Handling Plurality of Relationship Forms in Networks: from Clans to Clubs, from Cliques to Communities
Theoretical and Managerial Perspectives

IMP at Euromed Management, Marseilles
The 25th IMP Conference will be hosted by Euromed Management.

As has become tradition now, the IMP Conference represents first and foremost a forum for friendly exchange of ideas and information between researchers in the field. Empirically-based studies also traditionally form the foundations of the IMP approach, paving the way for conceptual development in the area of interaction, relationships and networks in BtoB markets.
Since the very first IMP conference in Manchester in 1983, the IMP network of researchers has grown from just a few to several hundred, spanning the continents. Today the IMP Conference is by far the world’s leading conference in the field. approaching business exchange from an interactive perspective,.Contributions englobe marketing, purchasing, technological and management issues in a B2B and B2C context. The conference also includes special tracks handling subjacent issues such as sustainable development, market forms, …

2004 saw the introduction for the first time of a Doctoral Consortium, aimed at encouraging and supporting young researchers. This event, enthusiastically welcomed by all, has been perpetuated to the present date.
The style of the IMP Conference is deliberately informal with a view to facilitating exchange. It is designed to maximise the amount of discussion and interaction among researchers at all stages of their career, the conference urges participants to present their findings in a challenging but supportive atmosphere. Authors are invited to present results from research at any stage of development.

Information for publishers

Publishers are obviously welcome to come and join the IMP Conference. We ask you to register as regular delegates via the website (rates are the identical to those for other participants). This entitles you to attend all conference events as well as allowing you exhibition space in the conference hall. If you have any questions please contact Rob Spencer or Elaine McCallum

Robert.Spencer@euromed-management.com

imp2009@euromed-management.com

Submitting papers

Papers will be selected on the basis of quality, originality and relevance to the development of ideas within the IMP framework and the conference theme. Papers may be submitted as either 'work-in-progress' or 'competitive' papers. The final decision as to whether papers will be accepted as competitive will be made subsequent to the review process.

The conference organising team

• Robert Spencer (Robert.Spencer@euromed-management.com)
  
  


• Bernard Cova (Bernard.Cova@euromed-management.com)
  
  


• Frédéric Prévot (Frederic.Prevot@euromed-management.com)
  
  

Doctoral Conference Team

• Judy Zolkiewski


• Alexandra Waluszewski 


• Robert Spencer 

Special tracks

Special track proposals are welcome. Chairs of accepted special tracks are expected to take full responsibility for the review process and organisation of their special tracks. For special track proposals to be taken into account, please contact as soon as possible:

• Robert Spencer


• or Bernard Cova


• or Frédéric Prévot

About the IMP Group

The IMP Group was originally formed in the mid 1970s, with a first major research project on “Industrial Marketing and Purchasing”, involving five European countries and universities. A common experience from these early investigations focused on around 900 pan-European business relationships was that business exchange cannot be understood simply as a series of disembedded and independent transactions. Rather it is a question of complex relationships between buying and selling organisations, where resources are generated as a result of the interaction. Today the IMP Group has emerged as an informal, network of scholars worldwide who continue to approach marketing, purchasing, technological development and management from an interactive perspective, in a B2B and a B2C context. To get to know more about the IMP Group, and at the same time access resources such as past conference papers and books, visit the IMP website at www.impgroup.org

IMP in France

Researchers in France from various institutions have played, and still play, a predominant role in the IMP Group, participating from the very beginning in setting up the group, and in the various conferences and major research projects led by the group since. Five of the yearly IMP conferences have been held in France to date, in Lyons, Dijon, and now Marseilles. These locations reflect both the stance of the different institutions and their research traditions, but also to a large degree the “geographiclal” career paths of certain France-based researchers, and their continued loyalty to IMP.