Business Marketing Comes of Age: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

ABSTRACT Since 1978 business marketing has seen a great deal of research activity. It is reasonable to ask whether this has led to advances in theory development and a general increase in our level of knowledge of business marketing. This article reviews the business marketing literature from 1978–1997 from twenty-three journals, five sets of proceedings, and selected books of articles in an attempt to answer that question. Over two thousand articles were examined to assess the current state of the field and suggest directions for future development. As the sheer number of articles since 1978 would suggest, the field of business marketing has attracted a considerable amount of attention. Close examination of the past twenty years of research, however, clearly indicates that certain areas have received a disproportionate share of the research effort. Organizational buyer behavior, strategy and planning, and sales management accounted for over forty percent of the articles published. Important areas such as computers and technology in business markets, marketing to the government, ethics in business markets, and pricing, in contrast, have received relatively little research attention. Regardless of the uneven coverage, the research in business marketing over the past twenty years has been conceptually and empirically strong. Changes in the way business is done has also resulted in a recent surge in theory development in the area of buyer-seller relationships within the context of relationship marketing. Increased attention has also centered on cross functional issues, networks, and strategic alliances.