Wiso-Professor Werner Reinartz, Holder of the Chair of Retailing and Customer Management at the University of Cologne and his colleague Wolfgang Ulaga (INSEAD) receive the prestigious ISBM-David T-Wilson-Sheth Foundation Award 2021 in recognition for their significant and long-term impact on the theory and practice of B2B marketing. Specifically, the award recognises their research article "Hybrid Offerings: How Manufacturing Firms Combine Goods and Services Successfully", published in the Journal of Marketing in 2011.
The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) is a non-profit research institute of the Penn State Smeal College of Business. Its focuses on advancing B2B marketing theory and practice and advancing the field within the broader marketing disciplines.
In their research article, Werner Reinartz (founding member of the WiSo Key Research Initiative Analytics & Transformation) and Wolfgang Ulaga focused on key factors for the design and delivery of combinations of goods and services, so-called hybrid offerings, in business markets. They identified four resource pillars and five specific processes that enable companies to deliver successful hybrid offerings. The five processes of data processing, risk assessment, design, sales and delivery form a guiding framework within which B2B marketing managers should operate.
“The winning paper provides a unique perspective on hybrid offerings, combinations of goods and service, which contrasts with the focus in the prior literature on either products or services.”, highlights Prof. Stefan Wuyts (Penn State University). “The authors use rigorous qualitative methods to develop the foundations for a new theory of hybrid offerings, including the identification of distinctive capabilities and unique resources that drive the generation of successful hybrid offerings.”, explains the chairman of the committee further. This ground-breaking article opens a new field of research in academic B2B marketing and addresses important management challenges in B2B marketing practice. These are still relevant today as B2B companies struggle to develop successful value propositions.
The award will be presented virtually at the ISBM B2B Academic Conference on 5th and 6th August 2021.
Congratulations Professor Reinartz!