Fundamentals Of Business-to-business Marketing: Mastering Business Markets

Springer Texts in Business and Economics Michael Kleinaltenkamp Wulff Plinke Ian Wilkinson Ingmar Geiger Editors Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Marketing Mastering Business Markets Springer Texts in Business and Economics More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10099 Michael Kleinaltenkamp • Wulff Plinke • Ian Wilkinson • Ingmar Geiger Editors Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Marketing Mastering Business Markets Editors Michael Kleinaltenkamp Freie Universita¨t Berlin Berlin Germany Ian Wilkinson The University of Sydney Sydney New South Wales Australia Wulff Plinke European School of Management and Technology Berlin Germany Ingmar Geiger Freie Universita¨t Berlin Berlin Germany ISSN 2192-4333 ISSN 2192-4341 (electronic) Springer Texts in Business and Economics ISBN 978-3-319-12462-9 ISBN 978-3-319-12463-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12463-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932655 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface The creation of economic value in business-to-business (B2B) markets far surpasses value creation in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. In Germany, the largest European economy, the ratio is about three to one. Interestingly, this is not reflected in balance of attention mainstream marketing scholars and professionals have given to B2B marketing. This book is the first in a four volume series Mastering Business Markets, which are based on corresponding German language books. This volume, “Fundamentals of Business-to-Business-Marketing,” focuses on key market processes and the basic components of B2B marketing, including customer buying behavior and business market research. The next three volumes focus on different aspects of the development and implementation of business marketing strategies: Volume 2 deals with “Developing Marketing Programs for Business Markets”; Volume 3, which has already been published, is on “Business Relationship Management and Marketing”; and Volume 4 is on “Business Proje