Understanding the role of sales in sustainability transitions

Sustainability has become a central concern in management and marketing research yet early studies focused mainly on B2C markets, leaving B2B contexts largely underexplored. Recent work has started to address this imbalance, particularly from an IMP/business network perspective. Still, the intersection of professional sales and sustainability remains largely neglected and whether and how sales functions contribute to sustainability-related change in B2B markets is not well understood. This gap matters because the boundary-spanning role of sales may position sales actors as key contributors to sustainable transitions, while organizational structures, incentives, or dominant interpretations of the sales role may also limit their involvement. This study explores the role of sales in sustainable transition processes within B2B companies and the reasons for its possibly limited involvement. It examines how sustainability is understood at the organizational level, how far sales functions take part in sustainability initiatives, and what enables or hinders that participation. It looks in particular at the alignment between sustainability strategies and sales practices, and at how supplier firms incorporate customer insights into sustainability initiatives.