Peter Laplaca: A case study

Case study research is central to Industrial Marketing Management's (IMM) mission. Drawing on Hirsch & Levin's (1999) seminal work on the lifecycle of theoretical constructs, this article describes how sustained editorial support for theoretical exploration through case study research enabled the development of a rich and dynamic body of business-marketing theory over time. Under Peter LaPlaca, the shift from descriptive cases to theory building ensured a balance between the identification of new constructs and the development of a shared understanding of core industrial marketing constructs that drove subsequent testing and legitimation. This approach by long-time Editor-in-Chief Peter LaPlaca, occurring at a time when support for case driven worked was waning, resulted in a series of theoretical innovations that ensured the journal's subsequent influence on the wider field of marketing theory, particularly evident in the shift to a service-dominant logic.