ABSTRACT. Our point of departure is that one important limitation in existing IMP literature is the lack of understanding of nature and ‘the commons’ generally (Ostrom, 1990) and common pool resources specifically. This limitation reflects the conventional ‘human-centric’ focus within marketing (Helkkula & Arnould, 2022). In 2023, it is timely to consider natural resources, specifically common pool resources, and natural actors within IMP, rather than as, essentially, network externalities. In the proposed conceptual paper, we contribute to existing knowledge about resources in IMP by theorizing common pool resources and natural actors. Current conceptualisations of resources are underpinned by assumptions including heterogeneity, dispersion, and embedded use (Bocconcelli et al., 2020; Prenkert et al., 2022). Specifically, we provide an extension of Penrose’s (1959) distinction between free resources and the economic services rendered by free resources. This extension, centred on the idea of resources in use in productive processes, enables us to identify multiple classes of common pool resources (air, land and sea), and to conceptualise these. We provide a conceptual illustration based on air as a resource class, in which the level of use (micro-macro) and type of access (free-limited) are core to the conceptualisation of common pool resources and commons. We conclude the paper by outlining the interplays between common pool resources and natural actors.

ABSTRACT. The role of place in resource use is of considerable policy and practical business interest. But theorizing place and resource use stumbles upon a suitable conceptual viewing point that includes recycling and the role of the past as source for renewal. Thus, the resumability of resources left unused when a firm leaves a place are separated from the other resources of a place. We resolve this disjunction by introducing a temporal constructivist research perspective that includes memories of resource use held in ”lines of action”, in addition to the resource artefacts left. We use two case studies of the closure of manufacturing to exemplify our theoretical viewing point. Business relationships and the lines of action understood by individuals are shown to indicate how discarded, dismissed, redundant, superfluous, unwanted and unsuspected resources are available for industrial renewal.

ABSTRACT. Processes as social constructions that transcend periods of time and even communities are appealing to researchers looking for new research perspectives to understand our changing business world. The paper provides pointers for undertaking longitudinal research of business relationships within a temporal constructivist frame. The concept of ‘balance’, often used in daily life to explain how tensions between actors and also between ideas, is used to display how different research perspectives arrive in our understandings. The discussion allows a reader to transcend and keep in view different ontological perspectives and see how a temporal constructivist approach opens research opportunities.

ABSTRACT. This paper offers an interpretive mapping of innovation ecosystem actors’ symbolic practices via discourse analysis. We explore how stakeholders signify future markets and what this means for their attempts to shape the future. Notions of social emergence through discursive interaction, identity work, market work and visioning are used to evaluate how an innovation ecosystem develops. Participants representing different AV ecosystems organisation were interviewed, in two contrasting national contexts. The main narratives were positioning, relationships, communication and market visions (imaginaries). Positioning involved the discursive positioning of the self and others in relation to putative marketplaces. We also note that network building activities, especially communication capabilities to achieve agendas. Visions were based on economic justifications, societal benefits, technology and customers segments. We plot these constructions over three levels of social emergence corresponding to discourse, roles/ identities and norms/activities and network development. Our key contribution is to highlight the multiple perspectives of network stakeholders within the ephemeral ecosystem and the links between the different levels of emergence.

ABSTRACT. This paper provides new understanding on the management styles of innovation ecosystems as a reflection of the type of the ecosystem. We apply the classification by Adner (2017, 47) based on “the way in which a focal firm approaches the alignment of partners and secures its role in a competitive ecosystem” to two types: ecosystem-as-affiliation and ecosystem-as-structure. Although only competent management of innovation ecosystems can secure its efficiency and effectiveness (Adner, 2006; Oh et al., 2016; Planko et al., 2017), current understanding about the differences in management practice of the two types of innovation ecosystems is scarce.

Management refers here to governance and coordination that are applied to manage a deliberately established inter-organizational collaboration in order to achieve its common objectives (Rong et al., 2015). To understand the topic better, we ask: How does the innovation ecosystem type manifest itself in ecosystem management? We conducted a multi-case study in 15 innovation ecosystems operating in Finland, Sweden, and Belgium to answer the question.

The results suggest that management differs considerably in innovation ecosystem that take the form of the membership community, and in those that are structured around innovation projects. Community type of innovation ecosystems highlight trust building and social bonds, and are open to new members. Coordination refers to enabling their members possibilities to meet, discuss, and find new partners and collaboration opportunities, as well as ideas for innovation. The latter view represents the ecosystem as a bundle of innovation projects and follows project management principles. Governance of these ecosystems is formal with restricted attendance.

ABSTRACT. Despite significant investments in promoting entrepreneurship, there has been a decline in the number of successful innovative firms in Europe and North America. Universities are crucial for transforming research into commercially viable innovations, and various support ecosystems have emerged to facilitate this process. This study investigates the early-stage activities at Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and incubators within university innovation support ecosystems, exploring the potential misalignments and inconsistencies that may hinder the overarching goal of commercializing academic knowledge. Employing a qualitative case study method, we conducted an in-depth examination of the Swedish academic entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our findings indicate the presence of tensions, conflicts, and contradictions among different stakeholders, each with their unique interests, values, and perspectives. This study contributes to the understanding of these complex relationships and emphasizes the importance of aligning goals and fostering collaboration within the academic ecosystem to effectively commercialize university research.

ABSTRACT. The implementation of IoT solutions transforms business-to-business markets. This transformation is not limited to technological changes. It also affects the actors and activities that characterize markets. We argue that the possibility of forms of exclusion / inclusion constitute important consequences of IoT solutions. This study uses case study research to identify potential forms of exclusion and inclusion. It then develops a framework that identifies different situations of exclusion and inclusion. Finally, it suggests avenues for future research.

ABSTRACT. In this conceptual article, we propose the Network Tokenization Conjecture (NT Conjecture), a forward-looking projection, examining ways in which Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) may disrupt and/or transform the business marketing network. We will investigate the potential adoption of DAOs using a multilevel approach, examining key mechanisms at six levels of analysis.

ABSTRACT. The study of industrial complexes represents a new research stream for IMP researchers. Furthermore, this paper focuses on the rapidly emerging B2B Artificial Intelligence Industrial Complex (B2B-AiIC). This superstructure converges the concept of the Industrial Complex with the growing presence of Large Language Models (LLMs), driving Artificial Intelligence (Ai) into various applications and industries through platform ecosystems. The B2B-AiIC represents a timely structure for investigation while presenting the IMP academic community with broader implications, including interdisciplinarity. The B2B-AiIC offers a new advanced practice of knowledge production. The landscape of the Large Language Model ecosystem driving the B2B-AiIC comprises computer chips, cloud infrastructure, training data, and Ai talent. The exemplar LLM, ChatGPT, generates hitherto smarter, human-imitating creative responses and recommendations, even though probabilistic, rendering accurate reproductions of human actors, including world leaders, resources, activities, and documents. LLMs have the potential to transform B2B Marketing activities and IMP academic knowledge. This paper investigates several propositions following the concept of the B2B-AiIC. A key research artefact is a node-link visualisation of the B2B-AiIC constructed from Ai publications and systems currently growing exponentially. The B2B-AiIC heralds an urgent opportunity to transform B2B Marketing activities and IMP academic knowledge and research.

ABSTRACT. This paper deals with business models that may contribute to development of more sustainable industries with less negative impact on the environment. One of the world’s most resource draining, and environmentally stressing industries is the textile and garment industry. We focus on renting systems for fashion wear developed by start-up companies. The framework of the paper is based on the IMP Approach and especially notions of resource heterogeneity. The value of resources is based on combination and utilization of certain technical resource units (products and production facilities). The paper builds on two cases of start-ups pursuing rental systems in Sweden. The findings show similar patterns in the two cases – displaying combinations of multiple facilities for value creation where the garment is focal, IT-systems, showrooms, laundry, logistics partners, relations with brand owners and knowhow of the fashion business. In the two cases, the garment resources need to be high in use rotations and is the main facility but after time, the facilities are sold as second-hand garments. The paper identifies the dual role of products and production facilities in value creation in renting systems and concludes that we may need to understand more of this dual role in order to learn more about renting systems and sustainability.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to reach a more profound understanding of the process of value co-creation among business and non-business actors involved in a science megaproject and their respective roles as contributors to and receivers of the project outcomes. We draw on literature on megaprojects and value co-creation between business and non-business actors to organise and analyse our findings. Empirically, the paper focuses on the European Spallation Source, ESS, which is currently being built in the south of Sweden. The data collected consists of interviews, newspaper articles, reports, and digital data such as video clips and podcasts.

ABSTRACT. This paper looks at the agency of place in shaping multi-stakeholder interactions in the making of markets. While some work has been done to understand the spatiality of markets, relatively little is still known about the ways in which place acts and shapes the work and interactions of market actors. Drawing on both IMP literature on place (Håkansson et al., 2006) and more specifically Constructivist Market Studies (Araujo et al., 2010; Kjellberg and Helgesson, 2007; Callon and Muniesa, 2005), we consider how multi-stakeholder interactions serve to shape places and how places shape these interactions aimed at bringing about a market in a specific setting. It is this relationship between markets and places that we aim to unpack, or as inspired by Guthey et al. (2014), we ask how do markets make place and place shape markets?

To do this, we draw on the notion of agencing. Markets are understood as socio-technical arrangements (agencements) (Callon and Caliskan, 2005). Stemming from the concept of an agencement, an important aspect of such socio-technical arrangements is less their structure than the capacity to act, that is, their agency (Callon 2007; Cochoy 2014; Cochoy et al., 2016). Through a qualitative inquiry into a small town in the highlands of Scotland, UK, we will examine how multiple stakeholders work together (and separately) to create a place-based tourism offering and market. We present some preliminary findings on the interactions and contestations among the stakeholders and with place itself, revealing paradoxes that the place presents in market making. The paper intends to contribute to the understanding of the role of place in the making of markets by elaborating how in agencing place, multi-stakeholder contestations, interactions and actions unfold.

ABSTRACT. Recently the literature has suggested that beyond CSR, companies should move more towards building organization identity supporting characteristics of conscientious organizations that emphasize the balanced creation of value for different stakeholders and focus on the long-term effects of their actions, while engaging both internal and external stakeholders as part of the company’s strategic decision-making processes. Conscientious behaviors are thus reflected within the business relationships in which conscientious organizations are engaged in. The present study explores the responsible integrative practices in managing the business relationships of conscientious organizations.  

Theoretically the paper is built on existing theoretical knowledge on conscientious organizations, value creation in business relationships and integrative practices. Empirically we examine a case study of a company with conscientious organization characteristics and its interface with stakeholders, its business relationships. Our study provides contributions to existing literature on sustainability in business markets. As a conclusion, the paper identifies integrative practices supporting and spreading conscientiousness within business relationships and also puts forward the characteristics of value creation within business relationships of conscientious organizations.

ABSTRACT. This working progress study aims to add understanding on sustainable procurement in developing countries. We focus specifically on multinational enterprises (MNEs) as buyers, and their interaction with the local stakeholders in promoting environmental sustainability. We apply stakeholder engagement literature to investigate with which stakeholders the MNCs interact, how they interact with the stakeholders regarding environmental issues, and what is the aim of the interaction. The empirical study is conducted as a qualitative multiple case study of MNCs located in Nigeria. The main data collection method is semi-structured interviews. The intended contribution relates to sustainable procurement literature in the context of developing countries.Sustainable procurement, stakeholder engagement, developing countries, multinational enterprise

ABSTRACT. There has been a move amongst IMP researchers to go beyond the study of buyer-seller dyads and to try instead to understand the influence of the wider network within which these relationships are embedded. This leads in turn to the examination of ‘stakeholder journeys,’ defined as “a stakeholder’s trajectory of role-related touchpoints and activities, enacted through stakeholder engagement, that collectively shape the stakeholder experience with the firm” (Hollebeek et al., 2023:29).

This paper examines active stakeholder engagement and value creation through the lens of Interdependence Theory, using the tenets of Control, Covariation of Interest, Mutuality of Dependence, Information Availability and Temporal Journey Structure. We base our data on a case study involving a British-based SME operating in the healthcare industry, making equipment that is sold to gyms and intended for use by the growing segment of elderly individuals. We examine the relationship between them and their largest customer, a franchisor/distributor in Norway who both sell the equipment to franchisees operating their own gyms and also sells it on to sub-franchisors in certain other European countries.

The study utilises relationship interaction types and value creation from the differing perspectives of the two major stakeholders in the network who have a critical relationship in an international service ecosystem, and also utilises interdependence theory tenets to explore and explain the relationship interaction types and stakeholder experience.

ABSTRACT. Companies cannot always avoid critical events, but they can strengthen their preparedness in advance to handle such situations. An important element for handling critical events is communication and collaboration with stakeholders. This requires that companies handle communication with various stakeholders holistically, targeted, and efficiently. In critical incidents, the need for coherent and credible handling of communication with various stakeholders is pertinent. We develop a communication concept for handling critical events within the water sector. Specifically, the article looks at how the Danish utility company can implement a digital communication concept for handling and collaborating with stakeholders during a critical event, i.e., a polluted wastewater incident. Overall, we contribute to the literature by exploring how a communication concept can achieve alignment between external and internal stakeholders with different interests.

ABSTRACT. Business interaction is future oriented and full of intentions. Also within IMP companies and relationships as collectives of actors are attributed intentions, but how intentions are considered in research is difficult because there is an implied future outcome in which actors of different collectives have their interests. By contrast some research has considered interests in business relationship and network settings: with company specific and mutual interests being contrasted to self and collective interests in the social sphere. Here the issue seems to become the “relative and future oriented nature of interests.” Our paper focuses on the different forms of interest according to who is considered the focus/foci of intentions by considering a company and social collective interest of sustainable production. In particular we focuses on the tensions and issues of transitioning towards sustainable production in the Danish food industry.

ABSTRACT. Analytical frameworks/tools are influential when they direct theoretical development and guide managerial decision-making. For instance, the strategy domain offers a variety of tools, commonly guiding the analyst towards the creation of a competitive advantage (Jarzabkowski & Kaplan, 2015). By taking an inside-out view of seemingly independent firms, strategists approach their analyses with normative ambitions. However, there has been a call within the strategy discipline to develop new frameworks/tools; ways of thinking that acknowledge a more interdependent world where value often is co-created by different stakeholders (e.g. Vuorinen et al., 2018). IMP researchers have over the years developed several frameworks/tools which seem to answer the call by certain strategy scholars. These include the Interaction model (Håkansson et al 1982), the ARA model (Håkansson and Snehota 1995), the resource interface framework (Araujo, Dubois & Gadde, 1999); the 4R model and the resource interaction approach (e.g. Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2002; Baraldi & Strömsten, 2006; Baraldi, Gressetvold, & Harrison, 2012), and network pictures/picturing (Abrahamsen et al, 2016; Henneberg et al, 2006). Cheng and Holmen (2015) offer a systematic review of the relationship and networking strategy tools in the IMP literature. There is, arguably, a need to continue this line of work. IMP frameworks/tools are commonly used in a descriptive manner; there are few examples of normative applications. Similarly, Bocconcelli et al (2020) argue that formalization and refining of existing concepts, in the resource interaction approach for instance, should be done in a more ‘guided’ way. We accordingly ask the following question: is there a potential for existing IMP tools to be used in a more normative manner? The paper contributes by providing an initial review and reflection of the existing ‘IMP toolbox’. The purpose of this work-in-progress proposal is to highlight the potential inherent in current IMP tools/frameworks and, in the long run, stimulate the IMP community to participate in an edited book, which would provide sufficient space to demonstrate ‘best practices’ regarding the use of the ‘IMP toolbox’ in a number of settings. The study builds on a ‘tools’-oriented literature review, the authors’ own experiences in applying the tools, and 7 interviews with experienced members of the IMP community.

ABSTRACT. Academic research in the business field has developed and diffused managerial tools, which have become well-known and recognized resources in both business education and managerial practice. Within IMP, which is traditionally focused on an empirical understanding of business landscapes and phenomena, there is a growing debate concerning the managerial relevance of IMP thinking, concepts, and tools. This preliminary study aims to contribute to this emerging debate by analyzing startup processes. Such processes have received increasing attention from IMP scholars and are the subject of both research and teaching efforts in the main Business Schools and Universities. In particular, a review of 48 IMP-based contributions related to startup processes, with a focus on the analysis of the use of IMP concepts and tools and managerial implications, is conducted.

ABSTRACT. Business activities are increasingly scrutinized for overconsuming natural resources, creating pressure for firms to sustainably transform their businesses and operating environments. While market shaping research is accumulating rapidly, development dynamics of shaping strategies remain understudied (Liljenberg, 2022; Nenonen & Storbacka, 2021; Storbacka et al., 2022). Mainly focusing on successful market shaping by a focal actor, rare studies enlighten the tensions at the beginning of a collective market shaping process (Storbacka et al., 2022). However, it would be highly important to understand those tensions, potentially amplified by the involvement of multiple actors and complexity of sustainability development. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the tensions in initiating a collective market shaping process towards sustainability.

We study a complex empirical case in the shipbuilding industry. Aiming to sustainably transform the industry, a European shipyard publicly announced in 2022 the goal of developing a climate neutral cruise ship together with its supplier network. However, the specifications and roadmap of the ambitious objective remain undefined, and have become questioned due to systemic challenges emerging in the business environment. Our primary data consists of personal and focus group interviews among representatives of the shipbuilding network. The data collection is ongoing.

We employ the nested business environment framework by Möller et al. (2020) for studying the dynamics and tensions emerging at different layers of the focal business environment. Our aim is to identify tensions within and between the socio-economic technological system, business field, focal ecosystem, and actor layer.

Our study contributes to market shaping literature by empirically enlightening the nested business environment dynamics, particularly the hampering tensions, at the early phases of an intended collective market shaping process. Simultaneously, the study addresses calls to advance understanding of challenges specific to market shaping for sustainable outcomes (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2021; Storbacka et al., 2022).

ABSTRACT. To cope with climate change, radical decarbonizing of production and consumption three categories of innovations are needed: technological, policy and market innovations. Such transformative processes are dependent on several categories of technologies, policies, and markets and how they are represented in terms of frames and connectivity. We use the value chain concept to allow for such connectivity to understand opportunities and barriers for climate mitigating. The purpose of the paper is to conceptually and empirically explore how representation of markets as value chains may influence how policy innovation, conceptualized as institutional work, is performed. We apply four conceptual frameworks: the market practice model, the IMP framework, the value chain concept and the “whole of government” perspective on institutional work. We analyze, applying textual analytical techniques, reports from a government agency, Fossil Free Sweden. (FFS) has submitted roadmaps to government representing different industries to government as well as strategy reports suggesting how the roadmaps might be implemented. These reports, developed by market actors, include how on-going and potential technological innovations need to be supported/enabled by market innovations and policy innovations. Our analyses reveal similarities and differences in how markets and value chains are represented as the context for market exchange. We formulate three propositions on how representing markets as value chains may affect performance of institutional work for climate mitigating. 1.Value chains feature agency and efforts of changing policies and practices. 2. Value chains consider the temporality of policy and market innovations. 3. Value chains as market representation in institutional work can aid path generation towards fossil free market exchange embedded in industrial networks

ABSTRACT. The chaotic conditions generated by COVID-19, the Ukrainian war, and the energetic crisis, require new paradigms for decision making. For a long time, strategic decisions have been associated with the personal characteristics of the decision makers, as well as the conditions related to the context. The uncertain and chaotic situation generated by recent world crisis, has required a new approach for decision making, through the investigation of the interconnections among heterogeneous actors and the kind of relationships able to face new trends such as sustainability, digital transformation and humanistic management. These new scenarios, that can be called new paradigms, may have an impact on the main activities developed in business relationships, and imply the entering also of new actors and new resources. In order to present preliminary considerations on those aspects, this paper presents the results of a research based on a Delphi methodology

Special track: Decision making when interacting in business relationships

ABSTRACT. Exploring how aid networks build resilience is vital to understanding how they survive in the face of protracted crises. Sensemaking processes became central in resilience building to interpret the changing environment, guiding actions and strategies for business networks. Yet, our understanding of sensemaking in relation to resilience lacks detail as to the specific cognitive framing processes and mechanisms that help explain how resilience (i.e., a shared frame)  can be interpreted, implemented, and adapted by actors in specific contexts. This research explores network resilience in a humanitarian setting, by focusing the framing processes and mechanisms  influencing resilience building. The proposed research is built on a single, cross-sectional, Jordanian case study. This work in progress will provide important theoretical contribution to current literature on framing processes in a networked setting. Track: Decision making when interacting in business relationships.