An impact-oriented implementation approach in business marketing research: Introduction to the Special Issue on “Implementing Strategies and Theories of B2B Marketing and Sales Management”

There are serious concerns about the theory–practice gap in the research on business marketing. One of the key aspects is the relevance and implementability of the results. The overarching objective of this special issue of “From Strategy Frameworks to Value-in-use: Implementing Strategies and Theories of B2B Marketing and Sales Management” is to enhance understanding of managerial implementation. We have four goals in this introductory article. First, we discuss implementation as a concept, given the varying views and the considerable ambiguity. Second, we identify and analyze aspects that influence the potential for carrying out managerially relevant research and challenge the implementation process. As a result we propose an implementation framework for use in our third task: to introduce the articles in this special issue. We conclude by presenting an agenda for enhancing the managerial relevance of future business-marketing research.