The Contemporary Face of Word-of-mouth in B2B Contexts: New Technologies, Practices and Challenges

In this special issue of Industrial Marketing Management, six empirical research articles advance our understanding of how industrial marketers can achieve, curate and/or enhance positive word of mouth (WOM) in the modern era. This compilation is the first of its kind to focus on making a clear distinction between the B2B and B2C contexts, endorsing the need for separated perspectives. Whilst only an early step, the research in this special issue contributes to the extant literature by showing that: (i) buyer and supplier relationships can flourish through social media in the public domain, (ii) there is an untapped potential for user-generated content (UGC) in B2B contexts, (iii) for industrial marketers, the term “influential” marketing is more fitting than “influencer” marketing, and (iv) to generate more WOM, the way firms present content in social media must differ in the B2B versus the B2C context. In this editorial, we also outline future steps for this continued enlightenment.