The Central Role of B2B Marketing and Sales

Introduction

In Reframing Value Creation for Sustainable Transformation, Special issue of Industrial Marketing Management; Deadline 1 Nov 2026

INTEREST CATEGORY: INTERORGANIZATIONAL
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Posted by: Selma Kadić-Maglajlić

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Call for Papers

The Central Role of B2B Marketing and Sales in Reframing Value Creation for Sustainable Transformation

Deadline for submission: 1 November 2026

Overview and purpose of the special issue

Business-to-business (B2B) firms are faced with environmental sustainability challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, and depletion of natural resources (Geissdoerfer, Savaget, Bocken, & Hultink, 2017; Sairanen & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2024). Environmental challenges are particularly critical in the B2B sector where firms typically consume large quantities of resources and generate greater environmental impact than do business-to-consumer firms (Kapitan, Kennedy, & Berth, 2019). At the same time, the wider society and institutional pressure push B2B firms to change to more sustainable businesses – and circular economy, decarbonization, and regenerative models are today’s mots du jour in the business world (Das & Bocken, 2024; Hartley, van Santen, & Kirchherr, 2020; Huang, Surface, & Zhang, 2022; Ranta, Aarikka-Stenroos, Ritala, & Mäkinen, 2018a; Sairanen & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2024; Salonen et al., 2025). This begs the question: how should B2B firms address environmental challenges and, at the same time, create economic and environmental value for their customers and the wider society?

With environmental challenges, B2B firms need to reconsider how they create, communicate, and capture value across their global value chains and, resultingly, conduct viable business and achieve profitability by delivering tangible benefits to customers, such as cost savings and reduced environmental harm (Ranta, Keränen, & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2020; Sairanen, Aarikka-Stenroos, & Kaipainen, 2024). Firms’ value propositions and offerings need to incorporate both economic and environmental value, resulting in resource-efficient, service-oriented, and circular business models (Ranta, Keränen, & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2020; Sairanen et al., 2024). Despite growing scholarly exploration of environmental challenges within the management and environmental literatures, the role of marketing and sales is still underexplored in the B2B literature (Gabler, Landers, & Itani, 2023; Hautamäki, Burgdorff Jensen, & Urbinati, 2025; Mostaghel, Oghazi, & Lisboa, 2023; Sharma, Borah, Haque, & Adhikary, 2025).

Positioned at the interface between firms, consumers, and wider society, marketing and sales functions play a central role in influencing entire value chains, as well as shaping B2B customer and consumer behavior through sustainable practices and offerings. This requires B2B marketing and sales to adopt broader strategic perspectives and lead environmental transformations proactively (Hautamäki et al., 2025; Ranta, Aarikka-Stenroos, & Mäkinen, 2018b; Ranta et al., 2020; Sairanen & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2024; Sairanen et al., 2024). When B2B firms’ attention to environmental challenges becomes a source of growth and innovation, these firms also become better at meeting evolving regulatory requirements and customer expectations (de Ruyter, De Jong, & Wetzels, 2009; World Economic Forum, 2025).

Digital technologies, B2B platforms, and artificial intelligence (AI) offer new opportunities to advance environmental sustainability and the circular economy (Berg, & Wiltz, 2019; Blackburn, Ritala, & Keränen, 2023; Konietzko, Bocken, & Hultink, 2020; Mullick, Raassens, Haans, & Nijssen, 2021; Ritala, 2024). Digital technologies and B2B platforms (including, for example, digital twins and robots) can enhance traceability, resource efficiency and optimization, and circularity efforts, both in individual companies’ business models and collaborative value chains (Blackburn et al., 2023; Thakuri, Alkki, & Aarikka-Stenroos, 2025) enabling new modes for economic value creation. Furthermore, variety of digital technologies such as AI-enabled analytics, digital product passports, and IoT-based tracking can improve decision-making, efficiency, and transparency across value chains and ecosystems (Frank et al., 2025). Yet many of these technologies remain in pilot phases rather than being fully integrated into marketing and sales processes (Hautamäki & Heikinheimo, 2025), let alone fully implemented to address environmental sustainability concerns.

At the same time, technological advances are transforming B2B marketing and sales strategies and purchasing journeys from seller-driven processes to buyer-led, institutionalized progressions (Ehret, Johnston, & Ritter, 2024; Heikinheimo, Hautamäki, Julkunen, & Koponen, 2024). Furthermore, buying centers have evolved into broader, interconnected ecosystems that are increasingly complex to navigate (Kalwey, Krafft, Lim, & Mantrala, 2025; Scherer & Biemans, 2025). Notably, a recent Harvard Business Review article reported that only 20 percent of chief procurement officers consider sustainability metrics as primary criteria in sourcing decisions or supplier evaluations, and fewer than 10 percent incorporate sustainability into their category strategies (White, Hardisty, & Habib, 2019). In sum, B2B firms increasingly need to reorganize strategically, both internally and collaboratively, to ensure value creation and to reframe how they articulate the value they create in the market that is increasingly sensitive to environmental challenges.

Sample Topics

This special issue seeks to bring together critical and forward-looking research that examines how B2B firms respond to environmental challenges and, at the same time, create economic and environmental value for their customers and the wider society. We are particularly interested in how the B2B marketing and sales functions can play a central role in not only influencing entire value chains but also consumer behavior through sustainable practices and offerings. We therefore invite submissions that advance theoretical and managerial understanding of environmental transitions in B2B markets. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • B2B marketing and sales management in transitions towards circular economy, regenerative models, net-zero emissions, and increased biodiversity.
  • Interplay between policy and regulation and B2B in environmental challenges.
  • Digital technologies in sustainable B2B marketing: digital platforms, AI, data-driven models, and other tools for circular/sustainable value creation.
  • Understanding customers’ challenges in advancing environmental and economic sustainability, and the implications for selling, business development, and value-chain design and modeling.
  • Value-based and sustainability-oriented selling approaches in circular and regenerative economy.
  • Interorganizational collaboration and organization for loop-closing, resource efficiency, and decarbonization.
  • Servitization for sustainability, for example the reuse and repair of business models, chain organization, sales strategies, and sales models.
  • The role of corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in B2B sustainability transitions.
  • Failure, experimentation, and organizational learning in sustainability-driven transformation.

The topics listed above are intended as illustrative examples. Other topics are welcome, too, but they must address how environmental sustainability challenges B2B to transform.

This special issue will include only full-length papers and welcomes diverse methodological approaches, including qualitative studies, surveys, experiments, modeling, case studies, and meta-analyses. Conceptual papers that offer substantial theoretical advancements to the B2B or industrial marketing literature are also encouraged.

Preparation and submission of paper and review process

Submitted papers must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 8,000 words in length. Copies should be uploaded to Industrial Marketing Management’sby using the dropdown box for the special issue on: Sustainable Transformation. All papers will be handled according to the journal’s guidelines (Kadic-Maglajlic et al., 2023) for guest editing of special issues ofIndustrial Marketing Management.

Authors are advised to refer to theprior to submission. Papers that do not comply with the Guide for Authors or are poorly written or outside the special issue’s scope will be desk rejected. Papers within the scope of the special issue (as described above) and for which there is a reasonable chance of conditional acceptance after no more than two rounds of revisions will enter the double-blind review process.

Important dates

  • Submission opens:1 August 2026
  • Deadline for submission: 1 November 2026

Guest editors

References

Aarikka-Stenroos, L., Chiaroni, D., Kaipainen, J., & Urbinati, A. (2022). Companies’ circular business models enabled by supply chain collaborations: An empirical-based framework, synthesis, and research agenda. Industrial Marketing Management, 105(2022), 322–339.

Berg, H., & Wilts, H. (2019). Digital platforms as market places for the circular economy: Requirements and challenges. Sustainability Management Forum, 27(1), 1–9.

Blackburn, O., Ritala, P., & Keränen, J. (2023). Digital platforms for the circular economy: Exploring meta-organizational orchestration mechanisms.Organization & Environment,36(2), 253–281.

Das, A., & Bocken, N. (2024). Regenerative business strategies: A database and typology to inspire business experimentation towards sustainability.Sustainable Production and Consumption,49, 529–544.

De Ruyter, K., De Jong, A., & Wetzels, M. (2009). Antecedents and consequences of environmental stewardship in boundary-spanning B2B teams.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,37(4), 470–487.

Ehret, M., Johnston, W. J., & Ritter, T. (2024). From buying centers to buying ecosystems: Advancing the B2B research journey. Industrial Marketing Management, 117(2024), A10–A16.

Frank, A. G., Batista, L., Chaudhuri, A., Subramaniam, N., Subramanian, A. M., Dora, M., & Ritala, P. (2025). Circular Economy and Digital Technology‐Enabled Innovation: Advances, Applications and Prospects. R&D Management, 55(2025), 1421–1430.

Gabler, C. B., Landers, V. M., & Itani, O. S. (2023). Sustainability and professional sales: a review and future research agenda.Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,43(4), 336–353.

Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The Circular Economy–A new sustainability paradigm? Journal of Cleaner Production, 143(2017), 757–768.

Hautamäki, P., Burgdorff Jensen, K. & Urbinati, A. (2025). Enabling the sustainability transition in buyer–seller interactions: Strategic insights from sellers and buyers. Cleaner Production Letters, 8(2025), 100100

Hautamäki, P. & Heikinheimo, M. (2025): Fully leveraging AI in B2B sales: Exploring sales managers’ capabilities and organizational knowledge processes. Journal of Business Research, 194(2025), 115396.

Hartley, K., van Santen, R., & Kirchherr, J. (2020). Policies for transitioning towards a circular economy: Expectations from the European Union (EU). Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 155(2019), 104634.

Heikinheimo, M., Hautamäki, P., Julkunen, S., & Koponen, J. (2024). B2B service sales on a digital multi-sided platform: Transformation from value chains to value networks.Industrial Marketing Management,116(2024), 26–39.

Huang, Y., D. L. Surface, and C. Zhang. (2022). Corporate social responsibility and sustainability practices in B2B markets: A review and research agenda. Industrial Marketing Management, 106(2022), 219–239.

Kalwey, T., Krafft, M., Lim, Y., & Mantrala, M. K. (2025). Holistic Selling: An Emerging Paradigm in B2B Markets.Journal of Marketing,89(6), 77–99.

Kapitan, S., A. M. Kennedy, & Berth, N. (2019). Sustainably superior versus greenwasher: A scale measure of B2B sustainability positioning. Industrial Marketing Management, 76(2019), 84–97.

Konietzko, J., Bocken, N., & Hultink, E.J. (2019). Online Platforms and the Circular Economy. In: Bocken, N., Ritala, P., Albareda, & Verburg, R. (eds) (2019), Innovation for Sustainability. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business. In Association with Future Earth, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 435–450.

Mostaghel, R., P. Oghazi, and A. Lisboa. 2023. The transformative impact of the circular economy on marketing theory.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 195(2023), 122780.

Mullick, S., Raassens, N., Haans, H., & Nijssen, E. J. (2021). Reducing food waste through digital platforms: A quantification of cross-side network effects. Industrial Marketing Management, 93(2020), 533–544.

Ranta, V., L. Aarikka-Stenroos, L., Ritala, P., & Mäkinen, S. J. (2018a). Exploring institutional drivers and barriers of the circular economy: A cross-regional comparison of China, the US, and Europe. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 135(2018), 70–82.

Ranta, V., Aarikka-Stenroos, L., & Mäkinen, S. J. (2018b). Creating value in the circular economy: A structured multiple-case analysis of business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 201(2018), 988–1000.

Ranta, V., Keränen, J. & Aarikka-Stenroos, L. (2020). How B2B suppliers articulate customer value propositions in the circular economy: Four innovation-driven value creation logics”. Industrial Marketing Management, 87(2020), 291–305.

Ritala, P. (2024). Grand challenges and platform ecosystems: Scaling solutions for wicked ecological and societal problems.Journal of Product Innovation Management,41(2), 168–183.

Sairanen, M., & Aarikka-Stenroos, L. (2024). Low-carbon business models: Review and typology. Industrial Marketing Management, 123(2024), 222–250.

Sairanen, M., Aarikka-Stenroos, L., & Kaipainen, J. (2024). Customer-perceived value in the circular economy: A multidimensional framework.Industrial Marketing Management,117(2024), 321–343.

Salonen, K., Ritala, P., & Bocken, N. (2025). Emerging regenerative business paradigm: narrative review, synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Circular Economy, 3(1), 1–28.

Scherer, J., & Biemans, W. G. (2025). Unite and conquer–End-to-end value creation through intra-organizational purchasing-sales integration.Industrial Marketing Management,126, 236–250.

Sharma, A., Borah, S. B., Haque, T. & Adhikary, A. (2025). Engaging customers and suppliers for environmental sustainability: Investigating the drivers and the effects on firm performance. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 53(2), 341–366.

Thakuri, P. K., Alkki, L., & Aarikka‐Stenroos, L. (2025). Digital technologies enabling component reuse in circular value chains: Using digital twin, internet of things and robots in construction and manufacturing sectors. R&D Management, 55(4), 1161–1216.

White, K., Hardisty, D. J., & Habib, R. (2019). The elusive green consumer.Harvard Business Review,11(1), 124–133.

World Economic Forum (2025). Unlocking green growth: Sustainability as a key driver of corporate innovation. World Economic Forum. Accessed March 5, 2025. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/unlocking-sustainability-green-growth-innovative-strategies/