Technological advancements and B2B international trade: A bibliometric analysis and review of industrial marketing research

In the current business and political climate, deliberations concerning international trading agreements and their importance to B2B firms are increasing. Although the volume and value of international exchanges are growing, this study reveals that literature exploring issues concerning B2B international business, and particularly the role technological advancements play supporting B2B cross-border trade, is limited. This paper provides an overview of research contributions published in the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal in order to reveal the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps, and propose further research directions. Following a two-stage approach, we reveal that although ‘trade’ is at the heart of IMM research, there is a scarcity of empirical studies examining technological advancements and B2B international, as well as local, trade; some attention, however, has been placed on the exploration of B2B international trade issues. Building on our findings, we propose future research directions.