Bridging the gap between B2B and B2C: Thought leadership in industrial marketing - A systematic literature review and propositions.

Abstract:
The importance of social networks as part of the marketing mix has increased significantly in recent years. Although marketing researchers have comprehensively investigated the phenomenon of influencers, research regarding thought leadership is just gaining traction. To help the field forward, we perform a systematic literature review of both domains. We contribute to B2B marketing and sales by (1) providing a unifying status quo of past findings on thought leadership, (2) transferring knowledge from B2C's influencer marketing to thought leadership research, and (3) proposing a set of propositions to stimulate future research on thought leadership.