German approaches to business-to-business marketing theory: origins and structure

The development of marketing as a discipline shows some differences between the US-dominated mainstream and theory emerging from Germany - particularly in the field of business-to-business marketing. Contemporary marketing thinking in this area in Germany is founded largely on institutional economics, with property rights theory, transaction cost economics (TCE), agency theory (AT) and information economics playing supporting roles. Based on these theories a 'leistungs' or 'value' approach has developed that permits the integration of concepts such as process thinking and services orientation in marketing with these other theories. An extended view of the system of marketing management is described that reveals new areas for marketing research and analysis in business-to-business marketing.