Business Markets and Industrial Relations

Most business transactions take place between companies and customers that are businesses and other organisations, and not between companies and individual consumers or families. The scope of this course is to explore the workings of industrial or business markets where customers are businesses and other organisations, and what peculiarities there are when it comes to marketing. The course adopts a relational perspective (i.e. a perspective focusing on organizational interdependencies), arguing that in industrial markets the construction of relations with customers and other stakeholders is primordial to a company’s success. A relational perspective on industrial markets also allows unveiling the imbrication among competition, collaboration, and networks, as well as the mechanisms underlying value in b2b contexts (e.g. the role of competences and solutions beyond industrial products and services).

This course introduces the core concepts of marketing in B2B markets. Upon completion of the course students should be able to: 1) Prove understanding of the basic principles of B2B marketing; 2) Show understanding of the broad concepts of working with and marketing to business customers; 3) Illustrate the use of the marketing mix elements in a B2B corporate strategy; and 4) Demonstrate critical thinking through the completion of the capstone project.

This Course aims to: 

1. outline and discuss analytical frameworks useful for understanding the dynamics of business markets; 
2. develop the capabilities of the participant to understand B2B marketing issues and effectively perform the marketing task in business markets 

In presenza

The principal method of instruction is lectures with group assignments and in-class cases to further the students’ understanding of the dynamics of marketing in the business-to-business context. Articles and cases (mandatory). Selected (mandatory) readings and cases will be provided on iCorsi, while the recommended book (which is optional) is the following: Brennan, R. and Canning, L. and McDowell, R. (2020). Business-to-Business Marketing. (5th ed). Sage. 

*Please note that any proven misbehavior (e.g., free riding) in the group work will be penalized with differentiated grades.