Thought Leadership in the Business to Business Environment: A Conceptualization of Thought Leadership

Abstract

Thought leadership is recognized by practitioners as a source of competitive advantage, and while practitioner publications are abundant on the subject, academic research is still extremely scarce. This means that businesses are lacking academically-established concepts to create competitive advantage.
This research intends to conceptualize the phenomenon of thought leadership in the B2B context, so as to understand its underlying construct and determinants. The research is exploratory and conducted via a grounded theory research process.
Thought leadership is composed of three pillar components, identified to be communication, value and trust. These components are dynamic, as they interact with each other and influence each other. These pillar components are, additionally, influenced by other predeterminants. Above this, thought leadership is itself a dynamic phenomenon, as it is non-static and iterative. It both needs to stay in motion, to keep existing, and enhances itself when in motion.
This research paper offers new perspectives on the phenomenon of thought leadership and contributes to filling a current gap in the academic literature, providing direction for further research, aimed at theory development.