Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing

Transformative Technologies and Value Creation in Business-to-Business Marketing

Introduction

Transformative technologies, including Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), Agentic AI, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins, the metaverse, and predictive analytics are fundamentally reshaping business-to-business (B2B) marketing (Bag et al., 2021, 2023). These technologies redefine how firms co-create value, govern relationships, and adapt to disruptive market environments (Rahman et al., 2023; Shashi et al., 2025). However, this rapid technological evolution risks outpacing our theoretical understanding, leaving scholars and practitioners with outdated frameworks ill-equipped to explain emergent phenomena (Huo et al., 2024; Shashi et al., 2025).

This special issue addresses this urgency by advancing new, robust theoretical lenses capable of capturing the complexity of technology-infused B2B environments. We seek cohesive and impactful contributions that push the boundaries of B2B marketing theory, demonstrate methodological rigor, and provide actionable insights for firms navigating technological disruption.

Literature Review and Research Gaps

While scholarship on transformative technologies in B2B contexts has expanded considerably, existing research remains fragmented in its theoretical and methodological treatment of technology-infused marketing environments. Prior studies have offered valuable insights into specific applications—such as AI-driven ethical procurement (Bag et al., 2025a), blockchain adoption in SMEs (Bag et al., 2023), and AI-enabled CRM for advancing social sustainability (Rahman et al., 2023). These contributions enrich our understanding of discrete technological domains; however, they primarily focus on adoption drivers and performance outcomes, with insufficient attention to how such technologies fundamentally reshape core constructs including trust, relationship governance, and value co-creation. Similarly, even where conceptual frameworks have been advanced (Bag et al., 2021), the broader longitudinal and ecosystem-wide transformations introduced by Generative AI, Agentic AI, blockchain, digital twins, metaverse platforms, and digital ecosystems remain undertheorized.

Complementary research streams have examined socio-environmental and ethical considerations, such as the influence of climate change policies on buyer–supplier relationships (Bag et al., 2025b) and the role of ethics training in partnership quality (Bag et al., 2022). While these studies highlight important non-technological drivers of B2B dynamics, significant opportunities remain to integrate these perspectives with the distinctive forms of digital trust, algorithmic governance, and relational transformation introduced by emerging technologies. Parallel work on value-based selling (Liu et al., 2023) and early-stage value co-creation in high-tech supply chains (Park and Lee, 2015) has advanced theoretical understanding of interactional processes, yet the disruptive potential of autonomous systems and machine agency remains inadequately theorized.

In terms of empirical scope, recent contributions illustrate how small firms and supply chains utilize digital platforms and large language models (Huo et al., 2024; Srivastava et al., 2024). While these studies deepen knowledge of digital empowerment, their contextual focus limits generalizability across industries, and their framing has yet to fully incorporate implications for resilience and anti-fragility in B2B ecosystems. Similarly, prior research on value proposition shifts (Nussipova, 2022) and ICT-enabled leadership (Camarero et al., 2015) has illuminated critical pathways of technological influence, though these studies predate or only partially engage with more recent developments such as blockchain, predictive analytics, and generative AI.

Reviews and foresight contributions (Shashi et al., 2025; Kumar, 2018) have provided important taxonomies and future-oriented agendas, but opportunities remain to empirically substantiate these trajectories and to extend them through deeper engagement with socio-technical concerns including surveillance, algorithmic bias, and technological colonialism. Methodological innovations in natural language processing and big data analytics (Srivastava et al., 2024; Shrivastav et al., 2025) demonstrate the potential of computational techniques, yet substantial opportunities exist to theorize how these methods can uncover new mechanisms of value creation, governance, and interfirm adaptation in B2B contexts.

Finally, the literature has predominantly emerged from Western perspectives, with limited comparative or cross-cultural examinations of how technological adoption unfolds across diverse institutional and cultural environments. While studies on customer experience (Sharma et al., 2001) and digital communication (Høgevold et al., 2025; Bolton et al., 2018) highlight the importance of digital interaction, their implications for cross-cultural adaptation and long-term technology trajectories in B2B remain underexplored.

Collectively, these research streams highlight the need for a more integrated, methodologically innovative, and critically engaged body of knowledge that can advance theoretical, empirical, and cross-disciplinary understanding of how transformative technologies redefine value, governance, and resilience in B2B markets.

Objectives of the Special Issue

We invite contributions that:

• Extend or challenge core B2B marketing theories (e.g., value co-creation, relationship governance, trust, transaction cost economics) through the lens of transformative technologies. We seek manuscripts that develop novel theoretical frameworks or significantly extend existing ones by incorporating constructs such as algorithmic trust, machine agency, or digital ecosystem resilience into models of value co-creation or relationship governance.
• Provide methodologically rigorous studies, whether quantitative (e.g., advanced validation techniques, effect size reporting), qualitative (e.g., theoretical saturation, researcher reflexivity), or hybrid approaches (e.g., AI-driven analytics combined with ethnography). We encourage not only rigor but also methodological innovation, including:
  • Leveraging big data and AI-driven analytics (e.g., NLP, computer vision, large language models) to study B2B phenomena at scale
  • Employing multi-method and hybrid designs that combine computational techniques with deep qualitative inquiry
  • Implementing rigorous experimental or quasi-experimental designs to establish causality in technology adoption and impact studies
• Illuminate how transformative technologies not only enhance efficiency but also destabilize traditional B2B value chains, enabling new forms of resilience, adaptability, and collaboration.
• Integrate cross-disciplinary perspectives, including ethical, critical, sociological, and philosophical lenses, to interrogate the societal, organizational, and relational consequences of technological adoption.
• Offer comparative insights across regions, industries, cultural contexts, and institutional environments.
• Trace long-term adoption trajectories and transformations through longitudinal research designs.

Illustrative Themes of Interest

We welcome submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:

Theme 1: Theoretical Reimagination

How do transformative technologies necessitate reconceptualization of foundational B2B constructs? Examples include:

• AI-driven governance and machine agency in relationship management
• Algorithmic trust and its implications for buyer-supplier dynamics
• Digital ecosystem resilience and anti-fragility in value networks
• Blockchain-enabled transparency and its impact on transaction cost economics
• The role of digital twins and metaverse platforms in value co-creation

Theme 2: Methodological Innovation

What novel methods can advance B2B marketing research in technological contexts? Examples include:

• Combining AI-driven analytics with ethnography or case studies
• Longitudinal tracing of technology adoption trajectories
• Large-scale validation of new measurement scales for digital constructs
• Computational social science approaches to studying B2B networks
• Mixed-methods designs integrating qualitative depth with quantitative breadth

Theme 3: Ethics, Responsibility, and Critical Perspectives

What are the ethical and societal implications of technological transformation in B2B contexts? Examples include:

• Techno-ethical risks in AI-mediated B2B relationships
• Technological colonialism and power asymmetries in global supply chains
• Algorithmic bias and fairness in procurement and partner selection
• Surveillance capitalism and data governance in B2B ecosystems
• The dark side of digital transformation: unintended consequences

Theme 4: Cross-Cultural and Ecosystem Dynamics

How do contextual factors shape technology-driven value creation? Examples include:

• Regional and cultural variations in technology adoption patterns
• Institutional environments and their influence on digital transformation
• "Anti-fragile" ecosystems and circular economy models
• Cross-border digital collaboration and governance challenges
• Industry-specific dynamics of technological disruption

(references available on request)