 B2B market segmentation – An analysis of current practices and their implicationsRoberto Mora Cortez, Ann Højbjerg Clarke and Per Vagn Freytag Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 189, issue C Abstract: Many B2B firms employ market segmentation to effectively manage their marketing strategies and programs and enhance desired outcomes. Nevertheless, the literature is silent about how B2B firms actually segment markets in practice. In Study 1, we conduct in-depth interviews to gain understanding of suppliers’ theories-in-use on how the segmentation endeavor unfolded and to develop the survey instrument. In Study 2, we test the proposed model employing unique data from 259 managers across the United States (US), Denmark, Chile, and Peru, while controlling for endogeneity, disturbances across equations in the model, and outliers. The results reveal that segmentation purposes (sales, marketing, and monitoring) influence segmentation variables (learning-, commercial-, and industry-oriented). More importantly, these segmentation variables impact firm-level outcomes (performance and process), and such a relationship is moderated by targeting procedures (financial-, development-, and knowledge-based). Overall, this article contributes to bridging the theory–practice gap in B2B market segmentation. Keywords: B2B markets; Segmentation; Targeting; Marketing strategy; Marketing practices (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:189:y:2025:i:c:s0148296324006489 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.115144 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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