizations targeting industrial markets. Service organizations try to renew themselves and add value through innovation and exploitation of opportunities within the global market place and space. Indeed innovation in B2B services and internationalization have grown rapidly since the turn of the century, as organizations and governments within the developed and emerging markets try to meet the evolving needs of their business customers and to exploit the opportunities presented by the new global economy. Expanding global activities of service organizations, increasing number of new offerings, adoption of new business models, and extensive use of technologies all contribute to their growth, and that of their business customers. Growing service infusion and servitization of the manufacturing and primary sectors attest to the increasing realization that injecting service innovation in their portfolio of offerings can make them more competitive (Vandermerwe & Rada 1988; Oliva & Kallenberg, 2003). Indeed, researchers agree that difficult-to-imitate complementary additions can make the firm’s offerings more appealing to the target market and help to achieve competitive superiority (Bennion, 1987; Matthyssens et al., 2009)

However, there are several challenges. For example, B2B service innovation and internationalization processes management is complex and challenging due to structural and contextual factors (Dayan & Di Benedetto, 2010; Ndubisi, 2011), relative lack of experience, resources, international network, disparate needs across cultures and markets, actions and reactions of competitors, and many more (Atuahene-Gima et al., 2006; Hatch & Schultz, 2001; Ndubisi 2011; Porter, 2008). While some management limitations of the past exist, many have been transformed into new opportunities and challenges. As such, there is a need for more understanding of how service firms can better manage their business relationships, innovation strategies and global marketing activities and image.

This special issue seeks to address the aforementioned research gaps, and welcomes high quality submissions in the form of conceptual, case-based, or empirical papers. Suggested topics include (but not limited to) the following:

• Service innovation and diffusion
• Transformative service in emerging/developing markets contexts
• Service design and service engineering
• Complex service systems
• Service driven manufacturing
• Internationalization strategies for B2B service organizations
• International markets entry mode for service firms
• The role of the Internet in the internationalization of B2B services
• Technology and e-services in developing/emerging markets
• B2B services marketing strategy
• Trust, commitment and relationship marketing
• CRM in business service settings
• Building capabilities and resources through international networks
• Non-ownership services and business models
• Ethical issues in B2B service delivery
• Industrial service innovation
• Impact of culture, country or origin on international B2B service diffusion
• Servitization and service infusion in emerging markets contexts
• Conflict management in B2B relationships in service context
• Off-shoring/international outsourcing and franchising
• Government services and e-government for industrial customers
• Not-for-profit services in developing/emerging countries
• Leveraging research tools and new sources of data for service firms.
• Contingency factors and models of service innovation, innovation strategy, and internationalization process.

Other topics related to service innovation and global industrial service management in the context of B2B are also welcome for submission. Papers submitted to Industrial Marketing Management should explicitly demonstrate the contribution to industrial/B2B marketing.

Manuscript Preparation and Submission

To submit a paper please visit the IMM editorial site at

https://www.evise.com/profile/#/IMM/register.

Please login, register as an author, and submit the paper as the site will instruct you. Submissions are welcome no later than 31 December 2018. When you get to the step in the process that asks you for the type of paper, select SI: Service innovation and global industrial service management in the context of B2B. All papers will be reviewed through the standard double-blind peer review process of IMM. In preparation of their manuscripts, authors are asked to follow the Author Guidelines closely. A guide for authors, sample articles and other relevant information for submitting papers are available at

https://www.elsevier.com/journals/industrial-marketing-management/0019-8501/guide-for-authors.

All queries about the special issue should be sent to the Guest Editors (see below).

Guest Editors

Mumin Dayan, Professor of Marketing and Innovation Management, United Arab Emirates University, UAE. E-mail: mdayan@uaeu.ac.ae

Nelson Oly Ndubisi, Professor of Marketing and Service Innovation, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: olynel@hotmail.com

References

Atuahene-Gima, K., Li, H. and De Luca, L.M. (2006). The contingent value of marketing strategy innovativeness for product development performance in Chinese new technology ventures. Industrial Marketing Management, 35(3), 359-372.

Bennion, M. L. (1987). Segmentation and Positioning in a Basic Industry. Industrial Marketing Management, 16 (1), 9-18.

Dayan, M & Di Benedetto, A. (2010). The impact of structural and contextual factors on trust formation in product development teams. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(4), 691-703.

Hatch, M. J. and Schultz, M. (2001). Bringing the corporation into corporate branding. European Journal of Marketing, 37 (7/8): 1041-1064.

Ndubisi, N.O. (2011). Conflict handling, trust and commitment in outsourcing relationship: A Chinese and Indian Study. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(1), 109-117.

Oliva, R. and Kallenberg, R. (2003). Managing the transition from products to services. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 14(2), 1-10.

Porter, M. E. (2008). On Competition (Expanded edition). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Vandermerwe, S. and Rada, J. (1988). Servitization of business: adding value by adding services. European Management Journal, 6(4), 314-324.

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