Marketing as an integrative strategic capability: interdepartmental collaboration in an industrial B2B firm

Abstract

Marketing plays an increasingly strategic role in organisations, particularly in the industrial sector due to the specific characteristics of business-to-business (B2B) markets. This study examines the multifaceted responsibilities of marketing in shaping brand awareness, positioning, and customer perception, while emphasising its interaction with internal departments in support of alignment between products and market demands. However, existing research establishes the importance of cross-functional integration and market-intelligence dissemination but provides less process-level insight into how a formal marketing department translates knowledge across specialised functions. A qualitative case study was conducted at OLI – Sanitary Systems, S.A., a Portuguese company recognised as a global reference in its industry. The empirical analysis draws on in-depth interviews with all eleven members of OLI’s marketing department, offering a comprehensive internal perspective on marketing practices. The interviews were examined through a qualitative content synthesis. The findings highlight the collaborative relationships between marketing and key organisational functions, including product development, production, engineering, and sales. They indicate how cross-functional collaboration supports strategic alignment, innovation-related activities, and organisational responsiveness to market needs. By drawing on the accounts of an entire marketing department, the study characterises marketing as an interpretive interface that translates market knowledge into actionable inputs for technical functions and technical and regulatory constraints into market-facing propositions. As a single-case, single-department study, the account is context-specific and offers analytical rather than statistical generalisation.