Journal
INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Volume 76, Issue -, Pages 169-180Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.08.004
Keywords
Demand-supply interface; Paradox; Demand and supply activities; Qualitative research
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this paper, we explore paradoxes firms face when managing demand and supply activities and managers' experience of coping with and transcending these paradoxes. Following an exploratory research approach and based on the analysis of interviews with executive managers, documents from, and observations of 19 business-to-business (B2B) firms, we develop empirically grounded propositions. We first find and explain three major demand and supply paradoxes, namely collaboration-competition, concord-conflict, and integration-differentiation. We then expand on the handling mechanisms B2B firms employ to respond to these paradoxes. We find that B2B firms that understand, balance, and transcend demand and supply paradoxes achieve greater synergy between demand and supply activities and leverage both demand and supply approaches as overarching guiding principles for their strategy. Our study informs B2B marketing and marketing strategy by exploring the nature and role of paradoxes that shape the relationships between demand and supply activities. In doing so, it also offers an empirical account of the discrepancy between the theory and practice of demand and supply integration.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available