What do we mean by ‘market’ in industrial marketing and purchasing? Pauliina Ulkuniemi1 and Jaana Tähtinen 2 Paper submitted to 20th Annual IMP-Conference 2 - 4 September 2004 Copenhagen, Denmark 1 Assistant Professor, University of Oulu, Department of Marketing, P.O. Box 4600, 90014 Oulun yliopisto, Finland, tel. +358 8 553 2941, fax. +358 8 5532906, email:
[email protected] 2 Acting Professor, University of Oulu, Department of Marketing, P.O. Box 4600, 90014 Oulun yliopisto, Finland, tel. +358 8 553 2586, fax. +358 8 5532906, email:
[email protected] 1 What do we mean by ‘market’ in industrial marketing and purchasing? Abstract One of the most basic concepts in any field of business management is undoubtedly the concept of market, especially within the field of industrial marketing and purchasing. However, the content and definition of market as a concept has received only scant attention in the research within marketing discipline. The purpose of this paper is to take one step towards a more specified conceptualisation of the market especially in the industrial marketing and purchasing context. Moreover, the aim is to give some preliminary views on what kind of conceptualisation would enable the industrial marketing and purchasing research to understand the phenomenon in a most fruitful way. The paper identifies the conceptualisations of market existing in the marketing literature. In addition to this, as a conclusion, the paper puts forward a suggestion that the conceptualisation of the market as a process would provide the most fruitful way of defining the concept for the specific context of industrial marketing and purchasing.