B2B sales management in a circular economy: multilevel implications and future directions

Business-to-business (B2B) firms increasingly adapt their business practices in response to the transition toward a circular economy (CE). The CE, commonly defined through the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling, aims to preserve value of materials while creating economic and environmental benefits. Prior research has primarily examined B2B sales in linear economy settings, offering a limited understanding of what sales management entails in the CE. To address this gap, we integrated B2B sales and circular business literature to build a framework and conducted a qualitative interview study (n = 46) among sales managers from both firms hesitant to adopt sustainability principles and firms with established sustainability strategies. Our findings reveal the role of sales management at the micro, meso, and macro levels, identify tensions to be managed, and outline the relevant sales capabilities needed in a CE. Our study contributes to scarce research on sales management in a CE by synthesizing sales management and the necessary developments in a multilevel sales system when shifting toward a CE. We conclude by proposing a research agenda and outlining practical implications.