Transformations  in
Business & Economics

Sales-marketing interfaces within business firms: Transitions and evolution
Wim Biemans, Maja Makovec Brencic, Avinash Malshe

ABSTRACT. In these turbulent economic times sales-marketing interfaces in business firms are in the state of flux. Sales-marketing interface researchers have till date characterized marketing within business firms in terms of a marketing department rather than a marketing function thereby ignoring B2B firms with no functional separation. This has limited our understanding of how such firms develop their marketing departments from where none exists and begin to formalize marketing processes. Our research suggests that many business firms do not have a formal marketing department as they start out but they do marketing. We also find that the sales-marketing interfaces in business firms evolve. Our paper explicates the internal and external triggers behind these transitions, the process of how such firms move toward a more sophisticated marketing, and the advantages and disadvantages of such transitions. The research has been done in three economically and culturally differing countries: Slovenia, The Netherlands and USA.

KEYWORDS: transition, marketing-sales interface, cross-cultural research.

JEL classification: M31.