Relationship marketing and entrepreneurial innovation: A B2B context of stakeholder relationship management

The stakeholder focused entrepreneurial initiatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in a business-to-business (B2B) setting, engage their stakeholders/partners in a way where relationship marketing (RM) extends their mutually beneficial stakeholder relationship value, with the purpose of jointly innovating further product/service value for their target markets. This case study aims to recognise the implications of RM against the ECB’s entrepreneurial initiatives, stakeholder relationships, interactions and subsequent mutually beneficial relationship value to nurture their B2B product/service innovation. Eleven RM perspectives are recognised that impact on their relationship value, while the stakeholders work interdependently in the innovation process. The identified RM perspectives are recognised as value-innovating constructs in a B2B setting to reinforce the stakeholder relationship value, and collectively to uphold entrepreneurial initiatives, in order to innovate value through product/service innovation. Such a relational approach of entrepreneurial innovation in the B2B context appears to be feasible across industries and markets.