B2B analytics in the airline market: Harnessing the power of consumer big data

This paper utilizes market-level data to explore the relative performance of individual companies amongst defined competitors. We show the potential of using consumer clickstream data, an important type of big data, to create a new set of B2B analytical frameworks. In the markets where complex interactions between competitors, search intermediaries and consumers create a network, B2B relationships can be inferred from consumer search patterns, and can then be modeled to gauge the online performance. A commercial dataset from ComScore’s US panel of one million users is used to illustrate a new approach to measure and evaluate the online performance of competitors in the US airline market. The methodology and associated performance framework demonstrate the potential for new forms of market intelligence based on the visualization of market networks, online performance calculated from matrix algorithms, the measurement of the impact of search intermediaries, and the identification of latent relationships. This research makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the debate on the use of big data for B2B market analytics. B2B managers can use this approach to extend their network horizon from an egocentric to a network view of competition and map out their competitive landscape from the perspective of the customer.     

Fostering B2B sales with customer big data analytics

This study focuses on the use of big data analytics in managing B2B customer relationships and examines the effects of big data analytics on customer relationship performance and sales growth using a multi-industry dataset from 417 B2B firms. The study also examines whether analytics culture within a firm moderates these effects. The study finds that the use of customer big data significantly fosters sales growth (i.e. monetary performance outcomes) and enhances the customer relationship performance (non-monetary performance outcomes). However, the latter effect is stronger for firms which have an analytics culture which supports marketing analytics, whereas the former effect remains unchanged regardless of the analytics culture. The study empirically confirms that customer big data analytics improves customer relationship performance and sales growth in B2B firms.     

Analytics in the era of big data: The digital transformations and value creation in industrial marketing

Big data analytics has been a topical area in the past decade. Despite it is emphased as a promising tool for the B2B sectors, there is a short of academic studies about this phenomenon in the industrial markets. Existing big data analytics focuses more on the consumers' marketing aspect, while in fact both the consumers' data and the machine-generated transaction data can be gathered and analysed at the interorganisational level. Subsequently, there is a need to increase the attention on the B2B aspects of big data analytics and the interactions of stakeholders. This paper, therefore, investigates the digital transformation enabled by big data analytics in the industrial markets and provides a conceptual framework. It solicits research articles that provide insights into various industrial contexts of this topic and applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify the big data gathering and applications for value creation.     

An integrated artificial intelligence framework for knowledge creation and B2B marketing rational decision making for improving firm performance

This study examines the effect of big data powered artificial intelligence on customer knowledge creation, user knowledge creation and external market knowledge creation to better understand its impact on B2B marketing rational decision making to influence firm performance. The theoretical model is grounded in Knowledge Management Theory (KMT) and the primary data was collected from B2B companies functioning in the South African mining industry. Findings point out that big data powered artificial intelligence and the path customer knowledge creation is significant. Secondly, big data powered artificial intelligence and the path user knowledge creation is significant. Thirdly, big data powered artificial intelligence and the path external market knowledge creation is significant. It was observed that customer knowledge creation, user knowledge creation and external market knowledge creation have significant effect on the B2B marketing-rational decision making. Finally, the path B2B marketing rational decision making has a significant effect on firm performance.     

“Green” supply chain management: The role of trust and top management in B2B and B2C markets

“Green” supply chain management (GSCM) has often been associated with highly visible companies (Bowen, 2000) and firms within consumer-focused industries (Buysse & Verbeke, 2003; Hall, 2000; Roht-Arriaza, 1996). As such, GSCM has partly been led by development of consumer awareness of environmental issues (Beamon, 1999; Zhu et al., 2005). This suggest that firms operating in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets have strong incentives to implement GSCM, due to both institutional and stakeholder pressure. However, this leaves the role of GSCM in business-to-business (B2B) sectors relatively unexplored and to-date little is known about: 1) the relative engagement with GSCM among firms in business-to-consumer and business-to-business sectors; 2) the conditions that are necessary for successful implementation of “green” practices in B2B supply chains. This study addresses these issues within the context of 340 buyer–supplier relationships in the United Kingdom, using an innovative research methodology that captures firms' engagement with GSCM practices and minimizes social desirability and common source biases. Our results show that GSCM is relatively limited among firms in B2B markets compared to firms in B2C markets. At the same time, we show that developing trust with supply chain partners, while also having top management support, is a crucial driver of engagement with GSCM among firms in B2B sector but less important among firms in B2C sector. These findings provide considerable insights to managers and marketers of B2B supply chains that seek to respond to a growing interest of environmental performance of supply chain.     

How Do Interaction Activities among Customers and between Customers and Firms Influence Market Performance and Continuous Product Innovation? An Empirical Investigation of the Mobile Application Market

Mobile application markets (MAMs) significantly differ from other existing marketplaces at least in two aspects. First, customers (app users) and firms (app providers) frequently interact with each other in real time, which is not common in the conventional marketplaces. Second, many app providers incorporate customers’ opinions or suggestions into their software upgrades, representing one of the most unique and interesting aspects of MAMs. Therefore, it has become critical to understand the impact of interaction activities not only among customers, but also between customers and firms on the market performances of new products in MAMs. One of the most significant issues firms face is whether firms reflect on customers’ postpurchase interaction activities, and the next interesting question is how firms respond to them. This study explores the effects of customer‐to‐customer (C2C), customer‐to‐firm, and firm‐to‐customer interaction activities on market performance. In addition, this study investigates how communication activities influence a firm's tendency to pursue continuous product innovation through research and development (R&D). Using data obtained from a major MAM, T store, three models that are respectively related to product sales, product lifetime, and a firm's R&D activity for product upgrades, are applied to empirically test hypotheses concerning the effects of interaction activities. In our analyses of market performance, a hierarchical log regression model with 10,840 weekly transactions data set related to product sales (model A) and 291 aggregate transactions related to product lifetime (model B) is used. Results indicate that C2C and customer‐to‐firm communication activities have a positive impact on sales, but little relationship with product lifetime. However, a firm's continuous product R&D has a positive impact on both sales and lifetime performance. Our analysis of a firm's R&D (model C) shows that C2C and customer–firm communication increases a firm's R&D activity. Taken together, these results have important implications for customer–firm interactions, market performance, and R&D strategies.     

What impacts customer experience for B2B enterprises on using AI-enabled chatbots? Insights from Big data analytics

Many B2B firms have widely accepted AI-based chatbots to provide human-like service interaction at different customer touchpoints in recent years. One of the objectives behind introducing this technology is to provide an enhanced, live channel Customer Experience (CX) all round the clock. Researchers have focused on delivering the CX by improvising the chatbot's internal algorithm, giving limited attention to CX theories from management literature, which leaves a gap. With the proposed paper, we have investigated the influencing factors of AI-based chatbots from the lens of CX theories for B2B firms. In this paper, a model for organizing CX has been proposed using the diffusion of innovation theory, trust commitment theory, information systems success model, and Hoffman & Novak's flow model for the computer-mediated environment and verified using the social media data. The methodology used for this study is the social media analytics-based content analysis method (sentiment analysis, hierarchical clustering, topic modeling) for data preparation, followed by lasso and ridge regression for model verification. The results suggest that CX in B2B enterprises using chatbots is influenced by these bots' overall system design, customers' ability to use technology, and customer trust towards brand and system.     

Market microstructure in a global B2B network

On‐line marketplaces raise several interesting issues, among them the relevance of location when content is digitized, and the assessment of a supplier's capabilities when buyers worldwide only have electronic contact with sellers. In global B2B on‐line marketplaces, market microstructures, i.e. which firms compete for the same customers, are thus likely to be influenced by how customers value location and firm capabilities in their decisions to do business with different suppliers on‐line. We suggest that both these sets of attributes will continue to matter on‐line—firms possessing similar capabilities, as well as firms that are similar in location by country, time zones or clusters, will compete for business from the same customers. We model the similarity in competitive positions between pairs of firms based on the overlap in their customer networks, using data on actual interactions between supplier and customer banks on an electronic trading system. Using QAP network regression techniques on the 100 largest banks in this industry, we find that similarity in capabilities influences who competes with whom, and that location still matters in a global B2B exchange. Interestingly, location influences who a firm's competitors are, but not where its customers are from. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does buyers' financial slack promote or inhibit suppliers' circular economy performance?

Extant research examining the link between slack resources and performance offers few insights into how buyer firms' financial slack influences suppliers' circular economy (CE) performance. We collect secondary data from 290 buyer-supplier dyads of listed firms in China during 2006–2018 from CSMAR database. Using panel data analysis, we find a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between them. In addition, some relationship-specific contextual factors, i.e., buyer power and technology capability, have positive moderating effects, while buyer-supplier geographical distance has negative moderating effects on the main U-shaped relationship. Our study contributes to the literature on the slack-performance debate confirming the CE performance effect of financial slack in the business-to-business (B2B) relationship.     

The influence of firm and industry characteristics on returns from technology licensing deals: evidence from the US computer and pharmaceutical sectors

This study examines the relationships between firm and industry characteristics and firms' abnormal stock market returns accompanying the announcement of technology licensing deals. In particular, I examine the fit among firms' licensing activities, their resource endowments, and their industry context, and develop hypotheses on its impact on abnormal stock market returns after licensing deals. Analyzing 11 years of inward and outward licensing transactions in the US computer and pharmaceutical industries between 1990 and 2000, I find support for my argument that while firms profit from both inward and outward licensing, the magnitude of such profits is determined by licensing firms' resource endowments, and that these determinants have a different impact in different industry contexts. Understanding these relationships helps explain when firms should use licensing to exploit their proprietary technologies and make better predictions about the impact of licensing transactions on firm performance.     

The adoption of technological innovations in a B2B context and its impact on firm performance: An ethical leadership perspective

The introduction of the digital economy has opened much discussion on the various business models that challenge traditional thinking in B2B marketing. This includes technological innovation in the digital space which has brought about theoretical changes in the way marketing is applied, more so in the B2B environment where communication is essential in the alignment with various stakeholders. Several discussions on ethical leadership in the digital economy have provided some insights into addressing increased complexity in a society where markets are connected (physically) yet disconnected (proximity) and this has led marketing practices going astray. Our paper proposes the relevance of ethical leadership and its role in the application of technological innovation by arguing that technological innovation has a positive impact on firm performance and that ethical leadership plays a critical role in moderating this effect. We use a dynamic panel data system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) approach to examine secondary data from 465 IT service companies and demonstrate that ethical leadership plays a critical role as it enables innovation through technology, and this has an impact on the firm's performance.     

Organizational intention to adopt big data in the B2B context: An integrated view

Grounded in the diffusion of innovation theory (DOI), institutional theory, configuration theory, and technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, the study proposes a model incorporating factors in technological, organizational and environmental contexts that may influence an organization's decision to adopt big data strategies. Using survey data collected from Chinese companies, eight factors in three categories are tested utilizing a structural equation modeling (SEM) and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The empirical results show that the factors relative advantage, technological competence, technology resources, support from top management, competitive pressure, and the regulatory environment all have a significant impact on the organizational adoption of big data. These findings contribute to the development of a better understanding of precisely how the big data diffusion process across industries functions in B2B practice.     

Online content match-making in B2B markets: Application of neural content modeling

Business-to-business (B2B) sellers need to enhance content marketing and analytics in an online environment. The challenge is that sellers have data but do not know how to utilize it. In this study, we develop a neural content model to match the content that B2B sellers are providing with the type of content that buyers are seeking. The model was tested with two experiments using a dataset that combines cookie-based browsing data from 74 B2B seller companies over a period of fourteen months. In total, the data comprises 180 million browsing sessions tracked via 11.44 million cookies from 34,170 buyer companies. In the first experiment, we study the content in the sellers' own channels, and in the second experiment we study paid channels. With these experiments, we illustrate that browsing data can be combined with marketing content data to evaluate and improve the content-marketing efforts of B2B seller firms. Since the development of digital information technologies (DITs) has made the B2B buying process more buyer driven, our neural content modeling approach can be used to create B2B analytics that re-empower the sellers.     

Payment choice of M&As: Financial crisis and social innovation

The payment choice of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) influences firm performance and facilitates wealth transfer to shareholders and realises synergy through stakeholders' implicit contract. This study examines the choice of payment methods and firm-level characteristics of UK M&As during the financial crisis referring to the business-to-business (B2B) market in a broader sense. Further, conceptualising social innovation as a process-outcome-value construct, this study evaluates the choice of payment methods and firm-level characteristics of M&As through the lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The findings suggest that a stock payment method is favoured well over a cash payment method by the acquirers of M&A firms and firms that are pursuing social innovation through CSR activities. The results further document that a volatile market affected by the financial crisis reacts to the financing choice of M&As, making a sizable impact on firms' capital structure, ownership concentration, and asymmetric information. Acquiring firms that opt for stock payment methods register a significant increase in their firm-level characteristics, such as market-to-book-value, deal value, growth, and CARs compared to the cash payment method deals.     

Study on the influencing of B2B parasocial relationship on repeat purchase intention in the online purchasing environment: An empirical study of B2B E-commerce platform

With the meteoric progress of digital technology and the advent of network economy, there has been increasing interest in the business model of purchasing with B2B network among B2B e-commerce platforms and customer firms. Based on the perspective of parasocial relationship and dual-process theory, this study constructs a model of cognitive and emotional influences on customer firms' behavior, and analyzes the influence of features of entrepreneur endorser and online purchasing platform on B2B parasocial relationship, and how this relationship can affect repeat purchase intention. Furthermore, this paper examines the moderating effect of trust in the relationship between B2B parasocial relationship and repeat purchase intention. Findings indicate that perceived interactivity and trustworthiness of entrepreneur endorser and the service and product quality of online purchasing platform have a positive impact on B2B parasocial relationship. B2B parasocial relationship has a significant and positive impact on repeat purchase intention, while trust moderates the relationship between B2B parasocial relationship and repeat purchase intention.     

Product radicalness and firm performance in B2B marketing: A moderated mediation model

There has been ambiguity and controversy in establishing the links between the introduction of radical innovations and firm performance. While radical innovations create customer value and grow product sales, they are also fraught with uncertainty due to customer resistance to innovative products and significant costs associated with commercialization. This research aims to explain the contrarian findings between radical innovations and firm performance in a business-to-business (B2B) context by examining two mediating variables – new product advantage and customer unfamiliarity. Using a multi-informant approach, the authors collected survey data from a sample of 170 Spanish B2B firms engaged in new product development, provided by 357 managers. The authors find that, while new product advantage positively mediates the relationship between product radicalness and firm performance, customer unfamiliarity has a negative mediation effect on this relationship. Furthermore, the authors examine the moderated mediation effect by industry type, manufacturing vs. service, and find that it moderates the mediation of customer unfamiliarity: The negative impact of product radicalness on customer unfamiliarity is greater for manufacturing firms than for service firms. With these findings, the authors discuss implications for development and marketing of radical innovations and how those implications facilitate firm performance in the B2B context.     

Effective forms of market orientation across the business cycle: A longitudinal analysis of business-to-business firms

Macroeconomic developments, such as the business cycle, have a remarkable influence on firms and their performance. In business-to-business (B-to-B) markets characterized by a strong emphasis on long-term customer relationships, market orientation (MO) provides a particularly important safeguard for firms against fluctuating market forces. Using panel data from an economic upturn and downturn, we examine the effectiveness of different forms of MO (i.e., customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, and their combinations) on firm performance in B-to-B firms. Our findings suggest that the impact of MO increases especially during a downturn, with interfunctional coordination clearly boosting firm performance and, conversely, competitor orientation becoming even detrimental. The findings further indicate that both the role of MO and its most effective forms vary across industry sectors, MO having a particularly strong impact on performance among B-to-B service firms. The findings of our study provide guidelines for executives to better manage performance across the business cycle and tailor their investments in MO more effectively, according to the firm's specific industry sector.     

Customer involvement in big data analytics and its impact on B2B innovation

Extant literature assumes that customers mainly serve as passive data providers and that firms take responsibility for big data analytics. In line with a current trend in real-world practice, this research, based on the open innovation literature, challenges this assumption and argues that customers can have more engagement in big data analytics. The authors distinguish two constructs: Customer as Data Provider (CDP) and Customer as Data Analyst (CDA). The former is consistent with the mainstream view that customers serve as the data source. The latter, on the other hand, sheds light on an active role customers play in big data analytics – that is, customers participate in a co-creation process where they acquire, analyze and act on big data. Using survey data of 148 Business-to-Business (B2B) innovation projects, the authors find that both types of customer involvement facilitate B2B product innovation. Furthermore, the authors examine moderation effects of customer need tacitness and customer need diversity. Results show that customer need tacitness negatively moderates the relationship between CDP and new product performance while customer need diversity yields a positive moderation effect. Customer need tacitness is also found to positively moderate the relationship between CDA and new product performance.     

The Impact of Industrial Design Effectiveness on Corporate Financial Performance*

Despite the growing recognition of industrial design's value in creating sustainable competitive advantage, few studies have attempted to quantify the contribution that design makes to company financial performance. This article examines the relationship between industrial design and company financial performance in order to assess industrial design's contribution to this performance. Effective industrial design was evaluated by asking a panel of 138 industrial design experts to rank the industrial design effectiveness of publicly traded firms within nine selected manufacturing industries; the ranking process yielded 93 firms. Based on the rankings, firms within each industry were divided into two groups: those judged as exhibiting high design effectiveness versus those judged as low in design effectiveness. Audited financial data reported to the SEC across a seven‐year period from 1995 to 2001 were used to evaluate financial performance. Using traditional financial ratios senior managers consider essential performance measures, those firms with high design effectiveness were hypothesized to have higher returns on sales, returns on assets, and growth rates of sales, net income, and cash flow than firms with low design effectiveness. High design effectiveness firms further were hypothesized to have higher stock market returns. These comprehensive, corporate financial measures incorporate expenditures made on industrial design (industrial designers' salaries, design consultants' fees, computer‐aided industrial design equipment) and expenditures that designers influence through their design choices (material costs, manufacturing equipment). This analysis reveals that firms rated as having “good” design were stronger on all measures except growth rate measures. These results provide strong evidence that good industrial design is related to corporate financial performance and stock market performance even after considering expenditures on industrial design. Further, the patterns of financial performance over the seven‐year horizon suggest that these effects are persistent.     

Windfalls of emperors' sojourns: Stock market reactions to Chinese firms hosting high‐ranking government officials

Research summary: We contribute to the corporate political activity (CPA ) literature by showing that investors value companies that host visits of high‐ranking government officials (P resident and P remier). We argue that investors may value host official visits for two reasons: (1) the signal received about possibility of firm accessing government‐controlled resources via promotion or protection; and (2) the certification effect from such high‐powered visitors elevating the firm's reputation and legitimacy. Results from an event study analysis of 84 high‐ranking government official visits in C hina from 2003 to 2011 indicate that investors responded positively to host firms as reflected by stock market performance. Furthermore, the greatest positive reactions accrued to firms experiencing weaker prior period financial performance and to firms that are privately compared to state‐controlled . Managerial summary: Do visits by high‐ranking government officials influence firm stock market performance? Studying a sample of C hinese public firms that hosted 84 visits by the C hinese P resident and the P remier from 2003 to 2011, we find that investors reacted positively to such visits compared with a group of non‐host firms from the same industry and with similar financial performance and size. In addition, firms with weaker prior financial performance and private firms benefit the most from hosting such visits. Our findings imply that hosting visits of high‐ranking government officials can signal future government‐controlled resource inflows and boost host firms' reputation and legitimacy . Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.