Purpose

This study aims to explore the impact of marketing agility on the business-to-business (B2B) firms’ capacity to address unexpected events such as the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, examining how they reshape their strategies during the different stages of a crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

This study follows a theory-building approach and performs an in-depth exploratory multiple-case study in the context of 16 Italian firms operating in the B2B sector.

Findings

The study develops an event-sequence-based framework and illustrates how agile marketing strategies empower B2B firms to cope with a crisis across three crucial moments: the event phase, the response management phase and the investigation phase.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to a better understanding of marketing agility in the context of crisis management by showing the agile marketing strategies that B2B firms adopt during the different stages of a crisis. This work provides a useful foundation to assist managers in coping with market uncertainty. It suggests practical guidelines to make more informed strategic and operational marketing decisions, increasing a firm’s capacity to act in today’s fast-moving, complex times.

中文翻译：

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通过营销敏捷性应对全球流行病危机：来自意大利 B2B 公司的证据

目的

本研究旨在探讨营销敏捷性对企业对企业 (B2B) 公司应对突发事件的能力的影响，例如最近的冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 大流行，研究它们如何在不同阶段重塑战略一场危机。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用理论构建方法，并针对在 B2B 领域运营的 16 家意大利公司进行了深入的探索性多案例研究。

发现

该研究开发了一个基于事件序列的框架，并说明了敏捷营销策略如何使 B2B 公司能够在三个关键时刻应对危机：事件阶段、响应管理阶段和调查阶段。

原创性/价值

本文通过展示 B2B 公司在危机的不同阶段采用的敏捷营销策略，有助于更好地理解危机管理背景下的营销敏捷性。这项工作为帮助管理者应对市场不确定性提供了有用的基础。它提出了实用的指导方针，以做出更明智的战略和运营营销决策，提高公司在当今瞬息万变、复杂的时代采取行动的能力。