This study assesses how top-tier suppliers market their capabilities to ensure a responsible upstream supply chain to their downstream buyers, and how the marketing of corporate social responsibility (CSR)related supply management practices affects the reputation of top-tier suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) markets. In a cross-functional multiple-case study involving marketing, purchasing, and sustainability executives of five supplier organizations in Central Europe, we explored four

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... tinct approaches for marketing superior CSR management abilities in B2B markets that potentially foster long-term comparative advantages: (1) Fact-based communication of measurable CSR capabilities, (2) targeting of indirect customers and influencers, (3) marketing through education, and (4) marketing of CSR as a service. Moreover, our inductive results provide evidence that the effective marketing of CSR capabilities enhances a supplier's reputation only if it sends consistent signals to the market. Therefore, a close integration of marketing and purchasing is crucial for achieving signaling consistency. Building on an established framework of purchasing-marketing integration in the particular context of CSR we developed a crossfunctional theory on the link between marketing, supply chain alignment and reputation, which is expressed in four sets of testable research propositions. M21, M39, L60