Taking B2B innovation beyond the product and beyond the lab: With the growing recognition that innovation can fruitfully take more forms than that involving traditional NPD processes, what nontraditional processes are needed or are most effective in B2B markets?
Ideation in B2B: tapping customers and non-experts for fresh ideas: How can research determine how to better understand B2B customer needs and better involve customers in the innovation process.
The interface of innovation with marketing and sales: How can research determine the most appropriate role for the salesforce in the innovation and new product development process in B2B organizations?
Evolution of the Buying Process: To what extent is extant knowledge on buying centers and buyer behaviors still valid? How does the emergence of B2B electronic commerce and global purchasing practices impact that typology or are new typologies needed?
Geographic/Cultural Differences in the Buying Process: How do theories of buying centers and buyer behaviors differ across countries and what factors drive these differences?
Sales Force Management and Behavior: Changes in B2B buying require that B2B selling strategies adapt. The emergence of solution selling and global key account management practices require more adaptive sales teams. How should one study these new types of sales teams?
The Customer Experience: B2B customers increasingly search for information and seek solutions online for their firms in a fashion similar to the way they shop for themselves. How does one conceptualize and assess the changing nature of customer experience in business market and how does the customer experience change with buying situations and buying roles?
Use of Customer Analytics to identify and qualify opportunities for new B2B offerings.
Use of Customer Analytics to better understand B2B buying behavior and the implications for better customer targeting, marketing resource allocation, pricing and customer life cycle management.
In addition, we are interested in work that integrates direct customer data with data from channel partners as well as data that explicitly recognizes multiple buying influences and buyer-seller networks.
The ISBM will continue to support work in its traditional areas of research focus, spanning a broad spectrum of B2B problems.