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Special issue of Industrial Marketing Management
Power in Business, Customer, and Market Relationships

Industrial Marketing Management announces the call for papers for a special issue on power in business, customer, and market relationships. The deadline for submission is December 1, 2013.

Purpose of the special issue

As organizational success has become more and more reliant on the nature of business relationships, one factor that has come to the fore in influencing the development of those relationships is power (Meehan and Wright, 2012). However, power as a construct in business-to-business relationships has received irregular and contrasting treatment from researchers, including those who view the concept of power as alien to the effective workings of exchange relationships and determine success through principles of co-operation and trust (Kumar, 1996); to those who view the workings of power as a natural phenomenon and acceptance of asymmetry essential to managing business-to-business exchanges (Hingley, 2005).

Application of power principles to business relationships draw strongly on application to personal relationships (French and Raven, 1959), and particularly the work of Emerson (1962) in early conceptualisation of power is much cited by business scholars who apply the context of influence of individuals over others. Power often is seen in terms of gradations of influence of one party over another, with Kumar (2005) deftly summarizing existing definitions of power as dependence, punitive capability, non-coercive influence strategies, and punitive actions. The last feature constitutes the antithesis of trust in relationships. Others see the range of power relationships as a portfolio approach, with exchange partners involved in different levels of power expression with different partners, or even a fluid situation with the same partners at different points in time.

Consideration of power has tended to focus on the business-to-business environment, with specifically an emphasis on channel relationships (for example, in the work of Cox, 2004); and further, this has been comparatively narrow with a focus on power dynamics between buyer-sellers (Meehan and Wright, 2012). Particular aspects of definition, application, interpretation, and scope of power remain underexplored and unanswered. There have been some attempts to model power, and this has been mostly in the business exchange arena, concerning buyer-seller relationships, most notably in power regime theory (Cox, 2004), but wider modelling and application remain under-developed. Important aspects of power remain unanswered in the business, market. and customer context. There is still more to be understood concerning the nature of power in supply channel and network relationships, of the power dynamic between business and customers, and of the conceptualisation, application, and modelling of power theory. New arenas and format of business are opening up that are shaped by, and also influencing, power dynamics, from the world of state endorsed globalization to the apparent customer–powered democracy of the internet. However, power remains an issue of influence of people and organizations over others for asymmetric, or mutual gain, profit or even benign facilitation. The wide reach of power needs to be better defined and understood in all of these existing and expanding circumstances and contexts.

The overall objective of the special issue is to provide a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge theories and research concerning the impact of power in business-to-business and business-to-consumer and the external power forces which shape marketing environment, as well as the internal power dimension within organizations and between people. Specific topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Success through self-interest or partnerships in business relationships?
• Managing power in business-to-business and buyer-seller relationships
• Powerful customers or compliant users led by the nose?
• The effect of power on trust and commitment in business relationships.
• Countervailing power: structures and strategies in business and consumer markets?
• The role and operation of power, influence, and self interest groups.
• The influence of power on value creation and value dispersal.
• Learning from sectoral cases in business, market and personal power
• Power as a negative, positive, benign, or unavoidable presence in business, market, or customer relationships.
• Exploration and understanding of the spectrum and portfolio of power utilized in relationships from dependency relationships to coercive and punitive actions.
• Limits of tolerance to power imbalance in business exchanges and relationships?
• The effectiveness and efficacy of market intervention and regulating for power in business and markets.
• Sectoral differences concerning power relationships?
• Lessons for business from analysis of power in personal relationships.
• Power in the workplace: the internal HR dimension to power within business organizations and its influence upon an organization’s effectiveness.
• Power, fairness, and the corporate social responsibility agenda.
• Consumer and citizen power in the internet age.
• Corporate power and globalization.
• The power of the nation state in tandem with corporate imperialism?

References

Cox, A. (2004) “The art of the possible: relationship management in power regimes and supply chains”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 9, 346–356.

Emerson, R.M. (1962) “Power-dependence relations”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 27, 31–41.

French, J.R.P. and Raven, B. (1959) “The bases of social power”, in D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in Social Power, University of Michigan Press, MI, 150–167.

Hingley, M. (2005) “Power to all our friends? Living with imbalance in supplier–retailer relationships”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 34, 848–858.

Kumar, N. (2005), “The power of power in supplier–retailer relationships”, Industrial Marketing Management, 34 (8), 863–866.

Kumar, N. (1996), “The power of trust in manufacturer-retailer relationships”, Harvard Business Review, November-December, 92–106.

Meehan, J. and Wright, G.H. (2012) “The origins of power in buyer–seller relationships”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 41, 669–679.

Paper submission and review process

Papers submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be no more than 7,500 words in length. Copies should be submitted via email MS Word attachment (in one file including all figures and tables) to the guest editors, as well as the IMM office (plaplaca@journalimm.com; please indicate that the paper is for the special issue on power in business, customer, and market relationships). The first page must contain the title of the paper and the names and contact details of all authors. For additional guidelines, see “Notes for Contributors” from a recent issue of Industrial Marketing Management, or visit:

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Papers not complying with the notes for contributors or poorly written will be desk rejected. Suitable articles will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence, authors must not identify themselves in the body of their paper. (Please do not submit a Word file with “track changes” active or a PDF file.)

Please address all questions to the guest editors:

Professor Martin Hingley
Lincoln Business School
E-mail: mhingley@lincoln.ac.uk

Professor Adam Lindgreen
Cardiff Business School
E-mail: LindgreenA@cardiff.ac.uk

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