INDUSTRIAL MARKETING AND PURCHASING GROUP

The IMP Group is an research community of hundreds of scholars who approach marketing, purchasing, innovation, technological development and management from an interactive perspective, in a B2B and a B2C context. The IMP Group's current work also includes research on public-private networks, policy, and science-technology-business issues. The IMP Group stands for three main features: (1) a dynamic approach to economic exchange, (2) empirically driven research on inter-organizational interactions, and (3) an informal network of researchers forming a vibrant international community. Firstly, the IMP approach represents a dynamic view of economic exchange, which means that emphasis is placed on the interaction processes taking place within and between business actors forming business relationships over time. One important consequence is that IMP researchers view interaction, leading possibly to adaptations, as part of organisational learning and innovation processes. Business relationships are also seen as interconnected, i.e. events or changes in one business relationship will affect other related business relationships, both direct and indirect. Secondly, the IMP Group represents a research tradition that places emphasis on empirically-based studies of how companies actually do business and of the various effects emerging when businesses and other organizations interact. Based on the assumption of interdependent business actors, a hallmark of IMP studies is that marketing, purchasing, technological development, innovation, strategic management and logistics need to be investigated within the context of specific business relationships and networks. Thirdly, the IMP Group represents a large research community. The IMP Conference and the IMP Forum within the JBIM are important meeting and discussion places for researchers from all over the world.