ABSTRACT. There are approximately 22 million commercial motorcycles in Africa, and moto-taxis transport 100M people in East Africa every day. Most of this transportation is fueled by fossil sources. Ampersand, founded in 2016 with headquarters in Kigali, Rwanda, offers a commercial e-motorcycle fleet and a battery swapping network. Its motorcycles have been driven over 180 million km, nearly 8,000 tons of emissions have been avoided, and the company’s commercial customers have increased their income by 45% per day. The company manages over 60,000 battery swaps enabling over 3 million kilometers per month. Ampersand, defining itself as a transport energy company rather a motorcycle company, is currently transitioning from a start-up to a scale-up. The company had 60 motorbikes on the road at the start of 2022 and envisions to have between 20,000 and 30,000 in 2024. A next generation battery pack, swap system, and a new motorcycle is under development. Its ambition is to be the long-term energy service provider for commercial electric motorcycle users, whether the motorbikes are from Ampersand or any OEM. This study’s research questions are accordingly: How can Ampersand contribute to e-mobility and electrification of motorbikes in East Africa while maintaining a sound balance between people, planet, and profit? What strategic alternatives will enhance sustainable growth?

ABSTRACT. Business networks as well as firms or, more generally, organisations, are social constructions created by individuals in person-to-person interaction (Giddens, 1984). Every time one party does something to the other (acts), the other needs to make sense of it in order to figure out the most appropriate form to respond (re-acts) (Cronen, Pearce, & Harris, 1982). Both meaning and response are contextual, the context of interaction provides the norms and rules and guides meaning and drives response; each context has its own norms and rules (Håkansson & Snehota, 1995). A sports metaphor could help explaining this point. Imagine a rugby player running with the ball towards the adversary’s goal line, it is not only permitted but expected that members of the opposing team will stop the player most likely tackling him. Well, try tackling a member of the opposing team if you are playing basketball. The same action could have two very different consequences, depending on which playing field it occurs. What is permitted and celebrated in one game is forbidden and penalised in the other. Nevertheless, there are also some common rules, for instance, the players’ task is to reach or get closer to the opponent’s side of the field in order to score points. Public, referees, and players share common knowledge of the rules, hence, a match can be played without much interruption. While business interaction is not precisely a sport, norms and rules apply and businesspeople are likely to have some shared understanding of such rules in order to conduct businesses with others without much interruption. However, the rules of interaction might vary depending on the context at which businesses are interacting. Among the identified contexts of interaction in business it could be mentioned: contracts, the normative that two or more firms embrace in conducting business together, relationship, which structure is given by constructs such as trust, commitment, and bonds formed between firms over time, industrial sector, what is generally accepted among all entities related to a particular business group, the company character, norms of behaviour that an organisation members observe, and even the individual’s life-script, influenced by their acquaintances within and outside the organisation; that is the person’s construction of what is it to be me (Biggemann, 2010). When two firms interact, most commonly they will be following the norms and rules developed within their relationship, that is, the most prevalent level of context is likely to be relationship. A simple example could be that firm A, a known customer to firm B, requests a quotation, firm B would construe the request as a legitimate purchase situation and respond by offering their best price, to which firm A could respond placing a purchase order. The interaction would continue until the goods or services are delivered and the invoice is paid. Making sense of each other acts was an easy task. Nevertheless, there are occasions where one party’s act has clear and expected meaning in the context of relationship, however conflicts with the other party’s believes in the context of life-script making their response difficult. For example, a customer claims guarantee for a faulty product, the seller knows that replacing the product in guarantee is the right thing to do, however, his/her principal instructs to reject the customer’s guarantee claim hiding information about a faulty product. The seller would find such response unacceptable and feel trapped in a paradox where following instructions clashes with her ethical standards, but not following her principal’s instructions clashes with her construction of what is it to be an employee at her firm. These paradoxes may have hindering effects on business relationships (Biggemann & Buttle, 2009). We studied business interaction aiming to respond the question of: what is the role of life-script in the development of relationships and networks? To respond our research question, we have taken a constructionist approach (Goldberg, 2013) and gather information from more than 50 buyers and sellers within four different case studies. We transcribed verbatim and analysed more than 900 pages of informants’ utterances on business-to-business interaction, seeking for expressions such as “for a person like me…” or “in my position…” to mention a couple. Interactions were construed following Foddy (1993) and Miyamoto (2023) symbolic interactionism model. We find that since companies are formed by groups of individuals, the aggregated individuals’ life scripts give shape to the company character. The company character is construed by their customers or suppliers affecting their perceptions of companies’ network identity and position (Schepis, Purchase, & Ellis, 2014). Our data includes comments such as: “I look at him [one supplier], because of his actions, the way he is, the way he presents himself, the way he handles himself around us, in a business sense, makes me not want to assist him in any way for his business. And it is very important.” (G6:230) Which illustrates how business buyers give meaning to their suppliers’ act in the context of life-script, (i.e., the person’s conception of self in social interaction) and react in manners that might be detrimental to the continuation of their businesses, potentially affecting the formation of business networks too. Within the business perspective, life-script is the level of context that defines the individual’s beliefs about his/her role in the organisation, which cannot be separated from his private experiences and social life. The individual thus evaluates the acts within the organisation in the context of his/her life-script. The outcomes of such evaluation could also be positive as in the following quote: “When a person like [him] moves into a company like [Company X] you say yes, this is a good fit, we will work together well, we feel very comfortable, our relationship will go to the next level. If a person like [him] moved into a company that had a very poor trading relationship with us, particularly if that is a company that has a history of churning and burning in management then you would say, [he] is a good guy, and I hope he does really well but certainly I am not going to expose myself heavily to this company until I have seen a very significant proof that this is turning around to change.” (C22:64) Here it could be observed that parties in interaction swing between relationship and life-script levels of context in making sense of the other party’s acts. Sometimes relationship improves and other times the inconsistencies between the meaning in the changing of level of context create confusion and might hinder the development of business in the future. The main effects of people’s life-scripts in building relationships and networks were observed in those episodes in which the individual’s beliefs of his/her role within the organization were inconsistent with the perceived state of affairs. Then, the episodes appeared to have connected with their life-script level of context, provoking a situation which jeopardised the relationship. Hence, the life-script level of context explicates very much how changes in personnel could change the nature of business-to-business relationships, for better or worse. References Biggemann, S. (2010). Structure and dynamics of business-to-business relationships. In A. G. Woodside (Ed.), Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing: Organizational Culture, Business-to-Business Relationships, and Interfirm Networks (Vol. 16, pp. 327-340): Emerald. Biggemann, S., & Buttle, F. (2009). Coordinated Interaction and Paradox in Business Relationships. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 24(8), 549-560. Cronen, V. E., Pearce, W. B., & Harris, L. M. (1982). The coordinated management of meaning: a theory of communication. In F. E. X. Dance (Ed.), Human communication theory (pp. 61-89). New York: Harper & Row. Foddy, W. (1993). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press. Goldberg, A. E. (2013). Constructionist approaches. In T. Hoffmann & G. Trousdale (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of construction grammar (pp. 15-31). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Håkansson, H., & Snehota, I. (1995). Analysing business relationships. In H. Håkansson & I. Snehota (Eds.), Developing relationships in business networks (pp. 24-49). London: Routledge. Miyamoto, S. F. (2023). Self, motivation, and symbolic interactionist theory. In Human nature and collective behavior (pp. 271-285): Routledge. Schepis, D., Purchase, S., & Ellis, N. (2014). Network position and identity: A language-based perspective on strategizing. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(4), 582-591.

ABSTRACT. The extant body of research into key account management (and in related concepts, such as global or strategic account management) draws on numerous theoretical and conceptual sources. In their review of the extended KAM literature, Kumar, Sharma, and Salo (2019) mention, among others, transaction cost economics, the commitment-trust theory, relationship marketing, and the competency perspective. Other authors have drawn upon the resource based view and (dynamic) capability theory (e.g., Guesalaga et al. 2018; Ivens et al. 2018), or the actors-resources-activities perspective (Homburg et al. 2002; Herrhausen et al. 2022). The variety of theoretical and conceptual perspectives has led to the development of idiosyncratic frameworks. Each framework individually makes an important contribution to the general literature on KAM. What is missing, however, is an integrative analysis of extant frameworks that puts them in perspective.

ABSTRACT. Different streams of research indicate the pervasive influence of business networks on managerial decision-making. They influence how choices are rationalized and how reasons for actions are perceived and decisions justified. We argue that the relationship between contextual rationality of business networks and managerial decision-making can help us understand the dynamics of these contexts, which in its turn will facilitate collaboration and contribute to fostering adaptability and collective resilient responses when interacting.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research agenda for understanding how heuristics shaping business network interactions are initiated, sustained, and evolves as part of what a business network “knows”. Some advances have already been made in the IMP tradition, exploring how managers on the one hand imagine business networks and on the other hand are informed by network perceptions in their decisions. However, we also think this literature stops short from engaging with the difficult questions how managerial decisions are informed and even shaped by the network context. In the current IMP literature, there is less concern with how the mindsets of business network participants are interweaved. Decision-makers in business networks are typically portrayed as rational actors who strategize based on their individual business aims - independent of whether surrounding networks are seen as perceived or enacted through processes of sensemaking. We think it is worthwhile to challenge that decision-making is instrumentally made about network position and participation, distinguishing the decision-making actor from the network context. We want to explore a notion of contextual rationality in business network and address how managerial decision-making and business networks interrelate. We outline the principal questions relevant for addressing how the contextual rationalities within business networks potentially influence decision-making. This helps us build an empirical research agenda for addressing contextual rationalities in business networks.

ABSTRACT. The high annual spending on public procurement is attracting considerable attention as a potential strategic tool for achieving various public values. However, the overall development of public procurement systems typically leans towards standardized exchanges between public organizations and suppliers, which implies limitations on interactions and consequently restricts innovation. Therefore, it is essential to understand how public organizations navigate the tension between fostering innovation (requiring interactive buyer-supplier interfaces) and maintaining process compliance (which demands standardized interfaces). This study focuses on leveraging public procurement to foster innovation within a standardized environment, particularly in the context of a developing country. Specifically, we examine the dynamics of value co-creation and co-destruction in practices aimed at mitigating this friction. We conducted an exploratory nested-case study in Iran and gathered and analyzed in-depth interviews using a dyadic approach across three project cases. Our findings reveal that the relational frictions and mitigating activities employed by the public organization in question have co-created certain value components while also co-destructing others. This impact extends not only to the public buyer and supplier but also to the broader network of actors within the public procurement ecosystem as these practices become institutionalized within the network.

ABSTRACT. It is established that deals impact processes of value creation. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how characteristics of deals and their integrated value measuring (VM) impacts value creation. This paper aims to explore how characteristics of the construction of deals impact the value creation process. The paper is based on an ethnographically inspired study conducted between June 2013 and March 2015 in the Norwegian health sector. We investigate two distinct financial incentive arrangements both directed at the relationship between municipalities and hospitals. The first arrangement is payment for dischargeable patients (PDP) and the second one is municipal co-financing of specialist care services (MCF). The aim of the paper is to investigate these issues. In doing so, we explore the following research question: How does the deal and its integrated value measuring impact the joint value creation process?

A surprising finding is that the financially smaller PDP deal became influential in comparison to the MCF deal, shaping the resource interaction between the parties. The paper illustrates how deal construction, and the design of its integrated VM, influence network ties, and also how deals and VM is multifaceted and that configurations are indeed complex matters with uncertain consequences. Ultimately, it is not only the size of the monetary flows that matter – it is rather how this is done, how one approaches the construction, and use of deals and means of VM therein.

ABSTRACT. Although the business relationship between a firm and its business partners can be vulnerable under a crisis situation and lead to detrimental effects on end-customers, when this is properly managed can produce favorable customer results. The goal of this study is to examine the effects of various aspects of the hotel - travel agent working relationship on its performance under an exogenous crisis situation, and how this ultimately impacts final customer satisfaction. Drawing on the relational exchange theory, we build a conceptual model connecting the quality, functionality, and conformity of the working relationship with relational performance and its subsequent impact on the hotel’s end-customer satisfaction. The model was tested using structural equation modeling using data collected from a survey among 190 hotels in Greece during the recent Covid-19 pandemic crisis, supplemented with secondary data on customer satisfaction. The results revealed that relational performance was positively affected by all variables comprising relationship quality (i.e., trust, commitment, cooperation), all variables referring to relationship functionality (i.e., coordination, communication, closeness), and two of the variables composing relationship conformity (i.e., solidarity, adaptation). It was also shown that the resulting relational performance had a positive effect on end-customer satisfaction.

ABSTRACT. A market relationship, often short-term, typically serves as the initial phase for a business relationship to evolve. This progression is argued to occur through interactions characterised by social- and economic exchanges. These exchanges gradually foster common characteristics of a business relationship such as trust, commitment, and mutual orientation. However, it is in this paper proposed that we should consider trade credit transactions as a significant aspect of this interaction. Trade credit involves suppliers delivering goods before customers make payments, usually within 30-90 days. Such transactions entail commitments and promises for future actions. Completion of these trade credit transactions appears pivotal in transitioning from a market relationship to a business relationship. Therefore, this paper aims to conceptualize how trade credit transactions contribute to this transformation. Its primary contribution lies in outlining five testable propositions of how trade credit transactions facilitate the development of key characteristics of a business relationship.

ABSTRACT. This work-in-progress paper looks at an innovation journey to explore the dynamics of value perceptions by different actors. The study takes time as an important dimension for understanding the value perceptions, the case study is based on a specific technology – a cranial implant technology (CI) – within the healthcare context. The paper reveals how actor perceptions evolve over time and differ across settings, shedding light on innovation dynamics. It shows how the same technology generates diverse values for different actors in different contexts.

ABSTRACT. This paper conceptualizes a new role for the third party in ending, reactivating, and reviving processes in business networks. The IMP Perspective focuses explicitly on the interface between a firm and its environment by defining the business relationship (dyad) as the focal unit of analysis, specifically emphasizing relationship development. Recent studies on ending and reactivating of relationships have emerged as an exciting focus within business relationships and network dynamics. Furthermore, business relationships are not isolated but are connected with other business relationships, making the connectedness of these relationships an imperative aspect, and as such, the role of third parties has been recognized in many IMP studies. The influence of third parties in ending and reactivating processes is also acknowledged, yet few studies explicitly explore these issues. Considering the third party in the ending process implies a triadic perspective, enabling the exploration of connections and interdependencies between relationships, including the exit of the third actor and, thus, the effects on the other relationships in the triad. Moreover, in a triad, the actor roles are important and might influence when and how the ending and/or reactivating occurs. Previous literature has discussed three distinct roles for the third party: (1) Tertius Gaudens, the third who benefits; (2) Tertius Iungens, the third who joins; and (3) Tertius Adiuvans - the third that helps. An exploratory qualitative dual case study design is employed to investigate the ending, reactivating, and reviving processes of business relationships involving three actors. Our two cases demonstrate how a third party influences the other two in the triad. We thus advance the idea that there are additional ways a third actor can be considered as a force for altering connected business relationships. We, therefore, propose the Tertius Disruptor role as a new concept for the third that disturbs.

ABSTRACT. Industrial networks are challenged by sustainable transformation (Harrison et al, 2023). An important part of the transformation relates to electrification of transport. In this paper we address an important aspect of this challenge by focusing on vehicle batteries as a key resource in the transformation of road freight transport. The aim of the paper is to elaborate on different ways to build business models around vehicle batteries based on how batteries can become embedded with other resources in different network settings (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2007). Three network settings of importance for the development and for further studies focusing on vehicle batteries as key resources in emerging networks are identified. First, the use setting i.e., the network in which batteries are used in electric vehicles wherein we focus on the road freight sector, i.e. batteries used in battery electric heavy vehicles (HEVs). Second, the grid setting i.e., the network in which vehicle batteries relate to the electricity system through charging, and through discharging to the grid if or when batteries are used as energy storage for balancing purposes in the grid. Third, the circularity setting i.e., the network in which batteries are recovered, re-used in second life applications, and then recycled.

Theoretically, the paper builds on the resource interaction approach (e.g., Bocconcelli et al., 2020; Prenkert et al., 2022) and contributes by elaborating on the notion of network embedded business models (Mason and Spring, 2011; Palo and Tähtinen, 2013; Bankvall et al., 2017), and by suggesting an approach to case studies of ‘prospective business networks’ drawing on network visioning (Abrahamsen et al., 2023). In addition, the paper suggests a framework for further analysis of the development to enable analysis of the emerging business network, with managerial implications for various business actors who are, or might become, involved in the further development.

References Abrahamsen, M.H., Halinen, A. and Naudé, P. (2023) The role of visioning in business network strategizing. Journal of Business Research 154, 113334. Bankvall, L., Dubois, A. and Lind, F. (2017) Conceptualising business models in industrial networks. Industrial Marketing Management 60, 196-203. Bocconcelli, R., Carlborg, P., Harrison, D., Hasche, N., Hedvall, K. and Huang, L. (2020) Resource interaction and resource integration: Similarities, differences, reflections. Industrial Marketing Management 91, 385-396. Harrison, D., Prenkert, F., Hasche, N. and Carlborg, P. (2023) Business networks and sustainability: Past, present and future. Industrial Marketing Management 111, A10-A17. Håkansson, H. and Waluszewski, A. (2007) Knowledge and innovation in business and industry: The importance of using others. Routledge. Palo, T. and Tähtinen, J. (2013) Networked business model development for emerging technology-based services. Industrial Marketing Management 42(5), 773-782. Mason, K. and Spring, M. (2011) The sites and practices of business models. Industrial Marketing Management 40(6), 1032-1041. Prenkert, F., Hedvall, K., Hasche, N., Eklinder Frick, J, Abrahamsen, M.H., Aramo-Immonen, H., Baraldi, E., Bocconcelli, R., Harrison, D., Huang, L., Huemer, L., Kask, J., Landqvist, M., Pagano, Al., Perna, A., Poblete, L., Ratajczek-Mrozek, M. and Wagrell, S. (2022) Resource interaction: Key concepts, relations and representations. Industrial Marketing Management 105, 48-59.

ABSTRACT. Authors:

Ru Chen (ru.chen@chalmers.se) Chalmers University of Technology

Lisa Govik (lisa.govik@chalmers.se) Chalmers University of Technology

It is pointed out that transport and excavation activities within the construction sector account for approximately 4–5 percent of Sweden’s total CO2 emissions. While much attention is given to aspects such as buildings’ energy and water use, the environmental issue of transport during the construction phase tends to be overlooked. The electrifica- tion of construction transport presents a promising avenue for achieving fossil-free lo- gistics in urban settings, yet widespread adoption within the industry remains sluggish. This sustainability transition demands coordinated efforts from multiple stakeholders. Through a qualitative approach involving 18 interviews with industrial experts (from municipal departments, innovation hubs, networking agencies, construction compa- nies including main contractors and subcontractors, and energy companies), this study investigated the challenges and opportunities in the electrification. Through the lens of Yin-Yang philosophy, we interpreted the journey as a long-term balance between ‘Chicken-and-Egg Dilemmas’ and ‘The Emergence of Heros’, The ‘Chicken-and-Egg’ dilemmas manifest as the insufficiency of interconnected resources, encompassing physical assets like electric equipment, charging infrastructure and electric grid, along- side knowledge and motivation. However, among these challenges, certain actors can stand out as ‘Heroes’, who are dedicated to collaborative networking, fair transitions, and common practices, with a larger vision for the sustainability transition. This larger vision is articulated in our theoretical model, guiding the discussion into: 1) Unpacking challenges rooted in the scarcity of complementary resources required in the transition and their interconnectivity. 2) Leveraging networking among stakeholders to bridge re- source gaps collaboratively, fostering the emergence of sharing business models and standardized practices. 3) Understanding the dynamic interplay of challenges and op- portunities, promoting the sustainability transition in an upward spiral trajectory. The focal point of electrifying construction transport offers insights into promoting a sustain- ability transition at operational level.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to examine how innovation co-development was excecuted in healthcare setting in three European countries and by different type of network orchestrators over a three-year project. Prior research has examined innovation networks in particular from the viewpoints of strategic networks (e.g. Möller and Rajala, 2007; Möller & Halinen, 2017), innovation ecosystems (e.g. Reypens et al. 2021) and value creation through resource interactions (e.g. Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2002). There is less research on orchestration of public-private innovation co-development that is crucial in healthcare innovation. Therefore, the research question addressed in the present study is: How can healthcare innovation co-development be orchestrated in demand-driven public-private innovation projects?

The study targets its primary contribution to the lively discussion on the management of innovation networks (Aarikka-Stenroos et al., 2017; Möller & Halinen, 2017). In its conceptual framing it builds, in particular on prior studies on network orchestration (e.g., Dhanaraj and Parkhe, 2006; Hurmelinna-Laukkanen et al., 2022) and innovation in health care (e.g., Thune & Mina, 2016; Guldbransen et al. 2016). Empirically this is a qualitative multiple-case study, which examines innovation co-development within an EU funded H2020 project over the years 2017-2020. The project developed and tested a new demand-driven, coupled, open innovation model in the healthcare sector to support co-creation between hospitals/clinics and companies. The findings are based on the data collected during the innovation project which took place in health care organizations in three countries (Finland, France and Spain). The focused interviews that were held during the project with the employees of the health care organizations and participating companies were used as the primary data collection method. Secondary data includes reporting data of the project. Data set is supplemented by autoethnographical data collected by one of the authors who participated in the project as a healthcare organization representative. In total, the data relates to the co-development of 21 novel digital health solutions answering to pre-defined challenges identified and evaluated by health care specialists.

The contribution of this study lies in defining required activities of orchestrating demand-driven co-development in the context of three different network settings in three different European countries. Likewise, the analysis of the different types of expectations towards and the various roles of a network orchestrator in healthcare co-development offers a contribution to the discussion on innovation network management.

References Aarikka-Steenroos, L., Jaakkola E., Harrison D., Mäkitalo-Keinonen T. (2017). How to manage innovation processes in extensive networks: A longitudinal study. Industrial Marketing Management 67, 88–105. Blasco-Arcas, L., Alexander, M., Sörhammar, D., Jonas, J. M., Raithel, S., & Chen, T. (2020). Organizing actor Engagement: A platform perspective. Journal of Business Research 118, 74-85. Dessaigne, E., & Pardo, C. (2020). The network orchestrator as steward: Strengthening norms as an orchestration practice. Industrial Marketing Management 91, 223-233. Dhanaraj C. & Parkhe A. (2006). Orchestrating innovation networks. Academy of Management Review 31(3), 659–669. Finnish Government (2023). A strong and committed Finland. Programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's Government 20 June 2023. Publications of the Finnish Government 2023:60. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-383-818-5 Gulbrandsen, M., Hopkins, M., Thune, T. & Valentin, F. (2016). Hospitals and innovation: introduction to the special issue. Research Policy 45, 1493-1498. Håkansson, H., & Waluszewski, A. (2002). Path dependence: restricting or facilitating technical development? Journal of Business Research 55(7), 561–570. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P., Möller, K. and Nätti, S. (2022). “Orchestrating innovation networks: alignment and orchestration profile approach”. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 140, pp. 170-188. Hurmelinna, P. and Nätti, S. (2018). Orchestrator types, roles and capabilities – A framework for innovation networks. Industrial Marketing Management 74, 65-78. Iivari, M., Pikkarainen, M., Haverinen, J., Reponen J., Hyrkäs, E. (2019). D2.2. Initial inDemand validation framework and the general guideline for data collection. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/211099/results/en Malm, H., Pikkarainen, M., & Hyrkäs, E. (2020). Impact of coupled open innovation on company business models: A case study of demand-driven co-creation. Journal of Innovation Management 8(3), 75-108. Miller, F. A. & French, M. (2016). Organizing the entrepreneurial hospital: Hybridizing the logics of healthcare and innovation. Research Policy 45, 1534–1544. Möller, K. & Halinen, A. (2017). Managing business and innovation networks—From strategic nets to business fields and ecosystems. Industrial Marketing Management 67, 5-22. Möller, K. & Rajala, A. (2007). Rise of strategic nets – New modes of value creation. Industrial Marketing Management 36(7), 895–908. Perks, H., Kowalkowski, C., Witell, L., & Gustafsson, A. (2017). Network orchestration for value platform development. Industrial marketing management 67, 106-121. Schepis, D., Purchase, S., & Butler, B. (2021). Facilitating open innovation processes through network orchestration mechanisms. Industrial Marketing Management 93, 270-280. Reypens, C., Lievens, A. and Blazevic, V. (2021), “Hybrid orchestration in multi-stakeholder innovation networks: practices of mobilizing multiple, diverse stakeholders across organizational boundaries”. Organization Studies, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 61-83. Thune, T. & Mina, A. (2016). Hospitals as innovators in the health-care system: A literature review and research agenda. Research Policy 45, 1545–1557. Welch, C., Piekkari, R., Plakoyiannaki, E. & Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, E., (2011). Theorising from case studies: towards a pluralist future for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies. 42, 740–762.

ABSTRACT. This conceptual paper explores public-private innovation partnerships and their role in addressing societal grand challenges. Demand-side public innovation policies aim to mobilize innovative solutions and markets by inviting suppliers as partners. Despite increasing expectations for addressing pressing grand challenges through these policies, there remains a blind spot in understanding the interorganizational relationships and interactions among the multiple actors. By examining relationship-based mechanisms, we explore how innovation partnerships, like public-private innovation partnerships, can contribute to solving grand challenges.

In examining the capacity of innovation partnerships to address grand challenges within the current literature on public-private innovation, we firstly identify four underlying factors of partiality, normativeness, formality and localness. As the study’s main contribution, we define six relationship-based mechanisms which both facilitate the movement from the level policy governance towards solving grand challenges by recognition on the relational nature of innovation partnerships. These mechanisms fall into three main categories where the first two translate the grand challenge to local circumstances. Second two transform the action logic and culture of interorganizational relationships and adjust the partnerships. Lastly, the third set of mechanisms illustrate how innovations are scaled on a societal level, including public organizations acting as lead users and the broader adoption of local innovations by the market.

The study’s main contributions lie in exploration of less applied relationship perspective within public-private innovation partnerships. The identified mechanisms address the intricate nature of interorganizational relationships governed by public policies, moving beyond mere policy instruments with limited impact on grand challenges. By explicitly incorporating grand challenges into the discourse on public innovation policies, the paper also counters the criticism of grand challenge concept applied as an empty signifier lacking substantive connection to the disciplines and debates in which it is applied.

ABSTRACT. The objective of this article is to formulate a conceptual model that elucidates power dynamics, particularly focusing on both anticipated and unanticipated consequences of power in business relationships within an environment characterized by high levels of turbulence. Furthermore, it aims to propose directions for future research in this area. The pronounced impact of environmental turbulence on value creation within business relationships underscores the necessity of explicitly integrating environmental factors into analyses of power dynamics among participants across various types of business relationships. This conceptual paper is informed by social exchange theory and resource-dependence theory, laying a theoretical foundation for understanding the interplay between actions within business relationships under conditions of high environmental turbulence, and their implications for power dynamics and value creation. Additionally, this study incorporates the concept of anticipated and unanticipated consequences of actions. The Actors, Resources, and Activities (ARA) model further supports the development of the conceptual model proposed in this article. The theoretical contribution is the development of knowledge concerning power dynamics in business relationships, providing the mechanism of the links between transformative practices, an anticipated and unanticipated power consequences and value creation in business relationships. The conceptual model demonstrates the need for a more conscious approach in the management of business relationships in a turbulent environment, regarding an anticipated and unanticipated power consequences in relation to the activities undertaken and the impact of these consequences on value creation in business relationships. The proposed concept resonates with systems theory, which emphasises the interconnectedness of the levels of business relationships and makes it possible to include in the analysis of power dynamics in business relationships, also the individual level, i.e. employees, consumers and local communities, among which there are the most vulnerable individuals affected by relational business structures.

ABSTRACT. Recently, B2B literature has increasingly referred to the linkage between ambidexterity, agility and dynamic capabilities across different research streams. Notably, the literature suggests that the research on ambidexterity, broadly defined as the ability to explore and exploit, yielded mixed findings. On the one hand, various authors demonstrated that ambidexterity is associated with increased firm performance and claim that ambidexterity could assist firms in overcoming barriers to disruptive business models. On the other hand, it appears that the manifestation of ambidextrous strategies is somewhat inconsistent with the theory – particularly in troubled industries. It is often observed that firms, depending on environmental conditions, employ either exploration or exploitation strategies rather than both. We search for more conclusive evidence and ask which firm-level dynamic and agile capabilities align with exploration and exploitation. We measure the dynamic and agility capabilities in the sugar processing industry and use qualitative comparative analysis to compare how these capabilities are configured to serve exploitation and exploration strategies. Our results show some level of similarity in capabilities but also illuminate some differences in the configurations.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this theoretical paper is to explore the layers of self-interest in the business context by emphasizing the significance of an open-ended stakeholder perspective for adaptability in business resilience. We ask: How does the application of the extended self-categorization theory in the business context reveal distinct layers of self-interest, and how do these layers influence adaptive strategies during times of disruption? In this study, business resilience is considered as the ‘capacity for an enterprise to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of turbulent change’ (Fiksel, 2006, p.16). Business resilience is important because it is about adapting businesses to a package of livelihood strategies (Dahles & Susilowati, 2015). The emphasis on adaptation is particularly important in this study, as it sets the stage for the nuanced exploration of resilience. Adaptation can be interpreted either as the restoration of a prior state, considered a return to the normal operations, or as the ability to navigate crises through a sequential process involving rescue, restoration of damaged infrastructure, and subsequent market rebuilding (Scott et al., 2006). Adaptation in resilience might also be considered as fundamentally change, moving to a different state through new business models, partners, and network relations, new markets and products, new forms of leadership and management (Dahles & Susilowati, 2015, p.37). In the latter interpretation of adaptation in resilience, stakeholder may vary due to the new business model and strategy. In such a situation, the stakeholders’ networks are important. Stakeholders are defined as “any group of individuals who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the organisation’s objectives’ (Freeman, 1984, p. 46). In later discussions, the concept of stakeholder extends beyond human entities to include the environment (e. g. Driscoll & Starik, 2004), animal (e. g. Fernandes et al., 2019) as well as green Earth and future generations (Hatami & Firoozi, 2019). Considering resilience research, which aims to address the urgency of exploring vulnerable situations in business (Burnard et al., 2011; Kantur & Say, 2015), stakeholders affected during these vulnerable situations cannot be predefined. They emerge at the time of the crises and turbulence. Consequently, we suggest an open-ended stakeholder model, allowing for flexibility in decision-making during turbulence. Our concern is that based on an open-ended stakeholder model, identification of stakeholders is not a predefined task, rather it remains flexible in times of crises. This perspective aligns with the dynamic nature of crises and acknowledge the emergence of stakeholders during turbulent times. The extended self-categorization theory (SCT) provides the foundation for an open-ended stakeholder (Table below). Originating in psychology, the self-categorization theory primarily explores how an individual (self) is defined and understood either as an individual or as a part of a certain social categories (Turner et al., 1987). The theory distinguishes between two levels of self-categorization: personal and social identity. Personal identity pertains to the unique individual differentiating oneself from others (‘I’, ‘me’). Social identity involves being a member of a social group with shared similarities (‘we’, ‘us’), and this group distinguishes itself from other group (‘us’ vs ‘them’) (Turner et al., 1987 cited in Mühlhaus & Bouwmeester, 2016, p. 1827). For an open-ended stakeholder model, we add the third level to this theory by emphasizing the role of other and uniqueness of the other in the concept of the self. Applying this theory to the business resilience and stakeholders network, we propose the table below:

Concept of the self: First Level SCT : I, me Stakeholder model/perspective:Pure self-interest Connection to business operation:Pursuing business self-interest, aims to maximise its benefits and minimise its pain (Alford 2006) Connection to resilience in times of crises: Making decision with the aim of protecting the core interests of shareholders. Resilience may involve strategies to ensure short-term survival through cost-cutting strategy and immediate risk mitigation.

Concept of the self: Second level SCT : We, us. …… Us vs them Stakeholder model/perspective:Dualistic oppositions with Enlightened self-interest Connection to business operation: Allowing the sacrifice of a part of today’s profit for greater long-term return in the future, building a good reputation (Alford 2006) Connection to resilience in times of crises: Recognizing long-term sustainability and reputation; resilience at this stage may involve scarifying a part of short-term benefits for the sake of long-term ones through investment on CSR, building relationship with stakeholders or ethical practice.

Concept of the self: Third level SCT: I, other Stakeholder model/perspective:Other-interest /an open-ended model Connection to business operation: Understanding that crisis bring about the emergence of new stakeholders. Hence, the identity of the corporation is intertwined with these ever-changing stakeholders. Connection to resilience in times of crises:Resilience through an open-ended stakeholder model is not only about adapting to disruption but also about the recognizing, engaging with, and adapting to the needs and expectations of new stakeholders as they emerge during crises.

ABSTRACT. After COVID 19 and also pushed by SDGs priorities and new technologies opportunities, manufacturing companies are profoundly rethink their supply chains’ structures and processes. Current research reports that we are witnessing a widespread disruption of global value chains, and the emergence of reshoring and regionalization of GVCs. The point of departure of this paper is that the GVC and reshoring literature focuses on the reconfiguration of supply chains with either an actor or activity focus. We posit that little attention has been given to analysing the re-shaping of GVCs and the phenomenon of reshoring in terms of resources, when one or more companies are involved in ‘bringing back home’ or ‘shortening the chain’. Moreover, efforts to reshore by a single actor or a group of actors means that a resource combination/resource bundle is moving. We posit that reshoring, conceptualised as the movement of a bundle of resources from one place to another, has been overlooked by the IMP literature. We thus aim at contributing to both literatures, by investigating how reshoring parts of GVCs impacts on territories/local networks by adopting a resource lens. To this aim we rely on a ‘cold case research’ and we perform an analysis of thirteen published cases taking a resource perspective. In analyzing and discussing the cases, we relate Penrose’s ideas about resource versatility to IMP to propose a new concept, that of resource combination versatility. Our working proposition is that actors who do not cultivate and promote their resources’ versatility before and during reshoring, risk being excluded from the positive upgrading process within the territory/local network.

ABSTRACT. Anchored in the notion of spatio-market practices (Holmes et al., 2021) and the market(ing) object (Finch and Geiger, 2010) the present paper conceptualizes the spatiality of the market object in the organization of (un)ethical markets, or, in other words, how space is ‘folded in’ the market object in the making of markets (cf. Holmes et al, 2021). We pay particular attention to the co-constitutive relationship between places, spaces, and market objects. We focus on the case of Scottish farmed salmon to unpick how Scotland’s place-based elements that represent the life of wild salmon are ‘packaged’ into a market object and circulated. In turn, we discuss how this circulation (re)creates notions of Scotland as wilderness and home of sustainable and ethically produced fish. Analysing ‘biographical moments’ (cf. Glaser, Pollock and D’Adderio, 2021), selecting and studying specific “moments” that we see as key in the process of spatializing Scottish salmon as a market object, we reveal how the spatial dimension of the market object shapes the market for Scottish farmed salmon and how Scotland is construed as ‘wilderness’ through the market object. Finally, we discuss how this co-constitutive relationship contributes to the making of an unethical market that hinges on three key steps deployed by upstream market actors: Packaging ‘wild’ Scotland, Creating ambiguity, and Designing paths for action. This way our analysis traces the spatial geography of salmon as a market object as it manages the local-global, wild-farmed tensions to remain a 'Scottish icon'. By doing so, our paper sheds light on the (un)ethical marketization of farmed salmon.

ABSTRACT. A University’s Role in Engaging Stakeholders for Place-based Value co-creation Keywords: Competitiveness, Creative and Cultural Industries, Place branding, Stakeholder Engagement

Arja Lemmetyinen, Senior Advisor, Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, Finland, arinle@utu.fi, corresponding author

Johanna Aalto, Lecturer, Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland) johanna.aalto@laurea.fi

Tuomas Pohjola, Project Specialist, Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, Pori Unit, Finland, tuomas.pohjola@utu.fi

Abstract Place-based value co-creation has become imperative for regions aiming to enhance competitiveness and cultural vitality in the knowledge economy era. This paper investigates the crucial role of universities in engaging stakeholders for place branding within the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) ecosystem. Through a comprehensive literature review and qualitative data analysis, the study addresses the gap in understanding how universities interact with stakeholders and contribute to value co-creation in place branding. The literature review highlights the significance of stakeholder engagement in place branding and underscores the pivotal role of universities in fostering economic, social, and cultural growth within dynamic ecosystems. Drawing on empirical data from the city of Pori, Finland, the study explores the multifaceted roles of universities, categorizing them as scene-setters, matchmakers, and co-creators in stakeholder engagement and value co-creation processes. Findings reveal that universities act as scene-setters by offering platforms for stakeholder interaction and mutual understanding, thereby shaping the identity and narrative of a place. They serve as matchmakers by facilitating knowledge-sharing and networking among diverse stakeholders, contributing to strategic engagement in place branding efforts. Additionally, universities assume a co-creator role by actively participating in concrete value co-creation activities, such as developing digital solutions and fostering innovation in collaboration with stakeholders. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of universities in driving place branding initiatives and enhancing the collective value proposition of CCIs ecosystems. It suggests practical implications for policymakers and organizations involved in managing place brands, emphasizing the need for cross-industry collaboration and leveraging university expertise for sustainable development and digital innovation in place branding. Keywords: Competitiveness, Creative and Cultural Industries, Place branding, Stakeholder Engagement, University’s role

TRACK: Place-based research on business networks and markets, Track co-chairs: Teea Palo and Annmarie Ryan

ABSTRACT. Considering human/s as innovating actors for business brings to the fore an urgent need for sustainable production technologies that are carbon neutral or positive, reuse current resources, gives no waste and are economically viable. This last criterion points to the continuing sustainability of a network of industrial actors, what we term an embedding process. In this conceptual paper we aim is to understand how the embedding of an industrial technology by human actors is a key to develop sustainable industrial relations. Our approach is to consider a human dialogical understanding in order to approach innovating and embedding inside an emerging innovating network. As we see it innovating for sustainability draws on resources from across an industrial-knowledge-financial network of human actors, each of whom is involved in embedding specific technologies and other actors for potential industrial production and future value creation. In a dialogical understanding the representations to others are crafted jointly as futures are pursued. But being in different relationships and dialogues gives embedding a more complex character – a single dialogue can have different meanings in the many other connected relationships. Thus, embedding is a networking matter in pursuing potential futures within multiple relationships. We deal with these issues by a literature review for developing a research frame with an exemplifying case study from an SME developing biofuel.

ABSTRACT. Research on co-creating conscientious business-to-business (B2B) brands is increasing. While scholars acknowledge that social responsibility and fairness are fundamental to the conscientious B2B corporate brand identity, and B2B researchers have long recognized the significance of disabled people in organizations and business networks, research on co-creating conscientious B2B brands remains silent on both personal branding and the inclusion of disabled people. This conceptual study aims to enhance our understanding of the co-creation of personal brand identity meanings for disabled people in business networks. The study first revisits existing research on co-creating conscientious B2B brands, personal branding, and management research on disabled people at work to integrate these disparate literatures. Drawing upon recent developments in paradox theory, the analysis of articles within the B2B literature identified actors, features, actions, and process outcomes related to disabled individuals, followed by tensions and similarities related to these within management research and research on personal branding. The study synthesizes these findings into a conceptual framework for co-creating the personal brand meanings of disabled people in business networks. The framework considers disabled individuals and other network members as interactive actors, illustrating how the co-creation of the personal brand identity meanings for disabled people involves recognizing and (re)negotiating tensions concerning disability-related features and actions, ultimately concluding in improvement in outcomes such as the lifestyle of disabled people and social development. The study provides researchers with a platform to examine meanings related to disabled people within business networks, along with an opportunity to delve deeper into the co-creation of meanings, considering not only disability but also various other forms of diversity. The study advises actors within business networks to enhance their understanding of diverse meanings related to disabled individuals and advocates for the cultivation of a non-ableist business network culture.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the role of online team coaching in supporting value co-creation in intra-organizational activities of hybrid teams. With the post-COVID-19 pandemic moving workplaces online, it has become imperative to extend discussions on value co-creation to encompass intra-organizational activities to support team performance and well-being in remote and hybrid work environments. Through a critical literature review, this study unveils nuanced aspects of online team coaching, emphasizing the need to cultivate teamwork attitudes to enhance interprofessional relationships and value co-creation within the hybrid teams and the entire organization. The findings of this study also reveal that value co-creation is intricately linked to well-being, particularly through work-related elements such as knowledge integration and resource utilization. Online team coaching emerges as a potential tool for promoting value co-creation by enhancing trust in settings where it otherwise takes notable effort to build by providing interaction and problem-solving mechanisms and supporting practices for adjusting to the hybrid work environment. This study contributes to the existing literature on intra-organizational value co-creation in teams. Managerially, this study highlights the diverse and essential benefits of value co-creation, advocating tailored strategies for enhancing team performance and well-being.

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the potential of leveraging emerging mixed-reality (MR) technology to enhance business relations within industrial, B2B markets. MR technology represents a groundbreaking innovation wherein virtual objects seamlessly integrate with real-world environments, offering profound implications for business and management practices. Yet, the impact and value creation opportunities for business relations are currently not explored. We use the recently launched Apple Vision Pro as a case to emphasize the increased technological advancement, and the need to advance marketing research in this domain. First, we conduct a systematic literature review to explore the recent immersive marketing literature in the context of purchasing and sales, with the aim of gaining understanding on the status quo. The findings reveal that B2B articles are underrepresented in the immersive marketing literature, as currently the dominant technologies - virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) - are being considered largely at the intersection with end-customers (e.g. retail, online shopping). Then, we use the findings from the literature and the ARA model to explore MR expected impact for actors, resources, and activities. Furthermore, we differentiate between internal and external business environments, as we explore similarities but also differences in the MR implementation and usage. Finally, the paper discusses the present need for businesses to consider a new immersive capability development for value creation and proposes several fruitful research avenues for future research.

ABSTRACT. Several studies indicate that greater revenues for becoming a solution provider does not recoup initial investments, and addresses this as the service paradox. The inability to match investments and cash flows leads to servitization failure, and to de-servitization. Several reasons for these shortcomings, or outright failures have been suggested. A common theme relates to insufficient knowledge of the transition process from product supplier to solution provider. Research addresses the myopic perspective on provider transitions and lacking insights into required adjustments of the supplier-customer relationship. Moreover, some contributions stress the necessity of expanding the analysis of the process beyond the provider-customer dyad. We explore the challenges of concurrent provider- network transformation. Previous research indicates certain problems with manufacturers’ transition towards the role as a solution provider. In summary, it is declared that the drawbacks related to the service paradox are due to limited understanding of the process required. Therefore, it is claimed that more attention should be given to (i) the customers´ perspective, (ii) the relationship between customer and provider, as well as (iii) the network context where the parties reside. We promote industrial network theory (INT) as a relevant framework for improved understanding of what it takes to change from being product supplier to becoming solution provider. INT focus on business relationships and how these relationships are connected within a larger network setting. This perspective has potential to expand the knowledge about the intricate transition process in solution business, by analyzing solution business through the features of its activities, resources, and actor layers.

ABSTRACT. In this study we explore the dynamics of stakeholder engagement in market shaping via the concept of orchestration, which we postulate as a specific mode of market shaping different from collaborative market driving (Maciel & Fischer, 2020). Theoretically, the concept of orchestration as the “application of dynamic capabilities to identify resources, create linkages and mobilise actors” (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2021, p. 339) leans on the resource-based view (RBV) (Barney, Wright, & Ketchen, 2001; Peng, 2001) with the focus on the specific market shaping capabilities such as mobilisation of market actors through engagement. However, there is no clear conceptualisation of market shaping via orchestration and no empirical evidence illustrating such an approach. We also consider the firm’s embeddedness as especially critically and under-researched in the market shaping literature while broadly recognised in the international business and network literature (Hermes & Mainela, 2022). Therefore, we explore market shaping via orchestration as an embedded approach, drawing on network theory and the ARA framework (actors, activities, resources) (Håkansson & Johanson, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995). We will answer the following research questions: How does a MNC engage different actors via critical activities and resources? What is the role of embeddedness in the dynamics of this engagement? This paper is based on a supplementary secondary analysis (Heaton, 2008) of qualitative data collected in 2011 and 2012. This paper focuses on a subset of the original data. In total, fifty-eight interviews were part of this subset, including representatives of two Swedish MNCs in Sweden, Brazil, India, and China, business partners and customers. Furthermore, secondary materials were gathered. The transcribed interviews were analysed with NVivo. Especially in emerging markets, MNCs are confronted with environments that are characterised by high fluidity (Elahi & Ghauri, 2020; Sinha & Sheth, 2018). For an MNC, the challenge of local actors’ engagement and collaboration is comparatively more pronounced as many actors may not perceive the MNC as a legitimate actor (Elg, Schaumann, & Ghauri, 2012), making this a good research context to study market shaping. In our analysis we have identified the actors, activities and resources that were critical for the mobilisation of diverse local actors, sharing of resources and creating new resource linkages to ensure the local stakeholders’ support of the market shaping firm. The focal firms have engaged a vast variety of business and non-business actors. We have also identified different layers of engagement (primary, secondary, tertiary): the most primary layer of critical actors such as customers, industry association; the secondary layer of actors often contacted via the “immediate” ones (such as NGOS) and the tertiary layer - potentially unaware or uninterested in the shared cause (the goal of market shaping firm). We see that, in line with the literature, actor engagement functions as a catalyst for market shaping, as emerging dispositions and behaviours diffuse through the network until they are collectively embraced and accepted by most actors (Kleinaltenkamp et al., 2021).We named these layers of engagement, the circles of trust, in which the firm needs to enter in order to become a trusted and legitimate actor in the local context. Yet, to enter this circle, the MNC needs partners who may enjoy trust and legitimacy. Through connections with more embedded stakeholders, the focal firm used the high levels of trust and legitimacy of these local actors to reach more distant players. We outlining that by triggering the contacts with the most immediate circle of actors (influencing value perceptions, altering infrastructure to allow value-actualization, influencing key events, technical standards, and social norms) and facilitating the exchange of resources (through activities such as outlining the win-win-win, leveraging own and stakeholders reputation, support stakeholders in their day-to-day operations, involving stakeholders to promote changes) (Nenonen et al., 2019). Moreover, our study demonstrates the importance of branding capability that it is crucial to connect the actors and layers of engagement. Through these capabilities, the focal firms advanced their influence deeper into the society and activated new stakeholders. Our data shows also that managers did not only mobilise local stakeholder resources and put them to different use but also supported their stakeholders in creating new capabilities and foster new resource integration. Among corporate resources that the MNCs offered to its stakeholders were e.g. their contacts with global actors, investment of human resources and monetary funds, knowledge and expertise in technical solutions, global brand reputation - a mixture of tangible and intangibles. MNCs actively used their global brand as a valuable intangible resource to create credibility and overcome the liability of outsidership (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009). In addition, the MNCs positioned their technology and knowledge/expertise as a non-inimitable ‘bottleneck’ resource to gain the influence over the unfolding of the contextual change. Previous research into market shaping has focused on the individual and collective (collaborative) market work led by either individual firms (Baker & Nenonen, 2020) or the coalitions of firms of similar status and size (Maciel & Fischer, 2020). We add to the existing knowledge of collective market shaping by arguing that it might take a different form, which we define as orchestrated market shaping and outline its elements in contrast to individual and collective market shaping. The findings allow us to conceptualise orchestrated market shaping as the engagement of a broad variety of business and non-business actors in purposeful activities led by the focal firm’s vision of market change via the exchange and integration of critical resources and market embeddedness via legitimacy and trust. This paper contributes to our understanding of the larger phenomenon of market shaping via orchestration. We postulate that orchestration represents a different, more complex mode of market shaping, not previously recognised by the literature (Fehrer et al., 2020; Kleinaltenkamp et al., 2021; Maciel & Fischer, 2020; Storbacka, 2019). We also followed the call (Nenonen et al., 2019) to direct more research attention towards ‘engaging’ a broader set of stakeholders in resource exchange and integration. We show that both tangible and intangible resources play a role, but it is mainly intangible resources that are sought after since they allow the creation of ‘layers of legitimacy and trust’ to reach those distant groups of actors and create market embeddedness. Moreover, our findings suggest that orchestrated market shaping rests on the particular dynamic capabilities: triggering, facilitating and global branding.

Selected references Barney, J., Wright, M., & Ketchen, D. (2001). The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after 1991. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27, 625–664. Elahi, N., & Ghauri, P. N. (Eds.) (2020). International Business and Management Ser: v.35. Multinational Enterprises and Terrorism. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. Elg, U., Ghauri, P. N., & Schaumann, J. (2015). Internationalization Through Sociopolitical Relationships: MNEs in India. Long Range Planning, 48(5), 334–345. Fehrer, J. A., Conduit, J., Plewa, C., Li, L. P., Jaakkola, E., & Alexander, M. (2020). Market shaping dynamics: interplay of actor engagement and institutional work. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 35(9), 1425–1439. Håkansson, H., & Johanson, J. (1992). A Model of Industrial Networks. In B. Axelson & G. Easton (Eds.), Industrial networks. A new view of reality (pp. 28–34). London: Routledge. Håkansson, H., & Snehota, I. (1995). Developing Relationships in Business Networks. London: Routledge. Heaton, J. (2008). Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data: An Overview. Historical Social Research, 33(3), 33–45. Hermes, J., & Mainela, T. (2022). Actor legitimation in emerging markets: A network-embedded process. Journal of World Business, 57(4), 101315. Johanson, J., & Vahlne, J.-E. (2009). The Uppsala internationalization process model revisited: From liability of foreignness to liability of outsidership. Journal of International Business Studies, 40(9), 1411–1431. Kleinaltenkamp, M., Conduit, J., Plewa, C., Karpen, I. O., & Jaakkola, E. (2021). Engagement-driven institutionalization in market shaping: Synchronizing and stabilizing collective engagement. Industrial Marketing Management, 99, 69–78. Maciel, A. F., & Fischer, E. (2020). Collaborative Market Driving: How Peer Firms Can Develop Markets Through Collective Action. Journal of Marketing, 84(5), 41–59. Nenonen, S., Storbacka, K., & Windahl, C. (2019). Capabilities for market-shaping: triggering and facilitating increased value creation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(4), 617–639. Peng, M. W. (2001). The resource-based view and international business. Journal of Management, 27, 803–829. Sinha, M., & Sheth, J. (2018). Growing the Pie in Emerging Markets: Marketing strategies for increasing the ratio of non-users to users. Journal of Business Research, 86, 217–224. Storbacka, K. (2019). Actor engagement, value creation and market innovation. Industrial Marketing Management, 80, 4–10.

ABSTRACT. As many markets face the need for radical change to transition towards more environmentally sustainable futures, it is imperative we examine the market shaping actions of key actors. Of particular interest for future markets, are the competing visions being proposed and how they drive current actions. Viewed strategically, we can interpret these visions as market value propositions, which serve to create shared views within the network, mobilise resources and legitimise the future market. This work-in-progress paper examines how actors legitimise market value propositions in order to shape future markets. We draw on a case study of the emerging hydrogen market in Australia, analysing data from interviews with 38 stakeholders and 83 industry reports. Preliminary findings are presented as well as future development plans for this project.

ABSTRACT. Research on market shaping stresses the malleability of markets and the agency of both companies and public organizations in moulding the market to serve both private and collective goals (Hawa, Baker, & Plewa 2020; Nenonen, Fehrer, & Brodie 2021). Market-shaping can be performed intentionally by a company (Flaig, Kindström, & Ottosson, 2021b) or a collective of companies and other market actors (Maciel & Fischer, 2020), driven by a vision of a future market the actors aim to realize (Jaworski, Kohli, & Sarin, 2020; Flaig, Kindström, & Ottosson, 2021a). The vision of an alternate market is of particular importance when new markets or networks are formed (Möller & Svahn, 2009), innovations or sustainable practices are introduced (Möller, 2010; Storbacka et al., 2022), or socio-economic crises are disrupting the established markets (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2020), calling for major changes in market exchange, network configurations, norms or market representations (Kullak et al., 2021; Nenonen, Storbacka, & Windahl, 2019). Despite of its importance the concept of vision has remained underexplored. While much of market-shaping literature purports the necessity of a vision that informs subsequent market-shaping actions, it has neglected a more detailed exploration of the meanings and functions of market vision, and the dynamics between different visions among market actors.

The objective of this paper is to elaborate the concept of market vision by analysing its various meanings, functions and dynamic features in the context of market shaping. To reach the objective, we conduct a systematic literature review on the use of the concept in business literature. In market shaping studies, the concept is used rather vaguely to represent an envisioned altered market (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2020) that becomes the driving objective of market-shaping activities and strategies (Flaig, Kindström, & Ottosson, 2021b; Kohli & Jaworski, 2023). While in the context of market-shaping the concept is rather new (e.g. Nenonen & Storbacka, 2020; Flaig & Ottosson, 2022; Kohli & Jaworksi, 2023), the ecosystems research (e.g. Collins & Porras, 1996; Adner, 2013; Dattee, Alexy, & Autio, 2018) and business network studies (Möller & Halinen, 1999; Abrahamsen, Halinen, & Naudé, 2023; Halinen et al., 2023) have over the past decades provided valuable insights of system level visions which carry the potential to inform the concept of market vision. Accordingly, we acknowledge the various notions of markets (systems, networks and ecosystems) used in current business marketing literature (Möller, Nenonen, & Storbacka, 2020). To gain a deeper understanding of

the concept of vision, we extend the review to the broad field of business research including marketing, management, strategy and organization.

A literature search with the following search query was performed on SCOPUS: "network picture*" OR "network vision*" OR "network image*" OR "market vision*" OR "market image*" OR "market picture*" OR "market representation*" OR "market-shaping vision*" OR "ecosystem vision*" OR "protovision*" OR "ecosystem blueprint*" OR "system vision" . The review resulted in a final sample of 77 articles, after excluding papers that were not in English, not published in journals ranked 3 or higher in the Academic Journal Guide and that deviated from the intended use of any of the concepts in the search query.

Our preliminary results indicate that literature on visions in multi-actor systems such as markets, networks or ecosystems, mainly consider visions as vehicles to rally other actors in a system towards the realization of a desired vision (Dattee, Alexy, & Autio, 2018; Kohli, & Jaworski, 2023; Matinheikki et al., 2017). In network studies, the vision is seen as a means of communication while orchestrating actors and activities towards a new network configuration (Möller, 2010) and in engaging actors to strategic initiatives (Harrison, Pedersen, & Holmen, 2010).

On the basis of the review we identify that visions have been studied both at the individual actor level and the market system level. Companies’ market vision may be strongly influenced by public actors, such as regulators and authorities, or by various industry organizations and companies in the focal actor’s business network. We may conclude that market visions cannot be considered as static artifacts but rather as co-evolving cognitive schemes that underpin the intentions of a variety of market actors. The study contributes to the market shaping literature, especially to the shaping of business markets that depend on networks of business relationships and entertain a systemic view of markets. Providing a more granular understanding of the various facets of the market vision concept, the study provides important implications for market shapers both in the private and public domains.

ABSTRACT. By building on the IMP interaction approach and literature on sustainable procurement, this paper aims to add understanding on how supplier relationship management, sustainable procurement practices and resource interactions are combined to promote environmental sustainability. The empirical study is an embedded case study of collaborative efforts among an international manufacturing company and its suppliers to promote environmental sustainability. From our preliminary findings it can be deduced that relationships with suppliers are established based on their capabilities, performance, and expected outcomes. In some cases, buyers aim to establish a mutually beneficial relationship while in others, they aim to maintain an arm's length relationship. Resource interfaces and environmental considerations increase as buyer and supplier coordinate activities and interact more closely. Findings are expected to contribute to the body of knowledge on sustainable procurement practices and resource interaction. For practitioners, the current study aims to provide practical guidance in the implementation of environmentally sustainable procurement. 

In this study we aim to provide insight into how supplier relationship management, sustainable procurement practices and resource interactions are combined to contribute to environmental sustainability. More specifically, the study seeks answers to the following question:   How are resources combined in a buyer-supplier relationship to promote environmentally sustainable procurement? 

The role of procurement in driving forward the sustainability agenda is critical, given its position and its ability to influence external organizations in the supply chain (Green et al., 1996; Seuring, 2004). Procurement plays an important part in sustainability as policies and practices must extend beyond the boundaries of the organization to include the suppliers in the value chain. It is suggested that focusing on sustainable procurement would provide a transitional route to achieving sustainability (Green et al., 1998; Theron and Dowden, 2017).  Most studies on sustainable procurement apply stakeholder and institutional theories, however, these theories do not provide comprehensive understanding of Supplier Relationship Management and buyer-supplier interaction (Johnsen et al., 2017), whereas these are the central tenets in the IMP approach (Håkansson, 1982). Johnsen et al. (2017) argue that the IMP approach provides an opportunity for sustainability researchers to gain better understanding of how organizations interact in a network environment. Furthermore, sustainable purchasing and supply management offers an opportunity for IMP researchers to theoretically advance the IMP approach (ibid.).

In this research the concept of Supplier Relationship Management is fundamental in examining resource interfaces (Araujo, et al.,1999) in a business relationship, and how the relationship can be managed and applied to promote sustainable environmental procurement that is beneficial to both firms over an extended period of time (Ford et al., 2011). As it is broadly known, businesses do not exist separate from actor bonds, activity links, and resource ties. Resource interface is centered on interaction of the various resources employed within the business (Baraldi et al., 2012). Resource interaction in IMP is concerned with resource interfaces and combinations across firm and relationship (Baraldi et al., 2023).

REFERENCE Araujo, L., Dubois, A. and Gadde, L.E., 1999. Managing interfaces with suppliers. Industrial marketing management, 28(5), pp.497-506. Baraldi, E., Gressetvold, E. and Harrison, D., 2012. Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Foundations, comparison, and a research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 65(2), pp.266-276. Baraldi, E., Harrison, D., Kask, J. and Ratajczak-Mrozek, M., 2023. A network perspective on resource interaction: Past, present and future. Journal of Business Research, p.114253. Ford, D., Gadde, L.E., Hakansson, H. and Snehota, I., 2011. Managing business relationships. John Wiley & Sons Green, K., Morton, B. and New, S., 1996. Purchasing and environmental management: interactions, policies and opportunities. Business Strategy and the Environment, 5(3), pp.188-197. Håkansson, H. ed., 1982. International marketing and purchasing of industrial goods: An interaction approach (Vol. 389). Chichester: Wiley Johnsen, T.E., Miemczyk, J. and Howard, M., 2017. A systematic literature review of sustainable purchasing and supply research: Theoretical perspectives and opportunities for IMP-based research. Industrial Marketing Management, 61, pp.130-143.  Seuring S. 2004. Industrial ecology, life cycles, supply chains; differences and interrelations. Business Strategy and the Environment 13(5), pp. 306–319. Theron, C. and Dowden, M., 2017. Strategic Sustainable Procurement: An Overview of Law and Best Practice for the Public and Private Sectors. Routledge.

ABSTRACT. Transport has largely been ignored in supply chain management since it has commonly been a consequence of other, more ‘strategic’, purchasing and supply management decisions. Hence, from a supply chain management perspective, transport has been argued to be subject to derived demand (Hu et al., 2019). However, since transport activities are also embedded in supply networks (Hesse & Rodrigue, 2004; Eriksson et al., 2022) the pressing need to reduce the climate impact of transport calls for attention on how researchers as well as firms can contribute by developing ‘business-not-as-usual’ approaches to purchasing and supply management (Knight et al., 2022). The paper elaborates on what buying firms can do to reduce the carbon emissions resulting from the transport activities embedded in their supply networks. We conceptualize supply networks as interconnected supply chains (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2020). Previous studies show how the purchasing functions of firms’ impact on transport both directly – through their purchases of transport services (e.g., Björklund, 2011) - and indirectly, derived through what physical products they buy, and how they relate to these suppliers not least regarding the logistics set-ups (Rogerson, 2017). Hence, the focus is set on how buying firms manage in their supply networks (Håkansson & Ford, 2002; Gadde et al., 2010) with a focus on embedded transport activities. The conceptual paper draws on the three strategic purchasing issues identified and discussed by Gadde and Håkansson (1994) together with the notion of transport service triads as a key unit of analysis (Andersson et al., 2019) and aims at outlining approaches to reduce the climate impact of transport activities embedded in the supply networks of buying companies. The paper suggests six principal approaches to reduce carbon emissions from freight transport in supply networks from the perspective of buying firms. These approaches rely on combinations of firm internal adjustments, including involvement of different functions, and on collaborations with various business partners such as suppliers, transport providers and other actors.

References Andersson, D., Dubois, A., Eriksson, V., Hulthén, K. and Holma, A.M. (2019) The transport service triad: a key unit of analysis. Journal of business & industrial marketing, 34(1), 253-266.

Björklund, M. (2011) Influence from the business environment on environmental purchasing — Drivers and hinders of purchasing green transportation services. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 17(1), 11-22.

Eriksson, V., Dubois, A. and Hulthén, K. (2022) Transport in supply networks. The International Journal of Logistics Management 33 (5), 85-106.

Gadde, L.E. and Håkansson, H. (1994) The changing role of purchasing: reconsidering three strategic issues. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 1, 21-35.

Gadde, L.E., Håkansson, H. and Persson, G. (2010) Supply Network Strategies. John Wiley & Sons.

Hesse, M., & Rodrigue, J.-P. (2004). The transport geography of logistics and freight distribution. Journal of Transport Geography, 12(3), 171–184.

Hu, J., Wood, R., Tukker, A., Boonman, H., & de Boer, B. (2019). Global transport emissions in the Swedish carbon footprint. Journal of Cleaner Production, 226, 210–220.

Håkansson, H. and Ford, D. (2002) How should companies interact in business networks? Journal of Business Research, 55(2002), 133-139.

Ivanov, D. and Delgui, A. (2020) Viability of intertwined supply networks: extending the supply chain resilience angles towards survivability. A position paper motivated by COVID-19 outbreak. International Journal of Production Research, 58(10), 2904–2915.

Knight, L., Tate, W., Carnovale, S., Di Mauro, C., Bals, L., Caniato, F., Gualandris, J., Johnsen, T., Matopoulos, A., Meehan, J., Miemczyk, J., Patrucco, A S., Schoenherr, T., Selviaridis, K., Touboulic, A., and Wagner, S M. (2022) Future business and the role of purchasing and supply management: Opportunities for ‘business-not-as-usual’ PSM research. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 28(2022), 100753.

Rogerson, S. (2017) Influence of freight transport purchasing processes on logistical variables related to CO2 emissions: A case study in Sweden. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 11 (2), 604-623.

ABSTRACT. Public procurement (PP) is increasingly recognised as a vital policy tool for promoting sustainable consumption and production. In recent years, it has also played a pivotal role in fostering a circular economy (CE). Consequently, adopting public sector procurement policies to promote environmental awareness is gaining global traction (Wijayasundara et al. 2022). In 2020, the European Commission adopted the new CE action plan, intending to reduce the pressure on natural resources and to create sustainable growth and employment (European Commission 2020). Despite these advancements, circular public procurement (CPP) remains in its infancy, with its large-scale implementation still to be realised. In the current research, circular criteria are commonly added to otherwise traditional procurement formats, and only a few examples of more elaborate and innovative CPP schemes are provided (e.g., Alhola et al. 2019). While several studies conflate terms such as green, sustainable, and circular procurement, focusing on the barriers and drivers of these methodologies (Sönnichsen and Clement, 2020), others point out the extra layer of complexity that circularity introduces to both the procurement process and its execution (Kristensen, Mosgaard, and Remmen, 2021). However, recent research has shifted focus from factors that restrict or drive change toward a CE to investigating the PP process and procurement of products with recycled material or recovered content (Polonsky et al. 2022). However, there is a need for a better understanding of practices and implementation of Circular Public Procurement.

Stakeholder engagement is recognised as a pivotal element in the transition to circular resource flows and the successful implementation of circular procurement (Calicchio Berardi and Peregrino de Brito 2021; Mishra, Chiwenga, and Ali 2019). The willingness, participation, support, and commitment of stakeholders across the supply chain are highlighted to be essential for the transition (Qazi and Appolloni 2022). The life cycle perspective is further essential for circular approaches, and the actor constellations often need reconfiguration to accommodate this systemic change. For example, Fobbe and Hilletofth (2022) highlight the transition from linear to circular stakeholder engagement in the manufacturing industry by extending, expanding, and levelling the engagement. Nevertheless, only a few studies have investigated CE implementation from a stakeholder engagement perspective (Bertassini et al. 2021; Tapaninaho and Heikkinen 2022), and there needs to be more knowledge of the interaction and collaboration between the actors involved in CPP. Hence, further research is needed on multi-stakeholder collaboration and the diverse stakeholders’ varying roles in circular procurement processes (Velter et al. 2020). This study aims to contribute to understanding CPP and stakeholder engagement's role in fostering circularity initiatives, particularly in the early phases of public construction projects. To achieve this, we will explore the following research questions:

RQ1: How are circularity aspects integrated differently into the planning and procurement process of CE solutions?

RQ2: How does interaction with multiple stakeholders influence the implementation of CE principles in the public procurement process?

The construction sector is a leading resource consumer and a significant waste generator in the global economy. It accounts for about half of the world's extracted mineral resources and approximately 55% of the energy produced (Bilal et al. 2020). CE implementation practices in the construction industry present a complex challenge involving public and private sector stakeholders (López Ruiz, Roca Ramón, and Gassó Domingo 2020). Governmental bodies are tasked with providing regulatory guidance and ensuring the alignment of strategic programs among public authorities and industrial actors (Heurkens and Dąbrowski 2021). However, a lack of clarity hinders current initiatives aimed at promoting circularity in the built environment. Policymakers and investors often struggle to understand the CE concept, its benefits, and its feasibility within existing business models (Acharaya, Boyd, and Finch, 2018). Moreover, existing regulatory guidelines have failed to provide clear rules for implementing CE goals, and discrepancies exist among regulatory frameworks and business practices in the direction of a circular built environment (Ghaffar, Burman, and Braimah 2020). Additionally, stakeholders' roles and potentially conflicting interests and expectations in construction management are not well understood (Agyekum et al. 2022; Çimen 2021). This is compounded by the fragmentation of the construction value chain and the inefficient collaboration among various stakeholders, partly due to the absence of a shared "language" or understanding (Adriaanse, Voordijk, and Dewulf 2010).

We depart from a framework developed by Fobbe and Hilletofth (2022) to explore with whom, on what, and how the public procurers collaborate with stakeholders to implement CE in the procurement process. The empirical study is based on multiple exploratory case studies from four cities’ construction projects located in four Nordic countries to enhance CE. The design of multiple case studies allows us to explore the differences and commonalities of public procurement processes across national contexts.

This study makes two significant contributions to the public procurement literature in the context of CPP. Firstly, we identify key factors that should be adapted or integrated into existing PP frameworks to facilitate CE better. This includes outlining two distinct approaches for enabling municipalities to mature and implement CE projects successfully in the procurement process. We uncover essential elements in this maturation process and unfold differences within each approach. This finding extends the current understanding of CPP municipal readiness and capacity building. Secondly, our research enhances the comprehension of stakeholder engagement in CPP. We delve into the nuances of various stakeholder roles, emphasizing their early involvement in PP projects' planning and implementation phases. We highlight the consideration needed to better incorporate different stakeholder roles in integrating circularity in the CPP project’s planning and implementation phase.

ABSTRACT. Abstract

Organisational buying behaviour is often characterised by group decision making and a defined decision-making unit or DMU. In pharmaceutical marketing this process has historically ignored the patient. However, the patient has taken a more prominent role in recent years with many pharmaceutical companies citing the role of the patient and the value of patient advocacy and involvement in formulating and marketing pharmaceuticals. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of the patient in the evolving organizational decision-making unit, and to determine the implications of this expanded role. The study encompasses 28 qualitative interviews and fieldwork conducted at three conferences and two pharmaceutical clusters in the UK and Continental Europe. The results of the study suggest that the patient is emerging as a contributor to the decision-making unit, however this role is still in its infancy and is modulated by an asymmetrical relationship with pharmaceutical organisations and the wise variation in the field of patient engagement. A proposed organisational buying model has emerged from the study and additional insights may be gained through continued research and observation. Further implications of the study suggest that the patient groups may occupy a position as Non-Business Actors (NBAs) and may influence the network. The implications for industrial marketing and organisational buying behaviour are that a reassessment of the role of consumers may be necessary, where they are able to influence the market network.

Abstract Organisational buying behaviour is often characterised by group decision making and a defined decision-making unit or DMU. In pharmaceutical marketing this process has historically ignored the patient. However, the patient has taken a more prominent role in recent years with many pharmaceutical companies citing the role of the patient and the value of patient advocacy and involvement in formulating and marketing pharmaceuticals. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of the patient in the evolving organizational decision-making unit, and to determine the implications of this expanded role. Methodology, the study encompasses 28 qualitative interviews and fieldwork conducted at three conferences and two pharmaceutical clusters in the UK and Continental Europe. The results of the study suggest that the patient is emerging as a contributor to the decision-making unit, however this role is still in its infancy and is modulated by an asymmetrical relationship with pharmaceutical organisations. A proposed organisational buying model has emerged from the study and further insights may be gained through continued research and observation. Extended Abstract Organizational buying behaviour, particularly in the pharmaceutical marketing context, has traditionally been characterized by group decision-making and the presence of a well-defined decision-making unit also termed the DMU (Webster and Wind, 1972). The DMU and organisational decision making have parallels with industrial decision making as understood by the IMP group (Hakansson and Snehota,1992; Hakansson and Snehota 1995; Ford et al, 2011). The network theory of the IMP school can be used to understand the process of marketing in the biopharmaceutical context, characterised by innovation and rapidly changing contexts (Allarakhia and Walsh, 2011). While this process has acknowledged non-business actors, it has largely overlooked the role they play as actors (Runfola et al, 2021). As noted by Runfola et al, (2021) the focus had been on the business-to-business aspect of marketing pharmaceutical products. Where non business actors (NBAs) are present they may be considered a part of the network, but enjoy a different role based from that of actors that are part of the business exchange (Bengtsson and Hadjikhani, 2010) However, in recent years, the value of patient advocacy, and involvement in the development and marketing of pharmaceuticals has become more prominent, with an increasing emphasis placed on addressing patients' needs and experiences, this is evident in the literature dealing with market access as well as innovation studies (Runfola et al, 2021; Guercini et al, 2020; Milanesi et al, 2020). This is paralleled by the studies that consider sustainability where an expansion of our understanding of the network understanding in the IMP school is defended (Runfola and Monteverdi, 2023: Monteverdi and Runfola, 2024; Harrison et al, 2023) the objective of this study is to investigate the evolving role of the patient in the organizational DMU and to assess the implications of this expanded role in the pharmaceutical market in contemporary IMP theory. The methodology employed in this investigation comprises in-depth, qualitative interviews with 28 participants, as well as observational fieldwork conducted at three conferences and two pharmaceutical clusters in the UK and Continental Europe. The collected data provides insights into current pharmaceutical practices and the extent to which patients are integrated into the decision-making processes of organizations in this industry. The findings demonstrate that the patient is increasingly being considered as a contributor to the DMU, albeit still in the early stages of incorporation. The relationship between patients and pharmaceutical organizations is characterized by asymmetry in communication dynamics, which ultimately influences the overall decision-making process. Based on the findings of this study, a proposed organizational buying model has been developed, illustrating the evolving significance of patients in the pharmaceutical DMU context. This may have implications for the strict dichotomy between industrial marketing and consumption (Cova and Salle, 2008; Monteverdi and Runfola, 2024). Continued research and investigation in this area will further elucidate the emerging role of the patient in pharmaceutical organizational decision-making and may lead to direct implications for the development of more patient-centric pharmaceutical marketing strategies. Thus, exploring the impact of patient advocacy and involvement on organizational buying behaviour in the pharmaceutical context is a vital avenue for maintaining academic rigor and excellence in this rapidly evolving field. Future research can contribute to the refinement and application of the proposed organizational buying model, helping to foster a more balanced relationship between pharmaceutical organizations and patients who stand to benefit from their products and services.

  References Allarakhia, M. and Walsh, S. (2011), “Managing knowledge assets under conditions of radical change: the case of the pharmaceutical industry”, Technovation, Vol. 31 Nos 2/3, pp. 105-117. Bengtson, A. and Hadjikhani, A. (2010), “NBAs in business networks”, 26th IMP Conference, Budapest. Cova, B. and Salle, R. (2008), “The industrial/consumer marketing dichotomy revisited: a case of outdated justification?”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 3-11. Ford, D., Gadde, L.E., Håkansson, H. and Snehota, I. (2011), Managing Business Relationships, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. Guercini, S., Milanesi, M. and Runfola, A. (2020), “Bridges to sustainable health systems: public-private interaction for Pharmaceutical market access”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 12, pp. 1929-1939. Håkansson, H. and Johanson, J. (1992), “A model of industrial networks”, in Axelsson, B. and Easton, G. (Eds), Industrial Networks. A New View of Reality, Routledge, London, pp. 28-33. Håkansson, H. and Snehota, I. (1995), Developing Relationships in Business Networks, Routledge, London. Harrison, D., Prenkert, F., Hasche, N. and Carlborg, P. (2023), “Business networks and sustainability: past, present and future”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 111, pp. A10-A17 Milanesi, M., Runfola, A. and Guercini, S. (2020), “Pharmaceutical industry riding the wave of sustainability: review and opportunities for future research”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 261, pp. 1-12. Monteverde, G. and Runfola, A. (2024), "Add a seat for another actor in the business network! Consumer communities’ roles for fashion sustainable new ventures", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, No volume and number ahead of print. Runfola, A. and Monteverde, G. (2023), "Something new, something sustainable! How network relationships shape sustainable new venture development", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 38 No. 12. Runfola, A., Guercini, S. and Milanesi, M. (2021), “Network interactions for pharmaceutical market access: findings from an explorative research”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 13, pp. 174-186. Webster, F. E., & Wind, Y. (1972). A General Model for Understanding Organizational Buying Behavior. Journal of Marketing, 36(2), 12-19.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on the craft food and drinks industry in Ireland this paper identifies the tensions which exist within and between business networks for firms seeking to align their activities to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite a growing B2B literature addressing issues of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, to date there is limited work exploring the intersection of these pillars of sustainability in a business network context. Adopting an IMP perspective this study explores the tensions which arise for small resource constrained entrepreneurial firms within networks when seeking to adapt practices to more closely align to the SDGs across the three pillars of sustainability. Using a qualitative case study method, we analyse semi-structured interviews with 12 Irish craft-based food and drinks firms. Findings suggest tensions across three levels, the individual actor (entrepreneur) level, in relationship and network-level interactions comprising suppliers, distributors, business customers, and within a wider environment context. Contrary to a win-win scenario for firms investing in sustainability proposed in recent literature, findings suggest that small firms are faced with multiple tensions at all levels in implementing sustainability changes, including trade-offs when prioritizing and realising various SDG goals, resource constraints and deficit, power imbalances within networks and increasing pressure to enact and demonstrate sustainable practices from both retailers, consumers and policymakers. The study adds to an emerging literature in sustainable B2B practices, highlighting the need for B2B scholars to further understanding of the challenges facing firms seeking to transition to sustainable production practices.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the nature and forms of decision-making processes in the context of interactions in business networks through a literature review and the formulation of a research agenda. A concept of interactive decision-making that goes beyond the individual dimension in the study of organisations' interaction and business networks is proposed and compared with a broader literature on actors' decision-making processes. To this end, we develop a review of the IMP literature on decision-making processes and compare it with a literature on bounded rationality and heuristic decision-making models. In particular, the literature review is extended to different disciplinary contexts by proposing an integration of the IMP approach with the ideas proposed in the Simon’s work on substantive rationality and effectiveness of heuristic rules. Interactive decision-making focuses on the interdependence between actors rather than on the individual actor making the decision. On this basis, the paper proposes a first draft model for the analysis of interactive decision-making and a research agenda.

ABSTRACT. This work-in-progress paper aims to explore the roles and practices of different orchestrator types in building circular economy networks within the Australian fashion industry. Following the conceptual framework proposed by Hurmelinna-Laukkanen and Nätti (2018), we first identify different orchestrator types present within the same network and the orchestration mechanisms (Schepis et al., 2021) they utilize to develop collaborative networks. These orchestrator types include: non-player orchestrators, player orchestrators, facilitator orchestrators and sponsor orchestrators, with each type performing a vital role in forming collaborative relationships and facilitating interactions. We also aim to expand on this conceptual framework by further defining the proposed orchestrator types in relation to the mechanisms they utilize, while also investigating how networks can be influenced by more than one of these orchestrator types at the same time (and through interdependent mechanisms). This research explores two networks within the Australian fashion industry, by focusing on the role of different orchestrator types in forming circular networks, which are emerging in Australia. This project uses a qualitative research design, employing semi-structured in-depth interviews and thematic data analysis to understand the role of administrative organizations in developing networks.

ABSTRACT. Trust within entrepreneurial ecosystems is crucial for effective information exchange, supporting innovation, and fostering development. This paper explores the emergence of trust and distrust in sharing sensitive and general information among participants in an industrial automation and robotics ecosystem on the west coast of Finland. Data from interviews and workshops provide insights into trust dynamics from various stakeholders, including SMEs, intermediary organizations, universities, and public sector entities. The study identifies key factors influencing trust development: costs associated with trust building, the role of interpersonal trust, and the impact of institutional factors on interorganizational trust. These elements significantly affect information sharing practices within the ecosystem. Findings indicate that while established trust relationships among close business partners facilitate the exchange of sensitive information, a baseline level of trust enables the broader circulation of general information across the ecosystem.

However, the research also reveals a significant gap in the utility of the information shared. Stakeholders often view the information from public organizations and universities as overly general and not directly applicable to their immediate business needs, indicating trust in intent but not in practical utility. This gap highlights the challenges in managing trust within ecosystems, especially the need to balance protecting sensitive information while promoting open exchange to drive collective innovation and growth. The paper concludes with insights into trust dynamics and their implications for building robust collaborative networks within entrepreneurial ecosystems. It advocates for strategic interventions to enhance transparency and establish clear mutual benefits, essential for strengthening the foundational trust necessary for productive ecosystems.

ABSTRACT. Healthcare has long been a prominent part of society, with health being one of the most basic, ongoing needs. However, the health system, which is responsible for maintaining and improving the quality of health, has undergone a major transformation in recent decades due to changes in the environment. In parallel with the global growth of information technology (IT), healthcare providers are increasingly adopting digital technologies and digital platforms (e.g. social media). However, managing technological change is not an easy task for healthcare organizations, as the implementation of a technology leads to a myriad of changes, the outcome of which is far from being a determinant of success. Our research, focusing on resource constellations, aims to identify the patterns of change in the healthcare delivery processes as a result of technological modifications.

To carry out our research, we will use a qualitative, case study-based methodology, in which the extent of technological change in resource interaction processes will be illustrated through a case study. In the analyzed case, the 4R model will be applied to capture the resource dimension associated with the focal healthcare delivery process. While it has been shown that it is possible to investigate technical interfaces through data and information systems enumeration, we investigate social and mixed interfaces by applying the Event-based Network Process Analysis (eNPA). The eNPA is suitable for the cognitive interpretation of network dynamics, taking into account the existence of individuals and individual cognitive frameworks that are part of the interfaces.

Our research brings us closer to understanding the effects that occur as a result of changes in resource interfaces. Thus, organizations will be able to better anticipate effects due to technological changes.

ABSTRACT. Communication in digital contexts, especially on social media, is expanding the opportunities to strengthen and enhance the awareness of business-to-business (B2B) companies’ brands. This occurs not only on professional social media platforms like LinkedIn (Cortez and Dastidar, 2022), but also on social media platforms typically used by business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, such as Instagram (Yaghtin et al. 2020). Empirical observation suggests that many supplier brands utilise social media with digital content and storytelling comparable to those of B2C brands, targeting the end consumer rather than business actors. The effect of such digital communication is to disseminate the brand identity, enhance the brand awareness, and shape the image that the end consumer has of the B2B brand. Starting from this background, the paper aims to investigate the digital communication that supplier brands engage in on consumer-oriented social media platforms and how such communication contributes, on one hand, to the formation of the supplier brand and, on the other hand, to the buyer-supplier relationship. Regarding the first aspect (B2B branding), the paper sheds light on the ingredient branding strategies and the so-called “Intel Inside effect”, which are not new themes per se in the literature of industrial marketing (Norris, 1993) but can assume new strength and modalities in digital contexts. The ingredient branding strategy occurs when the distinctive features of one brand become integrated into another brand as ingredients (Everelles et al. 2008). The Intel Inside effect emerges when the ingredient is branded using a recognized brand name or element associated with another company (Desai and Keller, 2002). Such a strategy offers significant value to both brands in terms of relationship benefits and the association between the host and the ingredient. Concerning the buyer-seller relationships, the paper examines the impact of an enhanced supplier brand through consumer-oriented digital communication, and a potential Intel Inside effect, on the buyer-seller dyad, particularly on two aspects that distinguish it: power and trust (Mouzas et al. 2007; Hingley et al, 2015). A strong supplier brand recognised by the end consumer could indeed become a source of power for the supplier and potentially tip the relationship in terms of power dynamics. There could also be implications regarding trust, both in a negative sense (the buyer might fear that the supplier's brand could overshadow its own brand) and in a positive sense (strengthening trust for value co-creation). The paper adopts a qualitative methodology by analysing two cases of supplier brands with a focus on their digital communication, particularly on Instagram. The methodology comprises, on one hand, a content analysis of the digital communication in the two cases under study, and on the other hand, in-depth interviews and collection of secondary data. The paper aims to provide a contribution in two directions: first, regarding the literature on B2B branding, by bringing attention to the Intel Inside effect and highlighting how it can arise through digital communication on consumer-oriented social media platforms; second, concerning the dynamics of power and trust in buyer-seller relationships and how these may be impacted by the development of the supplier brand.

ABSTRACT. In this conceptual paper we combine institutionalization, sustainability work, and IMP literatures to understand how pathways to sustainable futures are created in business networks. Our focus is in understanding how individuals construct sustainability through sustainability work within business networks. ‘Sustainability work’ is a novel concept that could help IMP scholars pay more attention to processes through which individuals enact sustainability in networks. Our central argument is that business networks are actively created and reproduced through human activity. Therefore, their (un)sustainable futures are best understood through human enactment, and the interplay between individual and collective action.

ABSTRACT. Migrant entrepreneurs are embedded in diverse networks in home and host countries and in diaspora, but are also subjects to particular dynamics in their embeddedness. External events, such as geopolitical shifts and military conflicts may unexpectedly influence them. This paper explores the embeddedness and disembeddedness of Russian-origin migrant entrepreneurs. By interviewing them, we shed light on the relational and structural dis-and embeddedness changes that the Russian-Ukrainian war has stimulated. The preliminary findings reveal weakened connections with the home country, as well as new perspectives on what a Russian-speaking diaspora means. It also shows how personal connections played a role in reforming the entrepreneurs’ networks. The study contributes to migrant entrepreneurship literature, diaspora studies and network research by looking at the dynamics of embeddedness in various networks.

ABSTRACT. This conceptual paper is interested in the role of place and space in the creation of sustainable markets and networks. Places are often at the ‘coal face’ of organisational attempts to move to more sustainable models and practices (Harrison et al., 2023). Sustainability does not only involve organisational change but also requires the shaping of systems, markets and networks (Storbacka et al., 2022; Keranen et al., 2023; Finch et al., 2017). Calls have been made for ‘concrete research on place’ and place-based accounts of sustainability (Guthey et al., 2014, p. 254) to address the ‘placeless’ character of enterprise sustainability research (Shrivastava and Kennelly, 2013, p. 83). More recently, places and spaces have likewise been recognised to shape the design of sustainable ecosystems of actors (Anzivino et al., 2023) and cross-sector partnerships (Ryan et al., 2023) to address sustainability concerns, yet the question of ‘where’ has been largely ignored in prior research on the work of sustainable markets and networks.

Drawing on constructivist market studies (Araujo et al., 2010; Kjellberg and Helgesson, 2007; Callon and Muniesa, 2005), markets are socio-technical agencements that cohere within specific physical locations (Caliskan and Callon, 2010). Within this stream of work, some attention has been given to the spatiality of markets and agency of place and space in the making of markets (see e.g. Chimenti and Kjellberg, 2022; Cochoy, 2020; Holmes et al., 2021; Palo, 2023). For example, looking at mobility services, Chimenti and Geiger (2023) refer to ‘realms’ of private vs. public and quasi-laboratory vs. world outside with distinct market practices and tensions in-between. Holmes et al. (2021, p. 319) argue that market practices are always a spatial affair: “all market practices are here understood to depend on and be shaped by the mobilisation and enactment of various conceptualisations of space”. Cochoy’s (2023) notion of spatial agencing is also interesting here, which he describes (2023, p. 154) as “a dynamic process aimed at spatially combining (agencing) human and nonhuman elements to have them perform certain actions”. Looking at grocery stores, Cochoy (2020) shows how the integration of open displays shaped the geography of stores by re-agencing their elements (e.g., equipment, furniture, employees, and consumers). Elsewhere, Ryan et al. (2023) recognise how place enables and constrains sustainable organising (Cartel et al., 2022; Lawrence, 2017), by describing how partnerships become generative of place by drawing attention to their situational rather than the universal nature, and to the actors and issues that convene in places.

Yet it has been long noted that “no-one quite knows what they are talking about when they are talking about place” (Cresswell, 2004, p. 1). While research has recognised business relationships, networks or markets all have spatial qualities and they are grounded in places, there still tends to be much confusion in conceptualising the relationship between place and space and its implications for understanding networks and markets. More research is required (Harrison et al., 2023) on the concept of place and space, and the ways in which they relate to and shape the making of sustainable market and networks.

We aim to address these questions in this conceptual paper by drawing on the notion of marketsites (Kear, 2018) to conceptualise the interrelationship between space and place in the realisation of sustainable markets and networks. Kear’s marketsite serves to connect the many elements that must ‘hang together’ to make up a market. Kear’s marketsite is defined as both the locus of the heterogenous elements that intersect to create and enable market exchange, and the specific locations where the performation of markets takes place. Coles (2021) in advocating an analogous perspective, describes spaces of markets as enacted through both spatially ambiguous or abstract terms, as well as particular sites where market exchanges are carried out. Markets then are at once abstract and concrete; what goes in concrete sites is connected to distant places via a logic of instantiation and reproduction (Coles, 2021).

We ask therefore, how do space and place intersect in the realisation of sustainable markets and networks? How is sustainability performed in specific locations and how do these places shape the realisation of sustainability? In concerted attempts towards agencing sustainable market forms, what elements are re(-)placed, and how including the “designing, planning, organizing, staging and setting the spatial distribution” of spatial elements in sustainable markets? (Cochoy, 2023, p.151). This conceptual paper will discuss and conceptualise the relations between marketsites, their spatial agencing and the making of sustainable markets and network. To do this, we draw on literature from three interrelated areas to understand their treatment of place and space: the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) tradition, geographies of marketisation in economic geography, and constructivist market studies. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which place and space shape sustainability practices in markets. This way we will move research beyond treating place and space as a mere context or backdrop for action toward a recognition of their agency in the shaping of markets and networks. We will identify future research avenues for a marketsites approach to sustainable markets.

ABSTRACT. As a process, entrepreneurship is influenced by the social and economic context within which it is embedded, which can shape entrepreneurial outcomes (Jack & Anderson, 2002; Korsgaard et al., 2015). This article presents a qualitative analysis of place as a context (Törnroos et al., 2017; Cartel et al., 2022) mobilised as a resource (Håkansson et al., 2006). More specifically, the paper explores entrepreneurship in Peripheral Areas (PAs) (Müller & Korsgaard, 2018), i.e. those territories considered to be rural, remote, with less investment in development than their urbanised counterparts (Mumford, 1954; Korsgaard et al., 2015). Notably, PAs are underdeveloped places characterised by low population density and out-migration, scarcity of resources and services, and low level of income and innovation (OECD, 2006; Pezzi & Urso, 2016). Research linking PAs and entrepreneurship is currently experiencing “something of a renaissance” (Pugh & Dubois, 2021, p. 267). Whist grounded in different disciplines, recent empirical studies suggest that despite the unsuitable environment for business activities (Copus and Skuras, 2006), there are many examples of successful entrepreneurship in PAs (Korsgaard et al., 2015). One potential explanation for this success is the use of “unexploited territorial capital” (Barca et al., 2014), that is, the resources, both material and immaterial, that are not adequately exploited or valorised by local actors. Recognising the potential limitations of place for entrepreneurs in PAs (Dabson, 2001; Saxena, 2012), local resources (Barca et al., 2014), social capital (Malecki, 2012) and network dynamics (Huggins & Thompson, 2015; Antolín-López et al., 2022) have proved to be key elements in overcoming inherent constraints (Figueroa-Armijos et al., 2012). Local business networks (Ford & Håkansson, 2000; Copus & Skuras, 2006; Beckmann et al. 2023) and inter-personal relationships (Johannisson et al., 2002; Fosstenløkken et al., 2023) are important for entrepreneurial firms in PAs to access and mobilise external resources (Korsgaard et al., 2021). This paper will use the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) approach to add further insights into entrepreneurship in PAs. Related to networks, we know that PAs are characterised by wide networks comprising short and long ties (Bosworth, 2012), both of social and business nature, that help to sustain the precarious situation and to counteract the downgrading trend of the territories. We will add to this by addressing the following research questions: 1) How can place be mobilised, in the network interaction process, to shape entrepreneurial resource configurations (Baraldi et al., 2012)? 2) How can entrepreneurial business networks stimulate territorial development in PAs? To address our research questions this study adopts a multiple case study methodology (Yin, 2003; Halinen & Törnroos, 2005; Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Purposeful sampling (Patton, 1990) was used to select the cases, on the basis of a set of common contextual features including the relevance of place to both the entrepreneurial and spacial developmental processes. Two entrepreneurial communities located in PAs were selected, one located in rural Ireland and another in rural Italy. Our data collection process involved multiple face-to-face interviews with key informants inside local organisations in both Ireland and Italy. Our data analysis adopted an abductive approach (Dubois & Gadde, 2002) whereby we analysed the role of place as a resource that can be mobilised iteratively moving between empirical data and recent literature. The two cases were initially addressed separately, and then compared to evaluate the similarities and differences across country contexts. Adopting the IMP lens (Baraldi et al., 2007), our findings uncover how the two peripheral communities managed to organise themselves in order to mobilise the local resources (Finch et al., 2012; Baraldi et al., 2012; Prenkert et al., 2022) and activate important services for the local area. By building wide and strong networks (Håkansson & Snehota, 1995; Halinen & Törnroos, 1998), the organisations within the two PA’s engaged with multiple actors, local and external, expanding the boundaries of their activities and creating the conditions to stimulate territorial development and social resilience, counteracting the disintegrating trend that generally characterises PAs (Kühn, 2015). The contribution of this article to the IMP literature is threefold. Firstly, it contributes to the emerging topic of place, which is gaining attention due to its recognised importance for business interaction processes (Nicholson et al., 2017; Harrison et al., 2023) and for the renewed attention to differences among contexts (Eklinder-Frick & Linné, 2017; Trettin & Welter, 2011). This is particularly important in an entrepreneurial context given the importance of external resources to address internal constraints associated with being new and small. Secondly, we expand research on resource-constrained PAs which is still underdeveloped within the IMP (Nicholson et al., 2017) and could reveal itself as an interesting field of analysis to investigate business networks and interaction processes in an entrepreneurial context. Thirdly, the article expands IMP research on resources (Prenkert et al., 2022) and their mobilisation (Finch et al., 2012) within the interaction process, providing insights for joint consideration with the concept of place as a resource (Håkansson et al., 2006).

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ABSTRACT. Mr Repe Harmanen JSBE, University of Jyväskylä repe.tt.harmanen@jyu.fi

Strategic sustainability framework for stakeholder value creation

This paper proposes the Strategic Sustainability Framework (SSF), which redefines the integration of sustainability within corporate strategies to enhance stakeholder value creation. Amid evolving global standards, particularly EU's ESG and CSRD directives, there is a pressing need for businesses to adopt a comprehensive approach that extends beyond environmental compliance to include social, economic, and human factors. The SSF aims to position sustainability as a core strategic priority, ensuring that initiatives not only meet regulatory demands but also exceed stakeholder expectations, thus achieving sustainable competitive advantage through strong sustainability initiatives.

The framework is underpinned by the synthesis of past research across various disciplines, offering a novel integration of sustainability with corporate value creation mechanisms. It argues for a dynamic adaptation of corporate strategies that align with shifting stakeholder values and regulatory landscapes. By implementing the SSF, companies can transform their sustainability actions from mere compliance to strategic advantages, fostering long-term corporate success and stakeholder welfare.

The SSF facilitates a dual focus on immediate compliance and future-oriented strategic gains. It emphasizes that robust sustainability practices, while potentially costly in the short term, are crucial for long-term value creation, providing benefits across the business ecosystem. The framework also advocates for continuous evaluation and adaptation of sustainability initiatives to align with evolving stakeholder expectations and regulatory requirements. This adaptive approach ensures that sustainability efforts remain relevant and integrated into the core business strategy, contributing to a sustainable competitive edge.

This research contributes to the literature on strategic sustainability by outlining a clear, actionable framework that addresses the complexities of integrating sustainability within corporate strategies.

ABSTRACT. This study evaluates the sustainability practices of Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) within the frameworks of weak and strong sustainability. It examines how LSPs’ efforts align with both approaches, utilizing the latest annual and sustainabil-ity reports from two leading global LSPs to categorize their ecologically sustainable practices and assess their commitment to environmental stewardship and econom-ic growth.

While LSPs are making progress in sustainability, their initiatives largely reflect a weak sustainability model, which involves balancing economic and ecological trade-offs, relying on future technologies, and treating emissions as tradable or off-setable. These efforts focus on technological advancements and operational effi-ciencies to enhance sustainability metrics, without significantly altering the underly-ing business models and economic systems. However, elements of strong sustain-ability are evident, especially in collaborative efforts at the network level that aim to optimize routes, reduce waste, and improve packaging sustainability—actions that contribute to the preservation of renewable energy sources and ecological integrity.

From a managerial standpoint, strategic decision-making that embeds sustainabil-ity as a core imperative is crucial. This includes ongoing investment in technologies that maintain ecological integrity and participation in collaborative efforts towards sustainability. Consequently, LSPs have a pivotal role in promoting community en-gagement with sustainability issues. By embracing a strong sustainability ap-proach, these companies can adopt educational role in informing stakeholders about the vital need for ecological preservation.

The reliance on self-reported data presents certain limitations. Despite the regulat-ed nature of financial statements, companies’ annual and sustainability reports may exhibit a bias, selectively presenting information to shareholders. Future research should, therefore, seek more objective data sources, analyze the evolution of LSPs’ sustainability strategies, and conduct comparative studies to identify the motivators and obstacles to the adoption of robust sustainability frameworks.

Keywords: LSP, sustainability practices, responsibility, corporate reporting. Special track: Strategizing for Strong Sustainability in Business Networks

ABSTRACT. The rapid digitalization and industrial transformation taking place in society today can also be seen in the forest industry. New technology has enabled new ways of interaction, and updated digital solutions linked to contracting services for forest owners are constantly being launched. It is not uncommon for forest owners to find themselves at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge compared to the large forest companies and forest owners’ associations, where the latter have traditionally had a large information advantage in the forestry sector. Forest companies, on the other hand, often find themselves struggling in their efforts to satisfy the varying interests and goals with forest owners’ ownership, not least on the basis of the opportunities opened up by new technology in the area.

In this paper we take an industrial network and relationship approach and study how the relationship between individual forest owners and forest companies is affected by digitalization of forest counselling services. We will investigate how individual forest owners demand and assimilate different digital information bases, how the transfer of knowledge changes and takes place in the concrete, and how the balance of power between the private forest owners and sellers of various contracting services in forestry is affected by the development. The empirical base for the paper is a contemporary qualitative study in the Swedish forestry sector, using data from interviews with forest company representative and focus group discussions among forest owners. The overarching aim of the paper is to reach a more profound understanding of the effects of digitalisation on industrial buyer – seller relationships in networks.

ABSTRACT. Sustainable marketing aims to enhance organizational financial performance while also prioritizing the well-being of individuals, nature, and the planet. This marketing concept is built on the ethical principle that it is unacceptable for marketers and organizations to engage in activities that harm the natural environment or compromise social welfare. The theoretical development of sustainable marketing thus clearly involves an attempt to determine and frame the goals of marketing activities from an ethical perspective. While the ethics of sustainable marketing has been approached from both an anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric perspective, much of the discussion has tended to be dominated by three major approaches to normative ethics: teleology, deontology, and virtue ethics. While these approaches predominantly centre on humans, emphasizing consequences, principles, and virtues as key moral considerations, there has been minimal attention given to the importance of emotions, relationships, compassion, and non-anthropocentric ethical theories in addressing the ethical dimension of sustainable marketing.

Given this gap, the objective of this paper is to enhance the understanding of the ethical dimension of sustainable marketing by employing an animal ethics of care perspective. The paper sheds light on the significance of human-nonhuman caring relationships and emotions in the formulation and implementation of sustainable marketing strategies. To demonstrate the application of the animal ethics of care perspective in sustainable marketing, this paper conducts an analysis of the marketing mix (price, place, promotion, and product) within the context of reindeer yoga. As a tourism service, reindeer yoga revolves around relationships between humans (such as entrepreneurs, customers, and suppliers) and nonhumans (animals and nature), making it a compelling case study for examining the intersection of sustainability, marketing, and ethics of care. The empirical material consists of preliminary data collected through desk research from of the websites of tourism companies selling reindeer yoga and publicly available TripAdvisor reviews.

ABSTRACT. Co-production of knowledge by a variety of partners is cited as a driver of transformative processes where actors aim to enhance systemic change such as the sustainability transition. However, there is relatively little empirical evidence of knowledge co-production practices and processes related to advancing systemic change for sustainability. In this study, we examine knowledge co-production processes involving researchers and companies as a means for systemic transitions. The research setting includes three large research projects, all of which actively interact with multiple stakeholders. These projects focus on sustainable transformation processes concerning textiles, plastics, and bio-based colors, respectively, and belong to the research program IMPRES, funded by the Strategic Research Council in Finland. Our data includes researchers’ views on knowledge co-production with companies (and other actors) and was collected in a pilot study (survey) conducted among the project researchers and through discussions in two researcher meetings. The findings explore how researchers across these varied projects co-produce knowledge that enables systemic change, i.e. transitions to sustainability. While our findings are based on researchers’ views, it paves the way for advancing knowledge co-production that is fruitful for companies as well when advancing systemic change and sustainability transformation.

ABSTRACT. Multistakeholder Initiatives (MSI’s) fill an important role in the governance of transnational sustainability issues, but ongoing and serious criticism can threaten their moral legitimacy. Combining the literature on MSIs with legitimacy theory we investigate the moral legitimation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil across three developmental stages - nascent, growth and maturity. We find a temporal dimension to the emergence of types of moral legitimacy: procedural legitimacy in the nascent stage; procedural and consequential legitimacy in the growth stage with all three, procedural, consequential and structural legitimacy important in the maturity stage. Although this temporal aspect exists, types of moral legitimacy are inter-related and MSIs need to plan for all three at the outset. Contrary to expectations, procedural legitimacy in addition to consequential legitimacy is found to be episodic. We discuss the RSPO approach to management of moral legitimacy and draw several implications for MSI moral legitimation.