Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Industrial Marketing Management.
“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in B2B markets”
Guest co-editors: Deswsnap B, Micevski M, Childs D, Rouziou M & Chaker N
Deadline: 1 February 2026
While DEI initiatives have received criticism from high-profile leaders (BBC, 2024), with media outlets suggesting DEI initiatives are dying out (CBNC, 2023; The New York Times, 2024), a recent industry report highlights that DEI initiatives continue to grow (Littler, 2024). This is no surprise, considering that the business case for DEI continues to gain strength (McKinsey, 2023). Research from global giant Boston Consulting Group (BCG) demonstrates that DEI initiatives can boost financial performance, help attract talent, reduce attrition, and increase employee motivation (BCG, 2024). Further, DEI initiatives have additional benefits for organizations, enhancing their competitive position, agility, innovation, and brand perception (Forbes, 2023). With so many distinct advantages, it is clear that B2B practitioners continue to consider and value DEI initiatives.
Academic literature also underscores the importance of DEI initiatives and finds that various aspects of DEI influence a range of positive outcomes, including customer orientation (Srivastava, Kashmiri, & Mahajan, 2023), knowledge sharing behavior (Nguyen et al., 2024), adaptability (Michels, Murphy, & Venkataraman, 2023), innovation (Hewlett et al., 2013), firm performance (Lorenzo & Reeves, 2018; Solakoglu & Demir, 2016), and competitive advantage (Richard, 2000).
While research has understood the impact of DEI initiatives at the firm level and their place in marketing (e.g., Park, Voss, & Voss, 2023; Sun, Ding, & Price, 2020), more research is needed that considers the complexities, nuances, and idiosyncracies that exist in B2B markets. Moreover, current DEI research predominantly focuses on gender (e.g., Havrylyshyn et al., 2023; Lanzrath et al., 2023). Although gender is undoubtedly an important topic and worthwhile research endeavor, DEI encompasses much more, including race, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and sexual orientation (Park, Voss, & Voss, 2023).
DEI can potentially impact all levels and stakeholders (e.g., frontline employees and customers) within B2B markets, yet the research lags behind that in B2C markets. This is particularly noteworthy given that many B2B companies struggle to achieve genuine inclusion and diversity, and customers are increasingly skeptical of DEI initiatives (Ferraro, Hemsley, & Sands, 2023). More so, many B2B industries, including technology and manufacturing, are historically less diverse (Green, 2024; Reyes et al., 2021), potentially resulting in deeply ingrained practices or cultural norms resistant to DEI initiatives.
Consequently, attracting and retaining a diverse pool of candidates can be challenging, especially in industries with less diverse talent pipelines. This is despite preliminary evidence indicating that based on profitability, firms that rank in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity outperform those in the bottom quartile by 36% (Hunt et al., 2020). Further, while diversity is acknowledged in academic marketing literature to some extent, examinations of equity and inclusion are less prevalent.
Against this backdrop, and notwithstanding initial investigations, advancing theoretical and managerial understanding of DEI within B2B markets is crucial to progressing scholarly understanding and real-world application.
Sample topics
We are therefore calling for academic papers on DEI in business-to-business markets. Topics for the special issue submissions may include but are not limited to the following:
– DEI and organizational strategy development and implementation in B2B markets. Examples include: DEI and its influence on the B2B firm’s marketing strategy development and strategic decision-making. DEI and its alignment with firm marketing and sales strategies. Challenges and barriers to implementing DEI in B2B sales and marketing. How acceptance of DEI varies across different industries in B2B.
– DEI and management/leadership approaches/styles and decision making. Examples include: How, why, and with what effects do “diverse” management and leadership styles exist in B2B markets? How elements of DEI (e.g., gender) affect how B2B marketing and sales leaders lead. What is the impact on their reports?
– DEI in HR policy and practices for B2B marketing: Examples include: DEI policies and practices in B2B markets and their effects on talent attraction, employee engagement/motivation reward and recognition, organizational/identification belonging, and turnover intentions. DEI and its implications for training and development policy and practice in Sales. DEI policies and practices in B2B markets and their effects on employee well-being.
– DEI organizational performance in B2B markets. Examples include: How DEI impacts key B2B organizational performance outcomes. Metrics/methods (hard and soft) for measuring how DEI contributes to firm performance.
– DEI and intra-/inter-firm relationships. Examples include: How DEI strategies and policies in B2B markets impact relationships within and across functional teams – e.g., within sales teams, within marketing teams, between sales and marketing personnel, and between them and other functional teams. How DEI strategies and policies in B2B impact relationships with customers. The relationship between DEI and customer relationship effectiveness and satisfaction in B2B contexts – e.g., where supplier or customer teams do not share commitment to DEI initiatives.
The topics listed above should be seen as suggestions, and papers on other topics that advance knowledge on DEI in business-to-business markets are also welcome. Since the emphasis of the special issue is on papers that exclusively consider business-to-business marketing, frontline marketing, and sales-related topics, submissions that focus on other topics that mainly use business-to-business employees as an empirical context are outside the scope of the special issue.
The special issue includes only full-length articles and is open to different methodologies such as qualitative studies, surveys, experiments, modeling, case studies, meta-analyses, and others. Conceptual papers that substantially contribute to the business-to-business or industrial marketing literature are also welcome.
Preparation and submission of paper and review process
Submitted papers must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 6,000 – 8,000 words in length. Copies should be uploaded on Industrial Marketing Management’s submission system by using the dropdown box for the special issue on DEI in B2B markets. All papers will be handled according to the guidelines (Kadic-Maglajlic et al., 2023) for guest editing of special issues of Industrial Marketing Management.
Authors are advised to refer to the Guide for Authors prior to submission. Papers that do not comply with the Guide for Authors are poorly written or outside the special issue’s scope will be desk rejected. Manuscripts within the scope of the special issue (as described above) and for which there is a reasonable chance of conditional acceptance after no more than two rounds of revisions will enter the double-blind review process.
Important dates
Submission opens: December 1, 2025
Deadline for submission: February 1, 2026
Guest editors
Belinda Dewsnap (Loughborough Business School, UK), dewsnap@lboro.ac.uk
Milena Micevski (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)
Dayle Childs (Bournemouth University, UK)
Maria Rouziou (Texas A&M University, UK)
Nawar N. Chaker (Louisiana State University, USA)
