Marketing solutions in accordance with the S-D logic: Co-creating value with customer network actors

In the last ten years industrial companies have gone from offering products to offering products/services and then to offering solutions. At the same time, the theory of marketing has also evolved to provide, under the heading of S-D logic, an enlarged conceptual framework. In this article we apply the conceptual framework of S-D logic to the marketing of solutions. Based on two case studies, we highlight the limits to current offering strategies in terms of co-creation and involving customer network actors. We suggest an approach to co-create value in customer networks based on a switch from customer value proposition to customer network value proposition.     

The use of social media in sales: Individual and organizational antecedents,and the role of customer engagement in social media

There is recognition that social media can benefit personal selling and sales management, especially in the B2B context. This research draws on interactional psychology theory to propose and test a model of usage of social media in sales, analyzing individual, organizational, and customer-related factors. We find that organizational competence and commitment with social media are key determinants of social media usage in sales, as well as individual commitment. Customer engagement with social media also predicts social media usage in sales, both directly and (mostly) through the individual and organizational factors analyzed, especially organizational competence and commitment. Finally, we find evidence of synergistic effects between individual competence and commitment, which is not found at the organizational level. We conduct multiple regression analysis of data obtained by surveying 220 sales executives in the United States.     

Social media,customer engagement,and sales organizations: A research agenda

Organizations continue to make investments in social media with the hope that it will help their sales force in improving engagement with customers. The academic literature on social media use in business markets has supported the growth and utilization of such technology; however, much more work is needed. This article, building upon the recent scholarly advances and considering a managerial perspective, offers suggestions to guide future academic research examining the links between social media use and customer engagement within the B2B sales domain. Several research questions are presented under the four broad topics, namely utility of social media technologies, context matters, social media pitfalls, and futuristic social media applications.     

Tensions and ties in social media networks: Towards a model of understanding business relationship development and business performance enhancement through the use of LinkedIn

The era of social media networks has created significant opportunities for business relationship development yet there exists a paucity of research in this area. To address this, this paper identifies four key tensions within the current literature: relational versus transactional exchanges, emergent versus strategic social media network development, the pace of social media network formation versus the development of trust, and the notions of sharing and reciprocity versus competitive advantage. This study draws on the principles of netnography, incorporating data from 554 LinkedIn group interactions and 12 interviews with professionals in one global industry to provide insight into business relationship development stemming from one social media network. Significant contributions to theoretical and practical knowledge are made through the recognition of tensions in the literature, the application of the notion of Granovetter's ties to a contemporary context and the novel use of netnography. Furthermore, the resultant model conceptualises the use of social media networking in building networks and relationships which lead to new business and enhance business performance.     

Mapping value in business markets: An integrative framework

The value concept is key to understanding purchasing and marketing decisions in business markets. Despite its importance, a lack of clarity surrounding the conceptualization of value in business-to-business markets persists. This paper develops an integrative framework that identifies the various conceptualizations of value and maps the most often cited value papers published in IMM on this framework. The integrative framework makes distinctions between the value beneficiary (i.e., collective and individual value perceptions), the underlying value perspective (i.e., customers' and suppliers' value perceptions), and the reference object of value (i.e., transactional value based on expectations or experiences, and value of relationships). Positioning the IMM citation classics papers on this integrative framework allows us to identify core areas and promising research avenues for this key concept. In particular, we identify a need to further explore individual actors' value perceptions and the usage processes that lead to experienced value in use in business markets.     

Towards unions 2.0: rethinking the audience of social media engagement

This paper aims to examine how trade union members perceive opportunities for online engagement and what the differences are between traditional and online audiences. The empirical work is based on a survey of members of a Greek union in the banking sector. The findings outline the characteristics of an audience that is likely to support information sharing and networking activities on the web. For this audience, traditional levels of loyalty and union participation were not strongly related with perceptions about the union's online presence. Instead, Internet skills and experiences had a dominant effect. The implications of this study suggest that trade unions have to actively seek knowledge about the characteristics of their new audience and adapt communications strategies accordingly.     

Supplier and customer exchange in international industrial markets: An integrative perspective

A significant body of knowledge pertaining to the management and organization of international distribution channels has evolved over the last three decades. More recent foci have been on relational forms of exchange and models that accommodate efficient exchange management within the context of supply chain systems. This review provides a framework for furthering knowledge along important dimensions that have received limited attention and offers a series of propositions for future scholarly work in the area. Key themes pursued in this study include (1) the impact of the international dimension of exchange; (2) the distinction between upstream and downstream forms of exchange; and (3) the influence of electronic commerce on the future of international exchange. We conclude this review by highlighting research challenges facing scholars.     

Role of big data and social media analytics for business to business sustainability: A participatory web context

The digital transformation is an accumulation of various digital advancements, such as the transformation of the web phenomenon. The participatory web that allows for active user engagement and gather intelligence has been widely recognised as a value add tool by organisations of all shapes and sizes to improve business productivity and efficiency. However, its ability to facilitate sustainable business-to-business (B2B) activities has lacked focus in the business and management literature to date. This qualitative research is exploratory in nature and fills this gap through findings arising from interviews of managers and by developing taxonomies that highlight the capability of participatory web over passive web to enable different firms to engage in business operations. For this purpose, two important interrelated functions of business i.e. operations and marketing have been mapped against three dimensions of sustainability. Consequently, this research demonstrates the ability of big data and social media analytics within a participatory web environment to enable B2B organisations to become profitable and remain sustainable through strategic operations and marketing related business activities. The research findings will be useful for both academics and managers who are interested in understanding and further developing the business use of participatory web tools to achieve business sustainability. Hence, this may be considered as a distinct way of attaining sustainability.     

Social tie, social capital, and social behavior: Toward an integrative model of informal exchange

What is the unique nature of social capital that differentiates itself from other forms of capital? How should we conceptualize and operationalize social capital? What are the major drivers and outcomes of social capital? To address the three questions, I apply the duality lens—the perspective of regarding each entity as a paradox consisting of two contrasting yet interdependent components—to social capital for an integrative model of informal exchange. The focus of this paper is on the duality relationship between the content variables (social tie, social capital, social behavior along two basic dimensions: trust for tie strength and option for network structure) and the process variables (antecedent, content, process, and consequence) toward a geocentric framework of formal–informal exchange. I intend to make two contributions. First, the conceptualization and operationalization of social capital is developed from the duality lens of formal–informal exchange so as to identify the unique nature of social capital as an informal entity. Second, a holistic, dynamic, and dialectic model of social capital is provided to explore the causal links between various elements related to social capital.     

Governance and social media in African countries: An empirical investigation

This study assesses linkages between social media and governance dynamics in 49 African countries for the year 2012. The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares and quantile regressions. Ten bundled and unbundled governance dynamics are used, notably: (i) political governance (entailing “voice & accountability” and political stability/no violence); (ii) economic governance (involving regulation quality and government effectiveness); (iii) institutional governance (comprising the rule of law and corruption-control) and (iv) general governance (entailing political, economic and institutional governance). Social media is measured with Facebook penetration. The findings show that Facebook penetration is positively associated with governance dynamics and these positive nexuses differ in terms of significance and magnitude of significance throughout the conditional distribution of the governance dynamics.     

Speak to head and heart: The effects of linguistic features on B2B brand engagement on social media

Brand engagement on social media increasingly draws B2B brands' attention as it may produce positive WOM and bring branding and financial benefits. However, B2B marketers face challenges in creating compelling brand posts on social media. Beyond ‘knowing what to post’, what is even more challenging for B2B marketers is a lack of knowledge of ‘knowing how to communicate’, i.e., knowing how to design the non-informational cues in brand posts to stimulate brand engagement and generate social media WOM. This research makes initial attempts to address this gap by investigating the impacts of post language on B2B brand engagement on social media. Building on the model of B2B effective communication and theories in linguistics, we identify six linguistic features (i.e., post length, language complexity, visual complexity, emotional cues, interpersonal cues, and multimodal cues in rich media) that influence brand engagement, captured using Twitter likes and retweets. Through analyzing 229,272 tweets collected from 156 B2B brands in 10 industries, we found that, in general, linguistic features that facilitate the central or peripheral route processing will have positive effects, while those that hinder the processing will have negative impacts on brand engagement. This research contributes to our knowledge of B2B social media communication by revealing the power of brand language in driving brand engagement and introducing linguistics as a valuable conceptual lens for maximizing the benefits of B2B marketing content on social media. This research also highlights the interpretative nature of social media communication – B2B brands must go beyond the content purpose and strategy decisions to consider the specific language use and communication style of the message.     

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

Both researchers and practitioners have been focusing extensively on business model innovation, as it has shown to positively influence business performance. Although the effect of business model innovativeness on customer behavior might be an important mediator between business model innovation and business performance, it has not yet been analyzed. In line with recent calls to consider the customer side in business model innovation research, our paper addresses this problem by studying the influence of customers' perceived business model innovativeness (CPBMI) on customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior in the service sector. We, therefore, emphasize customers' perceptions and reactions to business model changes. Relying on data from a large‐scale survey of restaurant customers, we find that perceived value creation innovativeness and value proposition innovativeness positively affect customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior. In addition, we identify a significant indirect effect of CPBMI on customer satisfaction via customer value co‐creation behavior. Our findings allow deriving concrete implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence marketplaces through community-level alliances: An institutional work perspective

Social enterprises can play an instrumental role in addressing major societal challenges in subsistence marketplaces through the creation of shared value. However, there are many social barriers in subsistence contexts that exclude vulnerable groups from participating in, and benefiting from, the shared value creation process. These social barriers are contextual in nature and arise from sources such as gender-based discrimination or caste-based discrimination. The exclusion of such vulnerable groups undermines the goal of inclusive social innovation and sparks concerns of elite-capture of shared value in subsistence marketplaces. In this paper, we highlight how social enterprises can overcome the concern of elite-capture of shared value by fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence contexts. Our research draws from a longitudinal inductive study of nine Indian social enterprises operating in industrial markets such as agriculture and logistics. We apply and extend insights from institutional work perspective to uncover three principal mechanisms for fostering inclusive social innovation, namely – a) relational work, b) inclusion work and c) equity work. These mechanisms work in concert to facilitate the a) creation of shared value in subsistence contexts, b) inclusive distribution of shared value, and c) fair distribution of shared value.     

Sharing is the name of the game: Exploring the role of social media communication practices on B2B customer relationships in the life sciences industry

The inclusion of social media as a communication channel in a vendor's B2B digital marketing strategy is growing in importance. Understanding the effect of such practices upon customer relationships is crucial for firms as they increasingly engage in this way. This paper presents and tests a model that explores the effect of vendor social media communication practices upon trust and loyalty in B2B customer relationships. A study using quantitative data from 196 business customers of a United States life sciences firm is reported. The model indicates that trust and loyalty are influenced by a) the social media shared beliefs between the vendor and the customer; b) the nature of the vendor's social media communication with the customer; and c) the extent to which the vendor's social media communication practices enable effective customer-to-customer communication. Trust is found to have a mediating role between these indicators and loyalty. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Developing a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship: The relative efficacy of economic versus social factors

This study develops and tests empirically a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship from an importer's perspective. A conceptual model with two distinct paths to reciprocity is proposed with a set of economic and social factors that influence an importer's reciprocity in its relationship with foreign exporters. The model is tested with a sample of 200 importers who have purchased industrial products from foreign exporters. The results indicate that reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship is more heavily influenced by economic factors than by social factors. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Market structure and business performance: An evaluation of buyer/seller power in the pims database

This paper explores the patterns of buyer and seller structure among business units in the PIMS database and how buyer/seller structure is related to profit outcomes, both long-term through the product life cycle and short-term between periods of boom and recession. Businesses with a favourable structure (few sellers, many buyers buying items of low importance) typically maintain margins through the product life cycle, but if there are many sellers facing few and determined buyers, margins and profitability are likely to deteriorate in recession and to continue to decline through the life cycle.     

Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands

Previous research has established the benefits of branding for business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Various tools can be used to support B2B brands, including the internet and other interactive technologies. Yet research on how organizations use Social Networking Sites (SNS) to achieve brand objectives remains limited. This study addresses the gap by focusing on B2B SMEs and their social networking practices, particularly, usage, perceived barriers, and the measurement of effectiveness of SNS as a marketing tool. Findings from a mail survey show that over a quarter of B2B SMEs in the UK are currently using SNS to achieve brand objectives, the most popular of which is to attract new customers. On the other hand, the most significant barrier is the lack of perceived relevance for particular sectors. Notably, the overwhelming majority of users do not adopt any metrics to assess SNS effectiveness. Almost half of the sample of SMEs that currently use SNS have indicated their intention to increase their marketing spending on this channel, highlighting the growing importance of SNS in a B2B context.     

A revised EMQ/JIT production-run model: An examination of inventory and production costs

Production-runs are an important cost minimizing scheduling and production planning activity. Commonly used classic lot-sizing models (i.e., economic manufacturing quantity or EMQ models) do not reflect current just-in-time (JIT) lot-sizing cost realities. The purpose of this paper is to present a cost comparison of the classic EMQ model and a revised EMQ/JIT model to show efficacy of a more cost inclusive model.     

Manufacturer-supplier relationships: An empirical test of a model of buyer outcomes

Relational buyer-seller exchanges have been the focus of significant research in the past few years. In extending this recent research, the authors draw upon transaction cost analysis and symbolic interactionism to propose and test a model focusing on outcomes of manufacturer-supplier relationships from the perspective of the manufacturer. Data from 157 purchasing executives offer empirical support for the relationships proposed in the model. In the context of acquiring critical items, relational orientation is found to be negatively related to measures of acquisition and possession costs and positively related to perceived product quality, and these variables, in turn, are significantly linked to the buyer's satisfaction with the supplier. Model results also indicate that a relational orientation has both a direct and an indirect link to satisfaction. Implications for both marketing managers and researchers interested in collaborative relationships between buyer and supplier organizations are offered.