Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group

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The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group or International Marketing and Purchasing Group (abbreviated IMP Group) is a European research initiative in the field of Industrial marketing established in 1976 by researchers from different countries and universities in Europe. [1] [2] It has evolved into an "informal international group of scholars concerned with developing concepts and knowledge in the field of business-to-business marketing and purchasing." [3] The group is also called the Nordic school of marketing. [4] [5]

Industrial marketing is the marketing of goods and services by one business to another. Industrial goods are those an industry of uses to produce an end product from one or more raw materials. The term, industrial marketing has largely been replaced by the term B2B marketing.

Contents

History

In 1976 the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group started as a joint research project of scientists for the Swedish University of Uppsala, the British University of Bath and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, the French Ecole Superieure de Commerce, Lyon (now EMLYON Business School), and the German Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The IMP Group (2010) explained:

University of Bath university in England

The University of Bath is a public university located in Bath, Somerset, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University of Bristol and University of the West of England, Bath can trace its roots to the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, established in Bristol as a school in 1595 by the Society of Merchant Venturers. The university's main campus is located on Claverton Down, a site overlooking the city of Bath, and was purpose-built, constructed from 1964 in the modernist style of the time.

University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 October 2004, it amalgamated with the Victoria University of Manchester to form a new entity also called The University of Manchester.

EMLYON Business School Business school in Lyon, France

emlyon business school is a French leading business school. It was founded in Lyon, France in 1872 by the local business community, and is affiliated to the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It has triple accreditation: EQUIS by the EFMD, AMBA, and the AACSB. emlyon has 5 campuses currently: Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Shanghai, Casablanca and Paris.

The first IMP Group research project was developed on the basis of empirical observations which did not fit into the mainstream economic theories’ assumption about an atomistic market: Industrial marketing and purchasing appeared to take place within stable, long-term business relationships. But why do companies develop these interdependencies? What benefits could outweigh the drawbacks of being dependent on others? These and other related research questions have triggered a large number of empirical studies over the past three decades of the “doing of business”, carried out by increasing numbers of researchers. These scholars have investigated a wide variety of interactions between individual companies and organisations as well as the wider network that surrounds them. These empirical studies, including issues such as marketing, purchasing, technological development, management, logistics, business communities and policy all challenge mainstream business theory and call for theoretical tools that allow investigations of the interactive aspects of the business landscape. [6]

The initial research of the IMP Group, as Young 1989 acknowledged added "significantly to the knowledge of how companies in industrial markets develop their international activities and what has contributed to the success of companies." [7] Möller and Wilson (1995) mentioned that this "work of the IMP Group can be accessed through Hakansson (1982) and Ford (1990)." [8]

Håkan Håkansson is a Swedish organizational theorist, and Professor of International Management at the BI Norwegian Business School, known for his work on business networks.

David Ford is a British organizational theorist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath School of Management, and co-founder of the International Marketing and Purchasing Group in the mid 1970s. He is known for his work with Håkan Håkansson on business networks.

In 2012 Rider et al. confirmed, that "the work of the IMP Group is reported in some dozen books, about 2,000 papers and more than 130 Ph.D. studies," based on data from the IMP Group website in 2009. [9]

Related Research Articles

Supply-chain management management of the flow of goods and services, involves the movement and storage of raw materials, of work-in-process inventory, and of finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption

In commerce, supply-chain management (SCM), the management of the flow of goods and services, involves the movement and storage of raw materials, of work-in-process inventory, and of finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. Interconnected or interlinked networks, channels and node businesses combine in the provision of products and services required by end customers in a supply chain. Supply-chain management has been defined as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply-chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally." SCM practice draws heavily from the areas of industrial engineering, systems engineering, operations management, logistics, procurement, information technology, and marketing and strives for an integrated approach. Marketing channels play an important role in supply-chain management. Current research in supply-chain management is concerned with topics related to sustainability and risk management, among others. Some suggest that the “people dimension” of SCM, ethical issues, internal integration, transparency/visibility, and human capital/talent management are topics that have, so far, been underrepresented on the research agenda.

Market segmentation is the activity of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers based on some type of shared characteristics. In dividing or segmenting markets, researchers typically look for common characteristics such as shared needs, common interests, similar lifestyles or even similar demographic profiles. The overall aim of segmentation is to identify high yield segments – that is, those segments that are likely to be the most profitable or that have growth potential – so that these can be selected for special attention.

Business-to-business Commercial transaction between businesses

Business-to-business is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when:

Industrial market segmentation is a scheme for categorizing industrial and business customers to guide strategic and tactical decision-making. This especially is important in sales and marketing, as well. While government agencies and industry associations use standardized segmentation schemes for statistical surveys, most businesses create their own segmentation scheme to meet their particular needs, however.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to marketing:

A business network is a complex network of companies, working together to accomplish certain objectives. These objectives, which are strategic and operational, are adopted by business networks based on their role in the market. There are two categories of business networks — business associations and company aggregations — that help small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to become more competitive and innovative.

New business development concerns all the activities involved in realizing new business opportunities, including product or service design, business model design, and marketing. When splitting business development into two parts, we have: ‘business’ and ‘development’. The first things that come into mind when looking at business are: economics, finance, managerial activities, competition, prices, marketing, etc. All of these keywords are related to risk and entrepreneurship and clearly indicate the primary scope of the term ‘business development’. Development is very abstract and can be linked with some of the following keywords: technological improvement, cost reduction, general welfare, improved relations, movement in a (positive) direction, etc.

Brian David Smith is an academic researcher and author in the area of strategic management, with a particular interest in the evolution of business models and competitive strategies in the life science sector, especially pharmaceuticals and medical technology.In addition to his research and writing, he also advises a range of companies in this industry.

Business relations are connections between stakeholders in the process of businesses, such as employer–employee relationships, managers as well as outsourced business partners. The association of businesses began relationships which have been constructed through communication channels such as the likes of telephones, personal contacts, and e-mails. These types of contacts are maintained and deepened through similar channels in internal businesses and organizations.

Geir Gripsrud is a Norwegian organizational theorist and Professor of Marketing at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, known for his work on international marketing, market entry strategy and distribution channels.

Kjell Grønhaug is a Norwegian organizational theorist, management consultant and Professor emeritus of Business Administration at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

Peter Naudé is a British organizational theorist and Professor of Marketing at the Manchester Business School, known for his work on business networks.

Ivan Snehota is an Italian organizational theorist, consultant, and Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the University of Lugano, known for his work in the field of business networks with Håkan Håkansson and others.

Anna Dubois Swedish engineer

Anna Dubois is a Swedish organizational theorist and Professor of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, and Director of Chalmers Transport Area of Advance. She is best known for her work with Lars-Erik Gadde on case study research, boundaries of the firm, and managing suppliers interfaces.

Alexandra Waluszewski is a Swedish organizational theorist, Professor at the Department of Economic History of the Uppsala University, particularly known for her work with Håkan Håkansson on "Managing Technological Development" and "Knowledge and innovation in business and industry."

Bjorn Axelsson is a Swedish organizational theorist and Professor of Business Administration at the Stockholm School of Economics, known for his work on industrial networks.

The relationship substance framework is a conceptual model for understanding business-to-business (B2B) relationships, developed and championed by the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group and adopted particularly in Scandinavian studies of industrial practice. The IMP Group have proposed that all business relationships are made up of three layers - actor bonds, resource ties and activity links.

References

  1. ↑ Turnbull, Peter, David Ford, and Malcolm Cunningham. "Interaction, relationships and networks in business markets: an evolving perspective." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 11.3/4 (1996): 44-62.
  2. ↑ Ford, David. "Guest editorial: The IMP Group and international marketing." International Marketing Review 21.2 (2004): 139-141.
  3. ↑ The Supply Chain Yearbook, McGraw-Hill, 2001. p. 475
  4. ↑ Christian Grönroos. "Marketing redefined." Management Decision 28.8 (1990).
  5. ↑ Nicholas O'Shaughnessy, Stephan C. M. Henneberg (2002) The Idea of Political Marketing. p. 102
  6. ↑ About the IMP Group, at impgroup.org, 2000-2010. Accessed 29.01.2015.
  7. ↑ Stephen Young (1989). International market entry and development: strategies and management. p. 94-95
  8. ↑ Kristian Möller, David T Wilson (1995). Business Marketing: An Interaction and Network Perspective. p. xvi
  9. ↑ Sharon Rider, Ylva Hasselberg, Alexandra Waluszewski (2012) Transformations in Research, Higher Education and the Academic Market: The Breakdown of Scientific. p. 73

Further reading

Lars-Erik Gadde is a Swedish organizational theorist and Professor of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is known for his work on business networks, professional purchasing. and case study research.

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