ABSTRACT
David Reid and Richard Plank have performed yeomen service to the business marketing profession in reviewing and summarizing twenty years of literature. The economics of e-business are pushing firms to adopt the paradigm. E-business will change our research agenda. Business marketing is a big umbrella under which scholars representing multiple research areas are sheltered. The driver of the network method is value creation at the consumer level. Value is created by linking the key firms in the network in deep relationships that help reduce duplication of activities, improve communications, improve designs, and reduce time to market. The battle of the paradigms, the bidding model versus relationship model, will be fought as buyers will try to use bidding models to lower product costs. Redesigning the business model of the firm from a bricks-and-mortar business design to a net-based business design is the challenge of every business-to-business firm.
