Many international business (IB) issues are “wicked”, requiring specific policymaking approaches and capabilities. COVID-19 has accentuated their wickedness, contributing also to global structural shifts, which pose significant challenges and opportunities for transformation policymaking. This commentary extends the second-generation wicked problem (WP) literature and proposes a third-generation WP approach focusing on morality and time, which have been often overlooked. Drawing on the WP literature, I propose three policymaking principles (i.e., time-sensitive logics, actioning a moral imperative, empathy, and reflexivity) and two types of meta-capabilities (i.e., resilience and entrepreneurial meta-capabilities). Time-sensitive logics sensitize decision-makers to cause-effect lags and help synch their approaches with governance, system and strategic policymaking logics. Actioning a moral imperative helps curb perverse managerial incentives to address only feasible WP parts. Empathy and reflexivity outline the importance of humanizing WPs and prompt decision-makers to reflect on their own mental models and biases when addressing WPs. Resilience meta-capabilities underscore anticipatory, coping, adaptive and transformative capabilities needed to address WPs in order to “bounce beyond adversity”. Entrepreneurial meta-capabilities outline five entrepreneurial policymaking elements suited for addressing WPs. These principles and meta-capabilities can guide policymakers and managers to better navigate the wickedness of COVID-19 and address WPs beyond it.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply an economic sociology perspective to the activity–resource–actor (ARA) interaction model for business relationships. Interaction has been chosen as a conceptual domain where economic sociology has a particularly high potential to advance business-to-business (B2B) marketing in terms of its future research directions. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a structured account of economic sociology through the description of eight key economic sociology concepts and discussion of the structuration theory. This is followed by an overview of the usage of the eight key economic sociology concepts in current B2B marketing research, and concludes with outlining eight specific future research directions which guide future research on interaction in business relationships. Findings – Eight economic sociology concepts are identified: embeddedness, networks, institutions, power, social capital, identity, social structures and cognition. An overview of the application of these constructs within the B2B marketing literature shows how most of them are used as metaphors with a gap in understanding their economic sociology background. Research limitations/implications – Future research directions are described individually, do not include potential interaction effects and are developed within the ARA interaction model framework. Given the conceptual nature of the paper, it does not provide any empirical data and illustrations related to any of the eight key economic sociology concepts. Originality/value – The paper answers a call for a wider integration of economic sociology into the B2B marketing literature. It provides a systematic eight-concept economic sociology framework to be used by B2B marketing theorists and researchers. The paper finishes with eight concrete future research directions through which an economic sociology perspective can help advance B2B marketing theory and business relationship management practice. A brief discussion of managerial implications is also provided at the end.

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