Business-to-business marketing and globalization: Two of a kind

Purpose The aim of the “viewpoint” part of this paper is to enhance discussion on the challenges global business-to-business (B2B) marketing is facing. More specifically, academics are stimulated to study the impact of these trends on the internationalization of B2B companies. Managers are urged to engage in open strategy conversations on the consequent opportunities and threats for their global market strategy. Further, this paper acts as a “Guest editorial” for a special issue on B2B and international business. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature screening of key contributions highlighting B2B marketing trends on the one hand and theoretical underpinnings of IB on the other. Starting from a practitioner perspective, the paper gradually introduces a discussion on the potential theoretical implications and on cross-fertilization possibilities when merging recent developments in B2B with theory and concepts from international business. Findings B2B and IB go hand in hand and the actual challenges that business marketers encounter require critical revisions of core concepts and foundations of internationalization theories. Research limitations/implications The paper identifies trends based on secondary data. They are exemplary and not exhaustive. Future research will have to empirically “test” these assertions. Practical implications As a result of this paper, practitioners might question their internationalization or globalization approach. Originality/value The value of the first part of the paper lies in the intended stimulus of academic and practitioner discussion. The second part draws attention on the special issue papers and their main messages. © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited