The Italian Journal of Marketing – The Blog aims to provide practical recommendations and insights to excel in scientific endeavors. During the SIM Conference 2024, we met Professor Adam Lindgreen, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Industrial Marketing Management, the leading journal in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

Professor Adam Lindgreen shared his perspectives on some of the most exciting and underexplored areas in industrial marketing management today, including the transformative role of artificial intelligence, the interplay between marketing and supply chain management, and the growing importance of sustainability and ethics in B2B contexts. He also provided advice on methodological approaches.

This post captures the highlights of our conversation with Professor Adam Lindgreen, offering actionable insights to contribute to the field. Below, his thoughts on current trends, best practices, and strategic recommendations to navigate the challenges of academic publishing in industrial marketing.

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What are the most exciting and unexplored topics in industrial marketing?

Adam Lindgreen: That is a fascinating question. Several areas deserve more attention and could significantly contribute to the field. To start with, artificial intelligence and machine learning in B2B marketing are topics that offer enormous potential. Despite the growing interest, we have not seen much research on how these technologies can effectively support processes like sales. It’s a new and exciting area with great possibilities for development.

Another critical area is the interaction between marketing, operations, and supply chain management. Given how closely linked marketing, supply chains, and operations are in a business context, this topic is almost self-evident. Exploring the interface between these functions can make a real difference in improving B2B strategies. My research journey started with relationship marketing, focusing on B2C, but over time, I extended my focus to upstream stakeholders. Given the natural connection between marketing and supply chain management, it’s a perspective that makes sense.

A further area that seems particularly promising yet underexplored is agile product development. While already established in sectors like software, agile approaches could successfully be adapted to product development in B2B contexts. This topic deserves much more attention.

Sustainability is another crucial topic. Despite its importance, most research focuses on the upstream aspects of the value chain, such as supplier practices. Studies analyzing sustainability from a downstream perspective, directly linking it to marketing strategies, would be more interesting. This research could differentiate itself from journals like the Journal of Business Ethics.

Finally, ethics is a critical topic that still needs to be represented in our field. Ethics in industrial marketing have profound implications, particularly in an era where transparency and corporate social responsibility are key concerns for many companies. Scholars should focus on these five topics to help further develop the field of industrial marketing.

What is the most appropriate method for investigating B2B phenomena in today’s context?

Adam Lindgreen: That is an excellent question because it touches on a fundamental aspect of research. For us, the method depends on the topic you want to explore. Industrial Marketing Management welcomes any methodological approach—qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, case studies, or bibliometric reviews. The variety of techniques and methods we accept reflects the diversity of phenomena we address in B2B marketing.

Traditionally, our journal has published many case studies, but we also feature quantitative research. Additionally, we have an associate editor specializing in highly quantitative articles to ensure methodological rigor. Case studies can be an ideal starting point when approaching a new topic. This method allows you to generate ideas and insights that can later be tested with quantitative studies. However, case studies must be presented with great care and detail. A half-page description won’t suffice; you need to clearly explain where the data was collected, how it was analyzed, and how higher-order concepts were derived.

Another critical point is that we do not impose restrictions on specific methodologies. For instance, some journals now avoid techniques like PLS (Partial Least Squares), but we do not have such exclusions. What matters is that the study is methodologically rigorous and offers a meaningful contribution to the field.

What elements should authors focus on when writing industrial marketing/B2B papers?

Adam Lindgreen: There are four fundamental elements every author should focus on. First and foremost, the introduction. It is the heart of the paper and must answer key questions: why is the topic important? What do we already know? What gaps exist in the literature? And, most importantly, how does your work address these gaps? Without a strong introduction, even the most well-executed research risks going unnoticed.

The second element is collaboration. Good collaborators—people you can work with consistently—are crucial for developing ideas over time. Building strong, long-term research relationships helps create a coherent and high-quality body of work.

The third point is the quality of the data. You cannot conduct solid research without high-quality data. Investing time and effort in collecting and analyzing data is essential because, without a strong empirical foundation, even the most brilliant theory may fall flat.

Lastly, writing. Writing a paper takes time, dedication, and numerous revisions. Poorly written documents rarely make it past the review stage. Some scholars, particularly in the United States, use professional editors to improve their manuscripts. I recommend this option as long as the final result remains true to the original content.

Which papers would you recommend every industrial marketing scholar read?

Adam Lindgreen: That depends significantly on the researcher’s interests, but I can suggest a few papers that I consider fundamental. One is Kristian Möller and Aino Halinen’s 2022 work, Clearing the paradigmatic fog — how to move forward in business marketing research. It is an excellent example of addressing complex methodological issues.

Another paper I recommend is Saadat Saeed, Shumaila Yousafzai, Angela Paladino, and Luigi M. De Luca’s 2015 study, Inside-out and outside-in orientations: A meta-analysis of orientation’s effects on innovation and firm performance, which explores the dynamics between internal and external orientations in organizations.

Lastly, my 2018 paper, Past, present, and future business-to-business marketing research, with C. Anthony Di Benedetto, Jens Geersbro, and Thomas Ritter gives an overview of research in B2B marketing.

Do not limit yourself to articles published in Industrial Marketing Management. Many other high-quality journals—those ranked AJG 3 or higher—offer significant contributions to our field. Exploring a variety of sources can broaden your understanding and provide fresh perspectives.

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Copertina: Foto di Karolina Grabowska da Pixabay