Digital platforms are an important organising form in business-to-business markets and have mirrored increasing research in end-user customers' interactions with digital platforms. Much less studied are the digital platform infrastructures underpinning this customer interfacing activity which must be built and maintained for digital platforms to exist and operate. We explore how institutional pioneers attempted to build a new digital platform with a vision of the cashless society beyond the traditional payment methods. Our findings demonstrate the insightful role of institutional pioneers in digital infrastructure-building through energizing the direction, network goals, positioning with other market-actors in the backstage. We show how the tensions produced by the organizing and ordering activities in the digital infrastructure field are resolved through brokering, alignment and workarounds. We unravel the way institutional pioneers use articulation work to define a legitimate course of actions for all actors in their organizing of standards, structure and behavioural focus.

Prior work on coopetition highlights the unproductive risks of misappropriation between firms that simultaneously cooperate and compete. This paper provides insights into both productive and unproductive coopetitor tensions in the creation of new marketplaces. We theoretically discuss the characteristics and complexity of new marketplaces and how those spaces produce coopetitive tension. In addition, we conduct an in-depth case study of the contactless payment card project. In this, we describe the tensions related to this coopetitive project and identify three coopetition tension types – strategic, social and relational – which allow individuals to manage, transcend and integrate-bridge heterodoxlogics and their shifting salience within coopetition work. We then develop a two-dimensional coopetition tension framework explaining how coopetitor practice produces both productive and unproductive tension in relation to new marketplaces. The present study therefore represents a noteworthy academic contribution to theory and practice.

Research suggests that humans’ experiences have been significantly impacted by the digitisation of communication technologies (Castell, 2001). In this digital context, marketing practices in the B2B sector have shifted towards leveraging new technologies (Goggin, 2012) and new platforms such as social media. While some studies support the view that digitalisation processes have largely produced positive impacts, in turn creating marketing opportunities especially in emerging growing markets such as Thailand (Ansari and Phillips, 2011; Gross, 2014); others point to the associated tensions that arise from that particular digital environment where technology demands challenge firms’ traditional frames of reference, stability and resources, thus threatening current strategies (Andriessen et al, 2011; Santos and Eisenhardt, 2009). Tension is defined as “clash of ideas or principles or actions and… the discomfort that may arise as a result” (Stohl et al.; 2001 pp.353, 354). As such, leveraging the power of social media in B2B (Pharmaceutical sector) is somehow under investigated especially in the context where strong legal constraints are present (Ventrataram and Nagatode, 2014; Whalen, 2012; Liu, 2011). The aim of this study is to explore how and to what extent pharmaceutical stakeholders (firm, physician and pharmacist) are starting to leverage the power of social media communication. Sale force management and social media literature is utilized together with literature on communication and innovation management in B2B. Findings from 23 in depth interviews (6 physicians, 7 pharmacists and 10 managers from a leading global pharmaceutical firm) are analysed. Themes such as content acceptance, self-efficacy, control, managerial tensions, technical issue (security and privacy) and legislation impact are found to be relevant. In addition, cultural factors appear to also mediate engagement by stakeholders. Theoretical implication of social media communication in B2B sector under strong and evolving legislative conditions are discussed together with the emerging managerial implications for the pharmaceutical industry of digital transformation in an era of accelerated culture.

Markets exist within a world of constant exchanges which form the basis for changes and the creation of new markets. Therefore, it is important to research these exchanges. One of the areas in which market creation can be observed is interorganisational collaborations, as firms increasingly collaborate to create markets. In market creation practice, however, interorganisational tension and conflict can form from divergent approaches and vested interests of the partners. Interorganisational tension represents the opposing intentions of interorganisational forces, and conflict is generated through disagreements. The aim of this research is to investigate interorganisational tension and conflict on market creation practice. Specifically, it attempts to: (i) expand interorganisational tension and conflict and provide insights to these concepts, as well as establishing a two-dimensional interorganisational tension (productive and unproductive) understanding, (ii) explore the interactions between interorganisational tension and conflict, (iii) develop a conceptual framework that explains the level of market creation depending on the effects of interorganisational tension and conflict, (iv) develop a typology of partnering firms based on interorganisational tension and conflict practice. To achieve this aim, and to respond to the research calls, this study follows a grounded theory approach which intends to expand the understanding of interorganisational tension and conflict. According to the findings, a major characteristic of interorganisational tension is its two dimensions: productive and unproductive. However, it is the intertwined nature of tension and conflict that influences market creation. Fundamental to these are the six interorganisational tension and three conflict types revealed by the findings of this study. The core theoretical contributions of the study are a dynamic framework that portrays the dynamic interactions between interorganisational tension and conflict on market creation practice, and a typology of market-creating partnering firms. Collectively, they explicate the development of market creation practice, and firms’ reactions to interorganisational tension and conflict.

Markets underlie all business and management activity. Yet, it is a peculiar omission that large parts of the business and management literature contain so little discussion of the central institution of business and management – the market. Where research examines the corporate strategies of firms, it has almost always researched markets that exist, particularly from a ‘market entry’ perspective. In this article, we argue that when markets do not exist, a different set of theoretical questions to the traditional studies is required. The article is structured in three parts. The first part of the article stresses the importance of the social collaborating role in market creation, illustrating that this is a phenomenon that demands more academic attention. The second part examines material level of the interorganizational social tasks that partially help construct markets and the cognitive level task-associated tension and conflict arising from market making practice. The final part outlines several considerations and challenges in researching the market-making behaviour and interorganizational collaborations and maps out a research design that could advance our understanding of this important topic. Key words: Strategic collaboration, interorganizational tasks, tension and conflict