INTRODUCTION Special Section on International Industrial (Business-to-Business) Marketing Wesley J. Johnston GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY Robert E. Spekman UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ELSEVIER G lobal business relationships are changing the way in- dustrial marketing is being conducted around the world. More and more organizations are realizing- from both a buying and selling perspective- that they are oper- ating in a global economy. Increasing economic interdependence among industrialized countries, the growing needs of develop- ing countries, and the disintegration of barriers to the flow of information, money, and technology across borders are creat- ing increasing pressure toward global market integration. In- dustrial marketers are reevaluating their assumptions, redefin- ing their strategies, and searching for methods to increase value added to products and services through their customers' eyes. Cooperation, strategic alliances, and relationship management have become the paradigms that characterize global business in the 1990s. Yet, very little research has been conducted on international industrial marketing, and many of the traditional approaches to industrial marketing, developed in the context of a single country, are inadequate, both academically and prac- tically. Although the International Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group has been examining international industrial mar- keting for a decade, many of their findings do not translate into actionable implications outside of the European context. The real need is for a conscious effort aimed at developing a body of knowledge that will provide action-oriented strategies for bet- ter industrial marketing on a global basis. With this special sec- tion, the Journal o/Business Research provides an important step in that direction. Many first-rate empirical and conceptual arti- cles were submitted, of which only a few can be presented here. The seven articles included in this special section represent the type of work that must be done concerning the development of a cogent body of knowledge on international industrial mar- keting. In general, the goal is to provide a new and practically useful analysis of international marketing interactions. The fo- cus of these articles is on the management of supplier-customer relationships, sometimes from a buying perspective and some- times from the selling side. A fundamental assumption contained in each article is that a better understanding of buyer-seller rela- tionships will produce important findings for industrial mar- Address correspondence to Wesley J. Johnston, Georgia State University, Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30303-3083. Journal of Business Research 32, 19-20 (1995) © 1995 Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 keters looking for improved ways to conduct international busi- ness and increase global competitiveness. Two of the seven articles examine the buyers' side of the international marketing relationship. Thorelli and Glowacka re- port on factors impacting on purchasing professionals' deci- sions to source internationally. In their case, they examine U.S. buyers in situations where individual buyers dominate, such as rebuys and associated supplier selection. Their results re- veal country stereotyping in terms of industrialized versus de- veloping countries, reliance on personal experience, and com- pliance with top management's perceived interests. In addition, their findings also suggest the importance of foreign suppliers' establishing a physical presence in the U.S. either through ware- houses or sales offices. Chang and Kim also examine purchas- ing managers, but in their case the managers are from a newly industrialized country (NIC). The results compare products from the U.S., Germany, and Japan and show that the strong ratings for Japanese industrial products are based not only on stronger overall quality, but also on their higher orientation to- ward intangible factors such as communication, technical as- sistance, and reliability. They suggest, in order to improve com- petitiveness, foreign suppliers to NICs must compete on dual fronts: the product-related dimension as well as the more "service-related" one. Market segmentation and technology trans- fer strategies can also help. Two other articles in this special section examine the mar- keting side of the relationship. Deng and Wortzel provide guide- lines for Asian exporters, whereas Axinn, Savitt, Sinkula, and Thach study small industrial exporters in the U.S. Deng and Wortzel help exporters in Asian developing countries to better understand American resellers' buying behavior, especially in the areas of supplier selection criteria. They recommend that Asian exporters concentrate on price and product quality fac- tors. Although these two criteria are the minimum for market entry, they are not sufficient to attract or hold customers. Other factors such as reliable shipping, on-time delivery, and experi- ence in manufacturing are often the variables that make a differ- ence when suppliers all offer similar prices and product quality levels. Axinn, Savitt, Sinkula, and Thach examine the relation- ship of export intentions with a number of other organizational and behavioral variables for small U.S. exporters. Their most pervasive finding is the effect of learning on firm behavior and ISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00005-Y