Constructing identities in Indian networks: Discourses of marketing management in inter-organizational relationships

Industrial Marketing Management 41 (2012) 402–412

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Industrial Marketing Management

Constructing identities in Indian networks: Discourses of marketing management in inter-organizational relationships Nick Ellis a,⁎, Michel Rod b, Tim Beal c, Val Lindsay c a b c

School of Management, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1S 5B6 School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 14 February 2010 Received in revised form 13 September 2010 Accepted 24 October 2010 Available online 8 July 2011 Keywords: Identities in networks Inter-organizational relationships India Discourse analysis

a b s t r a c t This paper explores business-to-business (B2B) marketing values and knowledge systems in India and their impact on identity construction in industrial networks. Our study moves methodological approaches into more interpretive territory by acknowledging the processes of social construction in networks as articulated by the IMP Group. We bring an interdisciplinary perspective to B2B marketing studies by recognizing cultural influences on managers' constructions of Indian modernity and explore what these linguistic moves may mean for the management of buyer–seller relationships. We highlight the dexterity with which individual actors discursively position themselves, their (and other) firms and countries by drawing upon a range of interpretive repertoires in their accounts of relationship management. Our chief contribution is to conceptually synthesize some of the discursive forces at work in identity processes within Indian business networks and to empirically illustrate the inherent tensions within managers' talk as they construct individual, organizational and national identities. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction This paper offers a fresh approach to the study of identities in networks (Huemer, Håkansson, & Prenkert, 2009) and business-tobusiness (B2B) marketing values and knowledge systems (Welch & Wilkinson, 2002) in post-colonial contexts. Specifically, we explore Indian marketing management by taking a discursive view of interorganizational relationships (Lowe, Ellis, & Purchase, 2008) and plot the impact of the meaning systems represented in managerial discourse on identity construction in industrial networks. Our paper moves methodological approaches in industrial network studies into more interpretive territory (Hausman & Haytko, 2003; Wilson & Woodside, 1999). We bring an interdisciplinary perspective to B2B marketing by focusing on identity processes in networks, in particular social constructions of Indian modernity, and explore what these constructions may mean for the management of buyer–seller relationships (Bagozzi, 1995). In addressing the notion of identity, we agree with the views expressed in a recent special issue of this journal by Brown, Dacin, and Pitt (2010, p. 709) who argue that “it is time for B2B marketing scholars to address the broader issues related to corporate associations, image, reputation, identity and brand”. While this special issue makes a valuable contribution, in this paper we wish to explore

⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Ellis). 0019-8501/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.06.014

identity (or more accurately, identities) in industrial networks from a perspective that is less focused on corporate branding and image. Moreover, our methodological approach embraces calls for B2B scholars not to view science as merely “synonymous with quantification” (Malhotra & Uslay, 2009, p. 29) and to bring to the B2B context studies that draw on a broader organizational and social science spectrum (Spekman, 2004). Our study also reflects calls for more empirical research to be undertaken to improve our understanding of contemporary marketing practices, especially in large emerging market economies such as India and Brazil (Dadzie, Johnston, & Pels, 2008; DeBerry-Spence, 2008). While business relationships in certain cultures like China and Russia (Jansson, Johanson, & Ramström, 2007) and Japan (Lohtia, Bello, & Porter, 2009) have been studied quite extensively in recent years, marketing management in India remains relatively underexplored in the B2B literature, with only Iyer (1999) and Sarin (1982) focusing on inter-firm trading and purchasing in India. It is frustrating to find that much of the existing management literature on Indian business tends to be based on replication studies, which typically attempt to apply existing theories to the Indian context (Monga, 2005; Singh, 2008). While these studies provide useful overviews, we believe that their predominantly deductive, survey-based methodologies are in need of augmentation with inductive, interpretive research. Conceptually and methodologically, we locate our approach within the ideographic studies of certain industrial network scholars. The significance of processes of social construction in relationship

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management is widely acknowledged within the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group. IMP scholars such as Axelsson and Easton (1992) and Johanson and Mattsson (1994) are recognized as making major contributions to our understanding of industrial networks and have played a key role in the development of the relationship marketing paradigm in business markets (Ford & Håkansson, 2006). For example, the concept of network identity tries to capture the perceived attractiveness of a firm as an exchange partner (Hald, Cordón, & Vollmann, 2009). But why is this concept so significant to our study? 2. Identity in networks Identity is important to interaction in industrial networks. According to Gadde and Håkansson (2001, p. 103), “It sets the conditions for which actors are perceived valuable counterparts. It also impacts both on the interpretation of the behavior of others and the principles for the company's own behavior”. For Gadde and Håkansson (2001, p. 101), “the identity of a company is partly determined by its belonging to a larger entity… (or) how an individual actor connects to other actors”. They go on to add, however, “identity also reveals the specialities of an actor” through the communication of internal attributes. So, while we recognize that a key part of a strategic network identity or ‘position’ is determined from an ‘outside’ perspective (Gadde, Huemer, & Håkansson, 2003, p. 362), in this study we are working from the concurrent premise that managers (and, arguably, firms) are continually attempting to socially construct their own position or identity (Ellis & Ybema, 2010). The process of ‘inside’ (self) identity construction is an element of industrial network structuring that merits greater investigation, especially at the level of individual managers' attempts to influence the construction process. The combination of inside and outside influences on identities of network actors is also highlighted by Huemer et al. (2009, p.70) who suggest that identities “are constructed through an interplay of internal features and successful control, and the internal features of others and their successful influence; and new demands created either by new positions in old networks or entering in to entirely ‘new’ networks”. These authors coin the term ‘identities in networks' to capture the combination of external and internal factors at play in the development of a particular firm's “position and identity” (p. 56). We adopt Huemer et al.'s helpful notion of identities in networks in this paper. However, our study differs from theirs in two main ways: (i) our focus on the nature of the identity work being carried out by a variety of actors representing different organizations, as opposed to a single focal firm, and (ii) our exploration of the meanings drawn upon by these actors in their discursive positioning of both their ‘selves’ and of network ‘others’. Thus, in addition to attempting to control their own identity development, our participants are also expressing an outside view in their discursive construction of a host of other network actors. As Ellis and Ybema (2010, p. 279) point out, managers in inter-organizational relationships “discursively mark self/other boundaries that varyingly position themselves, and their colleagues, competitors, customers and suppliers.” By looking closely at managers' language use in legitimizing their positions, our paper adds to the understanding of such processes of identity construction in industrial networks. Moreover, by undertaking our study in a context that is underexplored in B2B research, i.e. India, we add a further layer of complexity to the notion of identities in networks since we must engage with the tensions between the discourses that characterize ‘Western’ and ‘traditional’ cultures, discourses that are likely to have an important influence on the “identity process” (Huemer et al., 2009, p.68). The relationship between identity and culture is important to our approach. Since identity “reflects how a social entity make sense of itself in relation to the cultures it is a part of, it represents the essential linkage between

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observable manifestations of culture and the underlying meanings” (Fiol, Hatch, & Golden-Biddle, 1998, p. 58). This link may enable researchers to gain better access to the meaning systems within a particular context by focusing on language and the behaviors that indicate how people define themselves in relation to cultures. In line with a crucial IMP raison d'être, we wish to “try and understand the patterns of meanings and the beliefs which guide managers in their interactions with others in the increasingly complex network in which they operate” (Turnbull, Ford, & Cunningham, 1996, p. 59). A discursive approach should enable B2B researchers to consider such meanings via what Easton and Araujo (1993, p. 69–70) describe as the language which “describes the ways in which actors in networks describe their own views of networks.” In other words, “one has to understand pragmatics; to experience the speech community in action”. In this way, it is possible to develop an understanding of how identities are constructed by examining interaction processes, including management talk. The speech community we wish to explore is that of Indian managers with responsibility for B2B relationships. In doing so, we share Guillet de Monthoux's (1975, p. 35) desire to “illustrate, in their own words, how industrial marketing managers perceive the job of marketing”. To achieve this aim, having introduced the concept of identities in networks, the first half of the paper goes on to review the literature on the influence of culture and expert systems on the discourses of management knowledge circulating within India. In the second half we outline our empirical study of Indian marketing values and knowledge systems, presenting an extensive set of managerial accounts. Our analysis will show how managerial talk draws upon a series of different ‘interpretive repertoires’ to construct Indian marketing managers as accomplished practitioners skilled in juggling a number of complementary, and sometimes competing, discourses, discourses that also help to construct organizational and national identities. We then discuss our contribution to the theory of identities in networks in terms of the managerial implications of our findings, before concluding with some reflections on the limitations of our study. 3. Theorizing management values in India: Discourse, culture and expert systems The Indian business context has developed significantly in the two decades since economic liberalization in 1991. A significant factor in this development is India's much-respected educational system, graduating a large number of professional scientists and engineers annually, thus contributing to the computer industry's success. The high tech sector has allowed the integration of the Indian economy with contemporary value chains that have grown into global production networks (Murphy, 2008). Aggarwal (2009, p. 19) argues, however, that “Indian commercial development has been much less than perfect”. There has tended to be a dominance of group-affiliated companies as firms have found it difficult to externalize efficient markets for various key corporate inputs, choosing instead to become widely diversified and vertically-integrated. More recently, with increasing deregulation of the economy, major restructuring is occurring among the large conglomerates in India, which requires them to forge business relations with other organizations in the domestic and global market. This can be seen in press reports of the opening up of the retail sector for foreign direct investment, resulting in shifts in relationships between Indian producers and the retail sector (Times of India, 2010a); and the disentangling of crossholdings in group companies (Times of India, 2010b). Such market-driven changes in Indian business practices are not entirely welcome. Kanagasabapathi (2007, p. 584) compares most local Indian businesses with what he calls “the corporate sector” (i.e. the listed companies that constitute less than 1% of the total number of Indian companies) which is subject to the “influence of Western

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theories, practice and even value systems. This sector is highly competitive and to an extent impersonal”. He believes that it is when business managers deal with outsiders, “especially in cosmopolitan surroundings”, that traditional social mechanisms fail to underpin relationships. To make sense of these tensions, Iyer (1999, p. 107) suggests that a focus on identity, kinship and other forms of relationships can help develop marketing theory. He explains that wealth obtained via trading is also crucial for gaining religious credit through donations and participation in rituals. Against this traditional background, Iyer (1999, p. 113) asserts that the larger merchants in urban India “have become increasingly sophisticated, integrating new technology and new marketing concepts more readily into their business” compared to smaller urban and almost all rural merchants who retain what he terms “a traditional way of conducting business”. Understanding how relationships in this diverse market ‘work’ is thus a priority for scholars and managers alike, a priority we address by focusing on discourse, or ‘language in use’. 3.1. Discourse in global business networks Theorizing language use is key to exploring inter-organizational relationships since they involve ‘problems of understanding’, emanating from the fact that participants may be accustomed to different cultures, terminologies and management philosophies (Vlaar, Van den Bosch, & Volberda, 2006). In an attempt to remain sensitive to these potential cultural differences, discourse analysis refuses to take meanings for granted (Musson, Cohen, & Tietze, 2007). Thus, language is viewed as more than merely representational; it is also seen as constructive (or performative). Discourse analysis is helpful to ‘unpack’ the linguistic constructions of network actors and to appreciate how this talk may help to perform market relations. It asks how and why negotiations over meaning are attempted by a reflexively thinking and practicing community (Lowe et al., 2008). A key characteristic of the cultural and social changes of late modernity is that they are shaped by discourses which mold and remold organizational reality and are thus socially constitutive. This is especially pertinent if one accepts the idea that India is a society in which, post economic liberation, many managers aspire to internationalize their organizations (Goshal, Piramal, & Bartlett, 2000). The contributory performative effect of discourse to such management processes can be significant in the ‘post-traditional’ context of modern society (Giddens, 1990). Here, individuals often have to make choices about how to live their lives in areas that hitherto may have been taken for granted, such as how to conduct personal or trading relationships in what is now an apparently global economy. As resources to guide these reflexive processes, people are dependent on ‘expert systems’ upon which they draw to socially construct themselves and others, taking account of pre-existing local discourses. These expert systems, which can be global in reach, are propagated by texts like magazine articles, management ‘guru’ books and other media. Worldwide, it thus appears that people as well as economic institutions are compelled down a path of managerial uniformity. Managers internationally are increasingly socialized as a (high status) group called ‘managers’, thanks to the popularity of expert systems such as US-derived MBA programs. As Westwood (2001, p. 249) asserts: “All conceptualizations of management are perforce refracted through the intellectual lens of Western discourse… Accounts, interpretations, and theories from non-Western contexts failing to participate in the dominant game are condemned to silence or marginality”. This marginalization matters because how ‘the other’ (e.g. another network actor) is discursively positioned can have material consequences. As Phillips, Lawrence, and Hardy (2004, p. 640) explain, “the discursive realm acts as the background against which current actions occur—enabling some actions and constraining others”. This means

that in a context such as India, it is important to acknowledge that residual discourses of colonialism may continue to exert profound cultural and material influences (Westwood & Jack, 2007). For instance, the language used to describe Indian management systems historically has been highly negative, with references made to ‘abuses’, ‘illegal activities’ and ‘unscrupulous’ management, as noted by Westwood (2001). Such comparative discourses have the potential to affect how Western managers make sense of, and engage with, their international others; and indeed, on how non-Western managers make sense of themselves. It is the latter set of social constructions of identity that chiefly interest us. 3.2. Discourses of Indian management knowledge systems Here we focus on the knowledge systems or ‘ideas’ that encompass Indian actors’ perceptions about themselves and others, and their beliefs about how the world functions (Welch & Wilkinson, 2002, p. 29). Varman and Saha (2009) show how the marketing discourse in post-colonial contexts such as India displays a great deal of Western influence, while effectively ‘silencing’ local subaltern stakeholders (Spivak, 1988). In particular, the Indian education system is thought to have been disciplined by Eurocentric prescriptions that followed colonizers’ attempts to govern effectively via Western knowledge systems. The copying of Western business thought was accelerated by the decision of the post-independence Indian government to work with the US in developing management education in a bid to drive modernization (Baber, 2001). As Varman and Saha (2009, p. 813) assert, “the formation of business schools in India was akin to the creation of a thin post-colonial overlay that derived its legitimization from the links with the West”. This move was accompanied by a separation of management education from the rest of the local education system, thereby minimizing traces of indigenous learning. Thus the scope of much management education in India remains basically mimetic of the Western model. Iyer (1999, p. 114) believes, however, that most Indian managers find it hard to “translate Western principles [in]to sound Indian practices”. The struggle to internalize both Indian and Western values has produced an interesting dualism in Indian management values (Virmani, 1997), one that may have resulted from managers having a childhood spent in a Indian cultural context and subsequent training in Western management techniques, as well as exposure to the regulatory reformations that have occurred since 1991. Given this background, it is not surprising to observe that both modern and traditional cultural values manifest themselves in Indian managers' talk. Fusilier and Durlabhji (2001, p. 223) illustrate how, while Indian managers still adhere to values such as ‘interconnectedness’ and ‘a sense of duty’, they also espouse “values in direct opposition to the traditional culture”. A complex picture of managerial beliefs emerges. These authors explain that interconnectedness can be equated with a traditional collectivist orientation, shown by managers claiming to value ‘working together’. This espousal also entails a nonattachment to power. Such values are not consistently expressed in interviews conducted by Fusilier and Durlabhji (2001), who note that managers often adopt a ‘Western culture’ in their individualistic search for ever-increasing prosperity and status. Indian interviewees studied by Zhu, Bhat, and Nel (2005) also exhibit a mixture of modern and traditional management beliefs. Many mention the ideas of familiarity and the ‘right connections’ as ways of furthering one's business interests as part of relationship building. They also, however, stress the importance of ‘professionalism’, thereby suggesting a balancing act for Indian managers between working with aspects of the old, closed economy and a more contemporary open and competitive business environment. Many executives taking a traditional view state that levels of social hierarchy have to be respected when building relationships and that

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long-term relationships are seen as part of social obligations. In contrast, senior executives working for MNCs in India argue that a direct communication style is an important element of relationship dynamics, rather than the traditional, indirect style associated with many Indian family-run businesses (Zhu et al., 2005). Pearson and Chatterjee (2001, p. 368) also claim that traditional convictions vie with Western cultural values in guiding Indian business sensibilities. They conclude that “in a relatively short time, the fundamental attributes of a competitive market economy have subjugated societal qualities reinforced over hundreds of years” in India. In order to examine whether such ‘subjugation’ is indeed the case in the context of managing B2B marketing relationships, and to gage how these ideas impact upon identities in networks, we have undertaken an empirical study underpinned by a discursive perspective. 4. Methodology Adopting the methodological approach to business networks outlined by Ellis and Hopkinson (2010), we use the concept of the ‘interpretive repertoire’ to facilitate the study of discursive agency and constraint on the part of network participants. Repertoires are recurrently used systems of terms viewed as building blocks that speakers use strategically in explaining, justifying, excusing, etc. (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). They effectively function as ‘scripts’ (Welch & Wilkinson, 2002) that can facilitate and/or restrict actors' sense-making and identity construction. Repertoires can be identified through the examination of certain words, metaphors, figures of speech and grammar. They enable evaluative micro discursive constructions about the behaviors of the self and others. These constructions are facilitated by drawing upon a variety of normative macro discourses, such as ‘relationship marketing’, that demark what an actor ‘should’ do within the context of an inter-organizational relationship. Discursive data was collected as part of an on-going study investigating cross-cultural relationships in Asia undertaken by researchers in New Zealand, with the Indian component taking place in 2006. This took the form of transcripts from semi-structured interviews with a variety of managerial participants involved in trade between the two countries. All the participants were Indian, with interviews taking place in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. We spoke to individuals representing organizations working in the lumber, wool, horticulture, dairy, engineering, IT, tourism and education industries. The interviews, which were conducted in English, lasted between 45 and 90 min, and were recorded on audio and video media. Managers were asked open questions concerning their roles and the organizations they represented. These included the initial scene-setting: ‘Tell us about the sector(s) in which your organization operates’, and went on to address more specific issues like, ‘What products or services does your organization provide’ and ‘What role(s) do you perform’; as well as, ‘How would you describe the relationships between your organization and its customers/suppliers?’. Participants included local CEOs, directors, general and marketing managers, as well as Indian representatives of stakeholder organizations such as trade commissions and the New Zealand Consul. This last group was also business owners in their own right, and proved especially relevant to our study since they could provide a holistic view of Indian relationship management practices garnered from the firms they had assisted over the years, as well as draw upon their personal experiences. Thus, although our sample was conveniencebased, snowballing out as it did from trading partners in New Zealand, it allowed us to interact with representatives from a wide range of Indian industries and regions. In total, accounts from 23 Indian participants are analyzed—for details of participants, please see Table 1. Where organizations are numbered in the right-hand column, this indicates a series of different firms or institutions within the same sector; thus we interviewed

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Table 1 Indian participant details. Participant

Role

Nature of organization

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18 P19 P20 P21 P22 P23

Director Export Manager Director Chief Executive Head, Dairy Business Technical Manager Group Chairman Chief Executive Director Gen. Mgr., Strategic Planning Deputy Gen. Mgr., Marketing Managing Director Director General Manager, India Manager, India Sales and Marketing Manager Director Director Director Honorary Advisor Trade Development Manager Honorary Consul Honorary Consul

Timber imports (1) Timber imports (co-operative) Timber imports (2) Wool imports Food (India/NZ joint venture) Food (India/NZ joint venture) Horticulture imports/exports Horticulture imports/exports Wine imports Engineering/IT (India/NZ JV) Engineering/IT (India/NZ JV) IT systems integration Ticket systems/IT (India/NZ JV) Healthcare imports NZ Tourism NZ Travel/tourism Education (agent) (1) Education (agent) (2) Education (agent) (3) Trade foundation (general) Trade and enterprise (general) NZ Consulate (general) (1) NZ Consulate (general) (2)

NZ = New Zealand.

managers from three different education agents, from two different timber importers and a timber co-operative, and from consulates based in Mumbai and Chennai. To manage the interview data, the preliminary phase of our analysis involved a content analytic approach where B2B-related topics such as ‘markets’ or ‘partnerships’ were identified in accounts, and their pattern of occurrence throughout the corpus of transcripts noted. The next task was to identify interpretive repertoires that were employed within the relevant portions of the interviews. We sought to develop an understanding of how repertoires were used by identifying the various discursive forms of any one repertoire and exploring who used such forms, when and with reference to what. These steps were facilitated by NVivo software which allowed for a high degree of transparency and levels of agreement as each researcher in turn coded the data. Consistent coding of text to repertoire ‘nodes’ was guided by a protocol based, in part, on the management literature, but also on the emic responses of managers (cf. Ellis & Hopkinson, 2010). In this way, we hope to have captured some of the subjective network perceptions of our participants (Zhu et al., 2005). We have endeavored to ensure that our analytical claims can be depended upon because they are derived from accountable procedures that are systematic. They are credible because they are logical and evidence based. Demonstrating this involves showing how the interpretations of individual segments of talk, as well as overall claims, are grounded in the data (Wood & Kroger, 2000). 5. Findings and analysis Several sets of linguistic resources were of significance to Indian managers. We have organized these into six interpretive repertoires (summarized in Table 2), half of which are self-contained (i.e. networks, past and present practices, and managerial expertise), and half (i.e. globalization, Indian management systems, and relationship management) comprise ‘parents’ for several closely-related ‘child’ repertoires. Although the labels for each repertoire are our own, the analysis was driven by the discourse of our participants as we moved from ‘in vivo’ talk, through first order themes, onto second order themes which became increasingly induced by us as researchers in order to offer suggestions regarding the functioning of each overarching repertoire (Nag, Corely, & Gioia, 2007, p. 828). The repertoires

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Table 2 Summary of interpretive repertoires. Exemplar segment of talk (‘in vivo’)

First order theme (‘child’ repertoire)

Second order theme (‘parent’ repertoire)

Discursive construction

“… it's about filling the structural holes…” (P11)

Networks

1. Networks

“…business principles are pretty much the same all across the world” (P13) “Globalization has tended to find a … lower level all the time. I don't believe in that …” (P2) “.... now we are interacting with the world things are changing.” (P1) “The Delhi distributor is totally different from a Chennai distributor.” (P14) “… each company has a board, supported by a full team of professional managers.” (P20) “… but small firms, small entrepreneurs,… their business affairs could be quite different.” (P23) “We are not so far behind China.” (P12)

a. Accepting globalization

2. Globalization

b. Questioning globalization

2. Globalization

Past and present management practices a. Local nuances

3. Past and present management practices 4. Indian Management systems

b. Professionalism

4. Indian Management systems

c. Big versus small

4. Indian Management systems

d. India versus China

4. Indian Management systems

a. Nature of exchange

5. Relationship management

b. Commitment

5. Relationship management

c. Trust

5. Relationship management

d. Mutuality

5. Relationship management

e. Expert partner

5. Relationship management

Managerial expertise

6. Managerial expertise

Constructs a national identity for India, as well as portraying organizations as network nodes Evokes a universal sense of business values and practices, and thus identities Asserts a distinct national identity for India and for some types of organization Constructs a changing national identity, but one that not all organizations share Suggests that business practices are not consistent across all Indian firms Associates ‘professional’ management with modern business practices Again, suggests that business practices are not consistent across all Indian firms Positions China as wanting when compared to India as a place to do business Evokes existence of both economic and social exchange in inter-organizational relationships Suggests a long-term outlook to relationships is desired by Indian firms Attributes the quality of trustworthiness to nations, organizations and individuals Reinforces claims of Indian firms to be seeking mutual benefits Positions firms as possessing valuable key capabilities or knowledge Constructs the managerial self as an expert individual

“If you try and help them in a friendly way,… I am sure you can get better business.” (P4) “Indian customers basically look for long term supplies.” (P1) “You can also come across some kind of fly-bynight kind of people.” (P23) “And it's a marriage between equals.” (P13) “We know how the market works more than any fruit trader…” (P7) “Well basically, I'm a chartered accountant and then MBA finance…” (P23)

thereby emerged from patterns of talk wherein the same phrases and terms were drawn upon across the sample. In discourse analysis, it is not just the identification of linguistic tools that is important; what speakers do with language is also crucial. Thus, as we discuss each repertoire in turn, we highlight identity constructing practices within managers’ descriptions of B2B relationships. Although we have sought to identify repeated usages of language, the relative frequency of occurrence of each repertoire is not necessarily the most significant issue in discourse analysis: rather, it is the strategic use of language by speakers that matters more. So, while our identification of repertoires was guided by noting re-occurring expressions and terms, we use the interpretive themes that emerged from our analysis as the guiding framework for this section (i.e. from a broadly ‘macro’ to ‘micro’ level of constructed entities), instead of letting pure frequency dictate the order in which we discuss our findings. In order to convey a holistic view of the data we do, nevertheless, indicate whether a repertoire was more or less frequent in occurrence, via descriptors such as ‘common’, ‘moderately common’, etc. One of the benefits of a discursive approach is that ‘multi-level’ identity construction can be shown to be an on-going element of managers' talk, such as the individual (‘I’), organizational (‘we’), national (‘Kiwi companies’) and network other (‘them’) positioning that can be seen in the extracts that follow. For presentational purposes and for structuring our analysis, however, we have had to ‘bracket off’ much of the potential discussion of the other positioning occurring while we illustrate the main theme under consideration. While we cannot highlight them every time they occur in the paper, such occurrences have been taken into account in the overall interpretive analysis. In the segments of talk presented below, in those verbal exchanges where a co-construction of meaning appears to be taking place, P represents the participant and R the researcher. 5.1. Networks This repertoire was moderately common, occurring in the talk of almost half our participants. Tellingly, and confirming the global

significance of the Indian IT sector, all the quotes below come from managers representing computer-related businesses, but for the remainder of the repertoires, we find speakers from a mix of sectors. The repertoire is sometimes used to construct a national identity for India. Here, for instance, we see the country positioned as a key node (‘stepping stone’) in a global network, a position attributed to the national achievements in IT over the last decade. This segment of talk evokes a nation to which the world now ‘listens’ while at the same time revealing the speaker's personal command of Western slang via the use of ‘Kiwi’ for New Zealand: I think that India can be used as a stepping stone for Kiwi companies to explore other markets in the world (…) because India has far more avenues open to them in the sphere of IT today by virtue of whatever we have done over the last ten years. Every country across the world wakes up and listens to India as far as IT is concerned, okay. (P13). More frequently, managers use the repertoire to construct organizational identity, in this case by positioning the speaker's firm as a ‘value adding’ node in a global network. This participant explicitly draws on a network-related vocabulary (‘structural holes’) to make his claims, while also positioning himself as a key actor in the relationship: I got in touch with XX (organization) and we're in business with them. So it's about filling the structural holes, you know. If there's an opportunity and you know that there is something that can fill that hole, you are the facilitator or the catalyst to get that and put those value added services. (P11). The next account evokes a wide range of network relationships for the focal firm, as well as confirming the organization's role in that network: As a systems integrator, we work with XX which is another company in the same space. We also have a range which is from

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the YY product line. We also work with another company called ZZ, a very large manufacturer for cards and readers alone. (P12). The use of this repertoire also reveals something about how managers make sense of where a network ‘begins’ and ‘ends’, and how their (and other) organizations' perceived markets relate to these notional boundaries. A varying sense of scale seems to exist, perhaps indicating the extent of the speakers' (and their firms') positional ambitions. Thus P13 appears to portray ‘the world’ as some sort of ultimate network, with India as a route to certain ‘other markets’ (presumably nations) for international firms; while P12 evokes the most pertinent network for him as a ‘space’, and claims his firm is embedded in a series of horizontal partnerships with several other ‘company’ or ‘manufacturer’ actors within this (presumably sectorbased) space.

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have our own certificate in India, but they want the certificate, so I have to go and get that certificate. R: This is international? P: They consider it international. (P10). The next speaker's negative view of globalization as driven by ‘cheap levels’ is contrasted with a more ‘sharing’ take on trading relations. The account also serves to construct the speaker's individual identity. His views may, of course, be affected by the fact that he represents a timber co-operative: In a fast globalizing world (…) some businesses are better suited to a much more cooperative arrangement between producers and much more market sharing. (…) Globalization has tended to find a cheap level, a lower level all the time. I don't believe in that kind of globalization really. (P2).

5.2. Globalization 5.3. Past and present management practices This ‘parent’ repertoire was common, being used by more than half the sample. We have divided accounts into two types (or ‘child’ repertoires): those that appear to broadly accept, and those that question, the notion of globalization. 5.2.1. Accepting globalization This account proclaims the similarity of ‘business principles’ across the world, thereby evoking a uniform sense of what we might expect in business relations:

This repertoire was moderately common, and found in the talk of about half the speakers. Its use tends to construct a changing, if sometimes rather confused national identity for India. This participant uses the contrast between past and present to attribute changes in corruption levels to the modern private sector. An ‘outside’ world is evoked where business is apparently ‘done’ in a certain way, a way that has been communicated to modern Indians via the media:

Below, we again find claims of ‘normal’ marketing as carried out by ‘any businessman’ in response to the researcher's query. This suggests a uniformity of business practice globally:

P: Corruption now is going down because more and more companies are getting into the private sector's hands and the government participation in business is slowly reducing. (…) And the current generation is more exposed to what is happening outside because of their education overseas and also because of the development of satellite and cable television here. So they know what are the concerns of the other side of the world and how business is done there. (P21).

R: What message should you give to a New Zealand company who wants to do business with an Indian company? P: Well apart from the normal kind of inquiry that any businessman would do, marketing, you know, fit and things like that, my recommendation would be that looking for a joint venture partner would be a good strategy in India. (P23).

Here, notions of tradition are claimed to co-exist in the country alongside the modern values whose acceptance has seemingly been brought about via exposure to ‘different countries' culture’. Thus India (‘we’) is portrayed as partly comprising a business-like group of people who have ‘changed’ thanks to ‘dealing’ with ‘foreigners’, but also many others who have not:

The following segment of talk is striking in its use of such a large number of Western management and marketing terms to construct the focal firm's (‘our’) identity. A sense of globalized business knowledge is evoked by a list of organizational characteristics which almost reads like an MBA syllabus:

P: Now we are interacting with the world, things are changing. People are getting, you know, different countries' culture (…). Some people have started accepting, with foreigners coming in, they have started accepting the business, their dealing with them. R: But other things remain unchanged? P: Yes, yes, most of the country. The rural parts stay the same. (P1).

XX (organization) will be able to sell their products in China. (…) But the business principles are pretty much the same all across the world. (P13).

Now this is our vision, this is where we are trying to be, you know, an Indian multinational committed to total customer satisfaction (…) and we want to be innovative and constantly creating value and global benchmark (…) and we want to be really the learning organization. (P10). 5.2.2. Questioning globalization This repertoire is rarer than the more positive view of globalization presented above. It is used to assert a national identity for India, even by some managers who speak a ‘global’ marketing language, such as P10 above, who also offers this account of his attempts to use a local quality scheme with his clients. It appears that these customers only accept a ‘British’ certification system as ‘international’, with the Indian alternative being less credible: P: Many of these (customer) countries are already part of the British kingdom so these people want only ISO certificate. We

For this group of business people it appears that ‘modern’ trading systems equate to members of the marketing channel who are ‘big’ and ‘organized’ (emphasized by repetition), suggesting negative comparisons with Indian companies who have yet to modernize. The present is thus celebrated in the use of this repertoire: P: In the last four to five years (…) almost XX% of our company cheese sales is now suddenly coming out of the modern trade. R: When you say modern trade you say the… P: The big, big organized retail, organized retail. (P5). 5.4. Indian management systems This ‘parent’ repertoire was commonplace, occurring in the majority of managers' accounts. We have divided it into four separate ‘child’ repertoires as follows.

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5.4.1. Local nuances Many of our Indian managers were keen to assert the presence of different business styles within the country. Here, the different organizational identities of channel members are repeatedly emphasized. Even though operational details are not provided by the participant, he appears adamant that these variances will impact on inter-organizational relationships (‘managing the whole thing’): The Delhi distributor is totally different from a Chennai distributor. Although they are Indian, their method of managing the whole thing, their method of selling the product, is entirely different. (P14). This next segment of talk also emphasizes cultural diversity in India, attributing different attitudes to ‘risk taking’ to different parts of the country. For this participant at least, it seems likely that such attitudes will affect how relationships are approached by ‘trading’ organizations in the North compared to the South: There are a lot of differences in India. Generally you will find in the South people are far more conservative in their approach, less risk taking in whatever, therefore you'll find more industry and government service (…). Not so much trading and risk taking kind of profile which is more in the North. (P23). 5.4.2. Professionalism This repertoire tends to associate ‘professional’ management with ‘modern’ business practices, which are then contrasted with traditional ‘family’ management styles. Yet, even though this participant is quick to affirm the researcher's intervention, he is not so proud of his ‘systems’ that his family do not continue to exert what appears to be a considerable amount of traditional influence throughout each company they own and paternally administer (or ‘guide’): P: Family business versus the modern kinds of business management has been very well woven in India by many and we certainly take pride in being one of them. R: Professions. P: Professions, yes. Forty years back my father put in place professional management systems including corporate governance which has been used in the business world today. (…) Of course our family owns the majority of shares and each company has an independent board, supported by a full team of professional managers. Right from CEOs down the line, we guide. (P20). 5.4.3. Big versus small This repertoire is used in a similar way to the professionalism repertoire above, and indeed sometimes draws upon the same vocabulary, but this time helps participants to make assertions about the impact of firm size on management style. This speaker alludes to globalization (‘being international’) as he describes the ‘respectful’ practices of ‘large’ Indian firms. He casts ‘small’ firms as very different ‘others’, leaving the telling word ‘but’ to do the discursive work of negative characterization without providing any further elucidation: Pretty much we are becoming international in the way we look at things. Professional management, respect of law, respect of the environment. (…) By and large Indian companies respect contracts and laws. So in that way there will not be much of a cultural shock in terms of companies, but small firms, small entrepreneurs, you know, their business affairs could be quite different. (P23). 5.4.4. India versus China Here we encounter a powerful instance of discursive ‘othering’ on a national level as China is regularly compared to India and found

wanting. The repertoire is all the more resonant since it occurred unprompted on several occasions in managers' accounts as they constructed national identities. The first participant below casts India as ready to ‘catch up’ in the metaphoric race to a prime position in the global economy, while the second draws on a vivid transportation metaphor to cast China as culturally inferior in a way that suggests (unspecified) problems ahead for businesses operating in that country: We are not far behind China. There is the point in infrastructure building and so on, but the kind of investment China is seeing in the last fifteen years, this would be the start of that for India (…) and we may take less time to catch up. (P12) Doing business in India is like driving along an old, dug up, detoured, speed-bumped road, but one which, if you persevered, would ultimately get you to your destination. Much patience is required but it is a country with progressive policies (…). This is unlike China, for example, which is like a super highway that allows people to get on and go fast, but with no certainty that there won't be total blocks ahead at some point. (P13). We see the same construction of uncertainty in the next account which explicitly, and repeatedly, contrasts the ‘fairness’ of the business ‘system’ in each country. Note how the speaker is careful to claim that this is not just his perception (‘this is what we hear’): You need a lot of patience in the start-up phase in India. But once you start a business the system is very fair. What I mean is, say in China for example you can start a business in 24 h, I am told later on you don't know what you're in for. (…) This is what we hear about China, but in India, once you are in the system is very fair. (P23).

5.5. Relationship management Not surprisingly, given the main topic of our interviews, this ‘parent’ repertoire was very common, and was used by the vast majority of participants to describe business practices. It comprises a total of five ‘child’ repertoires. 5.5.1. Nature of exchange Several managers drew on this variant to highlight the existence of both social and economic exchanges within inter-organizational relationships. These elements of exchange could arguably be said to correspond to traditional and modern views of business practice, respectively. For example, the first speaker below portrays Indian markets as ‘working on sentiment’, and lists several sociallyorientated behaviors that can lead to ‘better (economic) business’: Relationship plays a very important part because Indian markets are, you know, they work more on sentiment. If you have closer relationships with your clients, try and help them in a friendly way, have a cup of coffee with him, I am sure you can get better business. (P4). For the next participant, the idea of economic exchange (‘large growth’ and ‘market’) is combined with a sense of mutuality via a proposed sharing of the classic metaphoric ‘cake’ based on the two firms' (‘we’) respective ‘capabilities’: There is a very large domestic growth but we are also focusing on the Middle East market. So (…) we can probably get a larger share of the cake together (Indian and NZ organization) because we don't have some of the technologies but we have other capabilities, so we need to really appreciate each other's capabilities. (P10).

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5.5.2. Commitment The use of this repertoire suggests that a long-term outlook to relationships is desired. For instance, this speaker is quite explicit in attributing this desire to Indian customers in general: Indian customers basically look for long-term supplies. They don't look for the shorter gains (…) India basically is looking for longer relationships. (P1). Indeed, such is the desire for what the next speaker characterizes as ‘stability’, we often find frustration expressed at the lack of any commitment within the market. Bad business practice is laid at the door of agents who are seen as undesirable organizational ‘others’ in this situation. Note also how this manager reveals his English education in the use of a very idiomatic expression for ‘anybody’: As of now the business in India for the importers is not at all stable because of too many players emerging out and buying XX. (…) There is no coordination of the channels, and the agents in India they simply go out and sell the wood to any Tom, Dick and Harry. (P3). 5.5.3. Trust The effect of this widespread repertoire is to attribute the quality of trustworthiness (or the opposite) to a variety of social actors: nations, organizations and individuals. This speaker, for instance, stresses the importance of keeping ‘promises’ and being able to trust an ‘other’ with serious consequences, it seems, for the trading prospects of the Chilean nation: The problem with Chile, I will tell you, they promised some shipments they were making all false promises and they could not complete that (…) so that memory is still there. Nobody is willing to trust them more now. (P1). The next account suggests that there are risks in generalizing levels of trust within Indian business. The participant portrays some local firms (‘partners’) and individuals (‘people’) as worthy of ‘lifetime relationships’ but others of being ‘fly-by-night’ types: India is a diverse country so you will come across the best entrepreneurs you can build a lifetime relationship with. You can also come across some people who are fly-by-night kind of people. So one has to be very careful. (P23). 5.5.4. Mutuality This ‘child’ repertoire, instances of which we have already seen above, is often evoked by the use of the classic ‘marriage’ metaphor, a metaphor which appears to have resonance across cultures. This speaker uses it to construct his own firm as particularly mindful of the need for mutuality to make relationships ‘work’ between ‘them’ and ‘us’: We want to work with like minded small teams who we need to be as important for them as they are important to us. And therefore it has to be the marriage for it to work. And it's a marriage between equals. (P11). 5.5.5. Expert partner An important part of organizational identity is the construction of the focal firm as possessing some key expertise or knowledge of value to potential partners. In this example, the partner is encouraged to accept the ‘understanding’ of the local market held by the speaker's

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organization. In this way, the relationship can, to use the speaker's own construction metaphor, be ‘built’: The key to our relationship being successful is our understanding of how Indians do business. It's very different. And for YY's (New Zealand organization) understanding of how India as a market operates they have to trust us. That's the foundation or the building blocks of this entire relationship. (P13). In this second use of the expert partner repertoire, a lot of discursive work is taking place. First we see the industrial network being evoked via the extensive set of relationships claimed for the participant's organization (‘we represent…’). Second, contemporary mechanisms of economic exchange are normalized (‘distributed and marketed’). Third, the organizational identity of the focal firm is asserted via talk of ‘knowing’ how the market works and the status (‘best… in the world’) of their partners. Finally, the negative identity of ‘traders’ is constructed by referring to their relative ignorance, a social construction in which the researcher is complicit: P: We represent XX brands from South Africa, we represent YY from worldwide, we represent ZZ from New Zealand, a few of the best companies in the world, we have distributed and marketed for them and now all these companies have so much confidence in us (…) We know how the market works more than any fruit trader who gets at A price and sells at B price and has no idea of what is involved in doing that. R: So they are just traders. P: Yes they are just traders. (P7). 5.6. Managerial expertise This final repertoire is common, with almost all our participants using it to construct their own identities. They do so in a systematic manner that indicates educational background is a core element of how Indian managers see themselves. We thus encounter the individual expert portrayed as an important actor within industrial networks. In response to the interview question, ‘Can you tell us something about yourself?’ virtually all the managers we spoke to begin their answer by highlighting their education before mentioning their business role or their upbringing, even when education was not prompted as a topic. Many use the ‘well basically’ formulation to start their accounts, suggesting that the most fundamental (basic) part of their identity is how they were trained. Here are some examples: Basically, I am a commerce graduate and after I finished I had an interest in international business. (P7) I finished my Masters and I'm a marketing manager as well. (P13) Well basically, I'm a chartered accountant and then MBA finance in terms of academic qualifications. I'm vice-Chairman of the XX Group. (P23). For this sample of managers, a key part of their individual network attractiveness is the expertise bestowed on them by their training which, as we have seen from our review of literature, is likely to have had a strong Western influence. 6. Discussion Our scrutiny of managers' talk has revealed an overlapping range of relationship-related interpretive repertoires. The use of these repertoires helps to construct Indian marketing managers as accomplished practitioners, able to accommodate a number of complementary, and sometimes competing discourses of management in (and about) B2B interactions. One theme that emerges strongly is that of a constant negotiation of identity.

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If we extend the concept of firm-level identity to the structure of existing industrial network thinking (Huemer, 2004) we can determine three notional ‘levels’ (Wilke & Ritter, 2006) of identity construction in managers' talk: national, organizational and individual. These identities effectively range from the more macro- to micro-level of the social actor. The different levels are inter-related, thereby allowing speakers to construct themselves while using an interpretive repertoire that at first glance, may appear to be functioning at a ‘higher’ level. Thus organizational (company) identities are ‘nested’ within the nationally constructed identity of India as a country, and individual (managerial) identities are nested within both organizational and national identities (Fig. 1). As our extracts have shown, by evoking different levels of identity in the same segment of talk, managers are able to position themselves and their firms as practitioners and organizations with particular attributes, even without explicit reference to their own (nested) roles. Based on our analysis of participants' discursive accomplishments (Table 2), these social constructions are facilitated by repertoires that include for national identity: industrial networks, globalization, past and present practices, India versus China, and trust. For organizational identity, they include: networks, globalization and trust again, as well as professionalism, big versus small, nature of exchange, commitment, mutuality and expert partner. For constructing individual identity, the most relevant repertoires are managerial expertise and trust once again. Repertoires seem to be deployed by participants to maintain, defend and potentially exploit particular subject positions or identities in the power imbalances that underpin global supply chain relationships. Rather like a ‘script’ for relationship management, Indian marketers' repertoire use reflects the agency afforded by drawing upon different discourses and also, at the same time, the constraints that some of these discourses can bring. Thus we find participants on one hand using their linguistic ‘toolkits’ to mold identities on their own terms, while on the other hand appearing to be unable to perceive B2B marketing in terms other than those suggested by the various knowledge systems circulating in the Indian business context. Findings tend to echo the tension between traditional and modern management values co-existing in India; for instance, when participants utilize the past and present practices repertoire. Thus in their talk, managers have to weave together potentially incommensurate positions (e.g. between a ‘family’ and a ‘professional’ orientation), yet they do so with consummate sensitivity to the dynamics of interorganizational relationships. Although our study has focused mainly on Indian managers' discursive constructions of business values, what may be the most interesting aspect of this paper is what we can conclude about the potential effects of language in (and on) generic B2B marketing practices. By this we mean the dexterity with which individual managers discursively position themselves, their firms and their

National identity

Organizational identity

Individual identity

• Industrial networks • Globalization • Past and present • India versus China • Trust • Industrial networks • Globalization • Professionalism • Big versus small • Commitment • Expert partner • Mutuality • Trust • Managerial expertise • Trust

Fig. 1. Nested levels of identities in networks: key repertoires.

country by drawing upon a wide range of interpretive repertoires in accounts of relationship management. We have revealed some of the inherent tensions in discursive constructions of managerial selves and trading partners as well as other network members; constructions which, as we have argued, have the potential to impact on decision making and ultimately, marketing actions. Our chief contributions have thus been to (a) conceptually synthesize some of the discursive forces at work in the business context of the Indian sub-continent, and (b) empirically illustrate the subtle sense-making processes in action within managers' talk as they construct individual, organizational and national identities in networks. 6.1. Managerial implications Gadde and Håkansson (2001, p. 103) believe that a solution to the difficulties related to ‘managing’ networks is to embark upon a process of ‘continuous experimentation’. They explain that such experiments can be based on actions that are linked to specific transactions or relationships, the aim being to “map and analyze reactions and reflect on and adjust to these findings”. For Gadde and Håkansson, experimentation appears to be largely materially-based. Nevertheless, since they also state that the term “gives an indication of the importance of signaling, of telling others about the ambition of the company… (and) is part of forming the identity of the company” (2001, p. 193), we suggest extending the notion of experimenting to identity construction as part of an actors' discursive practices. Experimenting with one's identity may prevent firms that operate across national borders from “becoming overwhelmed by the endless stimulus of the emerging networks they exist in… but also (from) failing to shape organizational identities” (Huemer et al., 2009, p. 70). The understanding generated through an examination of discourse should help B2B practitioners navigate through the complexity of the rapidly evolving Indian market. This may allow marketers to ‘experiment’ as they attempt to construct flexible identities that need not conform to the rather limiting stereotype of the ‘allcontrolling’ (Western) manager or organization. In this way, managers' talk can help to ‘construct’ the potential development of inter-organizational relationships in emerging market economies. This is because the meanings and ideas that individuals and organizations possess about themselves and others, and their beliefs about how the social world should function, can be communicated to other network actors thereby potentially influencing their actions (Johanson & Mattsson, 1992; Welch & Wilkinson, 2002). The challenge of determining the network attractiveness of India as a nation, and of different Indian organizations and individual managerial identities, means that B2B marketers should consider carefully how to construct their own identities. To succeed both within India and in terms of benefiting from the country's status as a ‘hub’ for other global networks, it appears to be necessary to maintain an attractive identity. Building an organization's credibility via evidence of expertise and trustworthiness is important; for example, by building on links with international partners with high profiles and possibly by leveraging national identity. It is vital to find a reliable partner, such as an agent or distributor with specialist knowledge and high levels of trustworthiness. Working with similar sized (and indeed educated) partners can help develop mutuality, as can treating agents as partners rather than ‘traders’. Finally, managers should try to maintain as much social contact as possible and signal long-term commitment. In all these activities, paying attention to the linguistic practices of potential partners and of one's own representatives will be crucial to the construction of long-term relationships. 6.2. Reflections and limitations We acknowledge that this study does not really go as far as we would have liked in redressing the dominant Western perspective

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prevalent in most studies of business relationships. The methodological constraints we faced in gaining access to the talk of foreign managers have meant that compromises have necessarily been made, such as the predominantly male gender of our participants (all but one were men), and indeed, their relatively elite status. This is a facet of many studies of Indian management; studies which typically fail to accommodate the structure of India's labor market with its massive informal or ‘unorganized’ workforce, an exclusion that extends to the experiences of women workers (Hill, 2009). We are grateful to one of our reviewers for pointing out that a possible problem might have been the inability of non-native speakers to follow all the discourse under scrutiny. However, this may not apply to this particular data set, since it is generated from educated individuals actively involved in trading where communication takes place predominantly in the English language. Although there were cultural differences, researcher/participant interactions were not affected by a lack of linguistic comprehension. However, we acknowledge that the wider international nature of our on-going cross-cultural research project means that we will have to consider such issues more carefully in future studies. A less structured approach to interviewing may have avoided pressurizing participants into a preconceived response pattern in which the expression of Indian cultural values was seen as inadmissible in response to our inquiries (Fusilier & Durlabhji, 2001). This could have given managers greater freedom to explain in their own words the contextual factors that they consider as influencing organizational practices. Moreover, as pointed out by another reviewer, we acknowledge that much of the IMP literature emerges from a slightly different perspective to what we have tended to generalize as ‘Western marketing thought’. It would have be interesting to have explored the parallels that might exist between Indian and Scandinavian values and knowledge systems, and the extent to which this could have affected the adoption of a ‘network’ view (Mattsson, 1997) by Indian managers. These limitations also need to be considered alongside the dilemmas in interpretation encountered in all such interview-based research endeavors. This may well be the case when Indian marketers aspire to notions of identity influenced by the expert system of Western management values. Ultimately, as Soares (1981) has pointed out, there appears to be a strong need among Indian managers to portray an acceptable image of themselves. Their identities, and those of the organizations they represent, are particularly elusive, even when approached via a relatively sensitive methodology like discourse analysis. References Aggarwal, R. (2009). Economic development, business strategy and corporate restructuring in India. Journal of Indian Business Research, 1(1), 14–25. Axelsson, B., & Easton, G. (1992). Industrial networks: A new view of reality. London: Routledge. Baber, Z. (2001). Modernization theory and the cold war. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 31(1), 71–85. Bagozzi, R. P. (1995). Reflections on relationship marketing in consumer markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23(4), 272–277. Brown, T. J., Dacin, P. A., & Pitt, L. F. (2010). Corporate image and reputation in B2B markets: Insights from CI/ARG 2008. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 709–711. Dadzie, K. Q., Johnston, W. J., & Pels, J. (2008). Business-to-business marketing practices in West Africa, Argentina and the United Sates. The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 23(2), 115–123. DeBerry-Spence, B. (2008). Third-space scholars: Bridging the marketing academy and emerging markets. The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 23(6), 368–373. Easton, G., & Araujo, L. (1993). Language, metaphors and networks. In D. Sharma (Ed.), Industrial networks—Advances in international marketing. Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press. Ellis, N., & Hopkinson, G. (2010). The construction of managerial knowledge in business networks: Managers' theories about communication. Industrial Marketing Management, 39, 413–424. Ellis, N., & Ybema, S. (2010). Marketing identities: Shifting circles of identification in inter-organizational relationships. Organization Studies, 31, 279–305.

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