Biographical note

Dr Ross Brennan is Professor of Industrial Marketing at the Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire. His research interests are in business-to-business marketing strategy, macromarketing, cross-cultural marketing and marketing pedagogy. Ross Brennan's research has been published in a wide range of academic journals including the European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Macromarketing, the Journal of Marketing Education, the Journal of Marketing Management, and the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. Dr Brennan is active within the UK Academy of Marketing and the International Marketing & Purchasing Group (IMP) research networks, and is a member of the editorial board at five international academic journals, including Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Business to Business Marketing. Having formerly worked in business-to-business marketing and strategic management roles with BT plc, Dr Brennan's professional interest in B2B relationships was further developed through a PhD investigating inter-firm buyer-seller relationships undertaken at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology. His most recently published research addresses the implications of social media for B2B relationships. Dr Louise Canning is Associate Professor of Marketing at Kedge Business School, France. Louise's research has primarily been in business-to-business marketing, covering areas such as adaptation, business communication and sustainability in inter-firm relationships. Recent work includes social media in business markets, inter-firm relationships and SMES as well as the interface between business and consumer markets in relation to disposal practices and the circular economy. Her work has been published in journals such as Ecological Economics, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and Sociology. Ray McDowell is the Associate Dean of Resources and Planning, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, UK. The Department numbers about 100 permanent staff across the range of management disciplines and means that Ray is managing business-to-business relationships pretty much every day of the week. This comes as no surprise to him; all business is about managing relationships and he learnt that very early in his professional life. That professional life began in the private sector and before pursuing an academic career he occupied positions at GEC-Marconi leading the company's involvement in a collection of international research collaborations. Those professional experiences fostered a particular interest in business-to-business marketing and relationships in particular that he has pursued ever since and which was magnified ten-fold as a consequence of his involvement with the work of the IMP Group of researchers. Despite a role at the university that precludes as active an engagement with students as he used to have and that allows for as much involvement in business to business research as he'd probably prefer, he still gets a tremendous buzz from talking to companies about the sorts of business to business relationships they have. He is constantly amazed at the number of times he hears company directors describe the relationship they would like to have (rather than recognising the relationship they actually have) and bemoan the fact that counterparts don't seem to treat them as they'd prefer. If only they all read business-to-business marketing books like this one.