Reply to Commentaries by Dant & Lapuka, Honeycutt & Thelen, Malhotra, Uslay, & Ndubisi, LaPlaca, and Woodside on “The Essence of Business Marketing Theory, Research and Tactics: Contributions by theJournal of Business-to-Business Marketing”

This article investigates how external stakeholders influence the first sale of technology-based business-to-business start-up companies. The authors combine entrepreneurship theory with marketing theory to describe the marketing and selling activities of start-ups and how new ventures reach key milestones. The study shows how two start-ups, an e-business firm and a new product development firm, acquired their first customers. The analysis provides a picture of how a network of the firms' founders, board members and owners contributed to their first sales. It also highlights the importance of sales activities, relationships and industrial knowledge. The paper examines the importance of external stakeholders' relative positions in the web of relationships and assesses how relevant these are in affecting outcomes and speed to market. The authors conclude that the first sale follows a time line with three important phases of activities involving credibility, closing and operations. They find that credibility is best obtained through establishing relationships.

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Resource integration for co-creation between marketing agencies and clients

European Journal of Marketing ◽

10.1108/ejm-10-2015-0725 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (5/6) ◽

pp. 1329-1354 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Tim Hughes ◽

Mario Vafeas ◽

Toni Hilton

Keyword(s):

Relationship Marketing ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Resource Integration ◽

Marketing Theory ◽

Content Type ◽

Integration Approach ◽

Resource Enhancement ◽

Operant Resources ◽

Business To Business ◽

Practical Implications

Purpose Resource integration is a central idea within service-dominant logic (S-D logic), but there has been little scholarly research on this aspect of theory. This paper aims to explore resource integration between marketing agencies and their clients. Design/methodology/approach In total, nine case studies have been developed using a dyadic approach of interviewing clients and members of their agency teams. This is followed-up with presentations and workshops with over 200 practitioners who validated the findings and added new perspectives. Findings The key operant resources in the client/agency context have been identified. The ways the operant resources of the actors developed during the course of resource integration, building potential resources for future co-creation are shown. The differing perspectives of the actors to each other’s contribution are highlighted. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that resource enhancement and development, as a result of integration, is important. For agency/client research, resource integration and development brings new perspectives complementing existing relationship approaches to research. The findings have implications for relationship marketing theory across business-to-business (B2B) contexts. Practical implications The findings suggest a resource integration approach that could be jointly addressed between agency and client in improving the way they work together. The discourse of co-creation suggests a way for them to talk about how to work together effectively. Suggestions are made for teaching. Originality/value This study develops the S-D logic theory through exploring resource enhancement and development in a B2B co-creation context. The dyadic nature of the research is novel in studying how marketing agencies and clients work together and new perspectives emerge from the approach.

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