Bridging the origin of B2B marketing and sales to race: a historical approach

Purpose This study aims to bridge the origin of B2B marketing and sales in relation to race. Since Black businesses are disadvantaged (from a sales revenue level perspective), a secondary goal is to use the findings to motivate Black (and other minorities) graduates and entrepreneurs to engage in B2B marketing and sales. Design/methodology/approach A historical, narrative approach is adopted, facilitating a conceptual analysis of the emergence of B2B marketing and sales. The authors study the origin of the first Black-owned B2B firm in the United States of America (USA). A major US city was selected as research setting (Atlanta, GA). Findings The authors find the specific type of business and the connection of such a business to the development of economic independence of African Americans in the USA. They identified the first Black B2B firm in Atlanta as belonging to the class of Plantation Mechanic, in the form of a dental laboratory. Originality/value The paper offers an additional path to bring the manager back into academic marketing research by using business history as an analytical approach. Prior research emphasizes listening to managers, developing and testing theories that include the manager, conducting research at multiple levels of analysis and using multiple methods and finding synergies across seemingly competing academic engagements. However, a business history approach is absent from the B2B literature.