Social media in B2B sales: Why and when does salesperson social media usage affect salesperson performance?

The importance of social media usage by B2B salespeople has been well documented in the sales literature. In particular, a B2B salesperson's use of social media to prospect for customers and adapt their sales approach have primarily been shown to explain sales performance. However, an increasing body of literature in the sales domain has called for B2B salespeople to be ambidextrous by engaging in service activities aimed at helping their customers. We argue that by giving B2B salespeople an opportunity to communicate directly with their customers, social media is used by salespeople to proactively service their customers and hence can play a critical role in driving sales performance. Drawing from the Task-Technology Fit theory, we develop and test a conceptual model in which B2B salesperson social media usage affects salesperson performance indirectly through value-oriented prospecting and proactive servicing. Additionally peer social media usage was a key moderator in the relationship between B2B salesperson social media usage on the one hand and value-oriented prospecting and proactive servicing on the other hand. We test the model with data from 171 B2B salespeople and find that salesperson social media usage relates positively with proactive servicing and value-oriented prospecting. While we did not find support for the relationship between social media usage and adaptive selling, we did find support for the impact of all three sales activities salesperson performance. In addition, results show that peer social media usage has positive moderating effects on the B2B salesperson social media usage and value-oriented prospecting/proactive servicing relationships.     

Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations

This study contributes to the current dearth of knowledge on the potential of social media as a marketing tool in industrial settings, by focusing on factors that determine social media adoption by B2B organizations. A conceptual model, which draws on the technology acceptance model and resource-based theory, is developed and tested using quantitative data from B2B organizations in the UK. Findings suggest that perceived usefulness of social media within B2B organizational contexts is determined by image, perceived ease of use and perceived barriers. Additionally, the results show that adoption of social media is significantly affected by organizational innovativeness and perceived usefulness. The moderating role of organizational innovativeness is also tested but no support is found. The findings of the study are further validated via nine qualitative interviews with B2B senior managers, yielding additional interesting and in-depth insights into the drivers of social media adoption by B2B organizations.     

B2B SME management of antecedents to the application of social media

This paper elucidates how business-to-business (B2B) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can manage antecedents to the application of social media for potential contributions to their business. This in-depth qualitative research study was conducted at four plastic-producing SMEs from October 2013 to October 2014, with follow-up interviews in October 2015.The findings reveal two important antecedents to the application of social media that overcome the gap between acknowledging the usefulness of social media and its actual limited application in practical B2B contexts. First, open collaborative business model innovation is needed to apply social media in local business processes. Second, central and distributed leadership must be integrated to create ownership and responsibility across the SME organisation and beyond to customers and partners. These findings differ from the social media application stages and the gaps between them identified in the previous literature. The developed model makes a contribution to the B2B SME field and to academia by recognising the importance of integrating critical antecedents before social media application can enhance business in B2B SMEs. This understanding is beneficial for the B2B SMEs and for society.     

Evolution of B2B relationship stages in China: A study of confucianism philosophy

This study aims to explore the development of business relationships from an interactional perspective, which challenges the conventional time-based view in Western contexts. Twenty in-depth interviews with Chinese SME managers reveal the uniqueness and importance of the operationalization of Confucian virtues, the guiding principles, and mechanisms for social interactions and trading practice, in developing Chinese business to business (B2B) relationship stages (i.e., discernment, authentication, stabilization, and decoupling). Given the role of Confucian virtues and their dynamics for the development of business relationships, we further argue that the evolution of a relationship depends on the shifts in concerns of transactional and relational governances among business partners. Our propositions advance the literature by showing that distinct constructions of Confucian virtues mark a vantage point for business operators and practitioners in formulating effective B2B relationship strategies in China, and raising future research questions of the impacts from sub-evolutions in Confucian virtues on B2B relationships.     

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.     

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.     

B2B social media semantics: Analysing multimodal online meanings in marketing conversations

There are theoretical and methodological gaps in the B2B social media marketing communications literature. As a consequence, there is a need for new approaches that provide a comprehensive understanding of how B2B online marketing posts create virtual conversations and the types of meanings these linked communication events construct and convey, particularly as these message are often distributed across multiple social media platforms. This paper presents a Social Semiotic Multimodal (SSMM) framework that attempts to address shortfalls in theory and method conceptualisation of social media communications. This framework employs multimodal extensions to systemic functional linguistics enabling it to be applying to analysing non-language as well as language constituents of social media messages. Furthermore the framework also utilises expansion theory to identify, categorise and analyse various marketing communication resources associated with marketing messages and also to reveal how conversations are chained together to form extended online marketing conversations. This semantic approach is exemplified using a Fairtrade Australia B2B case study demonstrating how marketing conversations can be mapped and analysed. The framework emphasises the importance of acknowledging the impact of all stakeholders, particularly messages that may distract or confuse the original purpose of the conversation.     

Developing business customer engagement through social media engagement-platforms: An integrative S-D logic/RBV-informed model

While the service-dominant logic-informed nature of customer engagement in social media has been recognized in business-to-consumer contexts, little is known regarding this theoretical interface in business-to-business (B2B) settings. Insight into business customer engagement (BCE), as expressed through social media and/or other B2B engagement-platforms (e.g. trade shows) and its S-D logic-based antecedents and consequences thus remains limited. Based on the observed gap, this paper integrates the theoretical entities of BCE, B2B social media engagement-platforms, and S-D logic and through its analyses, uncovers the related importance of the resource-based view (RBV) in affecting this association. An integrative S-D logic/RBV-informed model is developed, where BCE denotes an industrial customer's investment of operant/operand resources in supplier interactions via particular B2B engagement-platforms, including social media. The model considers business customer actors and resources in driving business customer resource integration, business customer resource integration effectiveness, and business customer resource integration efficiency, which act as BCE antecedents that extend to coincide with BCE. BCE, in turn, triggers business customer cocreation and relationship productivity, which subsequently, contribute to business customer relationship quality and ultimately, supplier performance. A set of research propositions is derived from the model, which serves as a useful guide for further research. Managerial implications focused on B2B social media marketing are discussed, before we conclude with an overview of research limitations and future research directions.     

What messages to post? Evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer markets

Although social media usage in business markets continues to grow, managers still struggle with designing popular brand message posts. This research investigates the key factors that contribute to Facebook brand content popularity metrics (i.e., number of likes and comments) for Fortune 500 companies' brand posts in business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. Building on psychological motivation theory, the authors examine key differences in B2B and B2C social media message strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, selling, and information search. Using Bayesian models, they find noteworthy differences in the propensity of viewers to popularize brand posts. Specifically, the results indicate that the inclusion of corporate brand names, functional and emotional appeals, and information search cues increases the popularity of B2B messages compared with B2C messages. Moreover, viewers of B2B content demonstrate a higher message liking rate but a lower message commenting rate than viewers of B2C content.     

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.     

Consumer involvement in supply networks: A cubic typology of C2B2C and C2B2B business models

Business models such as C2B and B2B2C, in which consumers get involved in companies' supply chains and business operations, are burgeoning in many industries. Academic research on the phenomenon is, however, lagging behind, and extant research has typically focused on just one or a few variants of such business models at a time. The present conceptual research addresses this research gap by developing a comprehensive typology that explicates and unpacks the full variety of consumer involvement types in supply networks of contemporary business models. The three-dimensional typology developed contributes to literature by identifying and integrating the relevant dimensions, which have been addressed in prior research only implicitly or in a piecemeal manner. This elucidates the full range and variety of the phenomenon to researchers. For managers, the three-dimensional, cubic typology offers a business development tool, facilitating the identification of altogether 56 alternative business models, wherein consumers may serve as suppliers of various inputs, including work, effort, and entrepreneurial activity; goods; platform goods; natural resources and energy; data, information, and knowledge; attention and presence; as well as money and capital.     

Industrial marketing management digital media optimization for B2B marketing

The role of digital media in B2B marketing has gained traction with academics and practitioners in recent years. However, a comprehensive framework about the use and value of these media has not been developed, leaving B2B experts uncertain about their effectiveness. In fact, whether or not digital media can impact the business development and marketing processes to achieve higher performance remains vague. Additionally, there is a paucity of research related to the impact of different media towards the enhancement of processes and outcome of marketing to generate opportunities. To provide guidance for practitioners, we consider marketing processes in the global software industry by researching practitioner experiences. We develop an assessment tool to identify and align marketing processes and digital media. This research attempts to explore and explain how digital media impacts the B2B business development process cycle at the conjunction of marketing and sales. The research tests a conceptual model by means of a cross-sectional survey of more than 530 practitioners. Our novel framework provides several contributions to knowledge and practice, defining marketing-related processes, and determining a set of digital platforms. By acknowledging the perspectives of vendors, third-parties, and buyers in a simultaneous study, we ensure optimal alignment.     

Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content marketing

The growing importance of the Internet to B2B customer purchasing decisions has motivated B2B sellers to create digital content that leads potential buyers to interact with their company. This trend has engendered a new paradigm referred to as ‘content marketing.’ This study investigates the organizational processes for developing valuable and timely content to meet customer needs and for integrating content marketing with B2B selling processes. The results of this single case study demonstrate the use of marketing automation to generate high-quality sales leads through behavioral targeting and content personalization. The study advances understanding of the organizational processes that support content marketing and shows how content marketing can be combined with B2B selling processes via marketing automation in ways that achieve business benefits.     

A framework of brand value in B2B markets: The contributing role of functional and emotional components

The creation of value is admittedly a critical task for marketers regardless of industry. This paper focuses on a type of value that has traditionally been perceived as irrelevant to industrial markets and argues that brand value facilitates the progression from goods and services value to relationship value. To address the limited amount of research on B2B branding from the suppliers' point of view, we complement insights gained from a literature review with ten exploratory interviews with B2B supplier managers, and develop a framework of brand value applicable to industrial markets. This identifies both the functional (i.e., quality, technology, capacity, infrastructure, after sales service, capabilities, reliability, innovation) and emotional qualities (i.e., risk reduction, reassurance, trust) important for the development of industrial brand equity. Situational (e.g. nature of the purchase) and environmental factors (e.g. the economic situation) affecting suppliers' perceptions of the importance of brand in a B2B context and the role of functional versus emotional brand qualities are discussed. The value of the brand as a driver for the development of business to business relationships is also highlighted. The framework provides a basis for B2B practitioners to build their brands in such a way as to make a functional as well as an emotional connection with buyers that is more likely to lead to a supplier–buyer relationship.     

From catalog to Web: B2B multi-channel marketing strategy

The literature on catalog buying is heavily skewed to the business to consumer (B2C) area and increasingly is orientated to the multi-channel world of shopping choice, including online, catalog and store options. Previous studies have primarily been single equation explanations of catalog decisions, whereas the current study takes a hierarchical or systems approach to decision making in B2B marketing. A two-equation structural equation model (SEM) has been designed and a large sample (n = 1809) of business customers used to test the model. Price and catalog layout were seen to play a particularly important role in explaining buyer behavior. Additional multiple regression analysis was carried out to understand why purchasing agents who currently use one channel (catalog), would make use of a second, new channel (Web) in the future. The study identifies five key motivating factors for consumers in adopting a new (Web) channel for purchasing purposes. The study also identifies the switching costs that act as a barrier to adopting a Web channel.     

Mobile targeting in industrial marketing: Connecting with the right businesses

Although the existing literature has acknowledged the importance of mobile marketing, few scholars have examined the efficacy of mobile targeting. This paper contributes to the burgeoning literature on mobile targeting by investigating the effects of customer mobile habits and social capital on firm sales. Leveraging unique customer mobile browsing data from a major telecom service provider in China, we use a Bayesian SEM (structural equation modeling) approach to show that customer mobile habits and social capital exert significant influences on customers' purchase intentions. Specifically, customers who engage in more hedonic mobile behaviors, such as social networking, video browsing, and gaming are associated with a higher probability of purchasing, controlling for the usage of communications apps including messaging and emailing apps, and the usage of functional apps, such as maps, living services, and app market apps. Additionally, our research results reveal a significant positive effect of social capital on firms' sales performance. These findings offer important insights that are often missing from organizational targeting campaign designs in terms of targeting both the right customers and the right business alliance partners and enable a better understanding of managerial and decision-making implications in the context of the B2B market in general.     

Third-party organization endorsement impacts on perceived value and B2B customer loyalty

This research examines how unobservable product quality and information value can be signaled by third-party organization (TPO) endorsement. Furthermore, it explores how TPO endorsement can, in B2B settings, function as an efficient communication tool as well as branding strategy. This study analyzes the following four components: the relationship between expertise and trustworthiness of TPO endorsement, the influence of TPO endorsement on customer firms' perceived value, how perceived value can impact B2B customer loyalty, and how the relationship between TPO endorsement and perceived value is moderated by the parasocial relationship defined as one-sided but enduring relationship between media personae and B2B customers. Collecting data using a survey, the research team gathered a total of 273 usable responses. To examine the hypothesized relationships among variables, researchers applied structural equation modelling. The results show a positive association between the expertise and trustworthiness of a TPO endorsement, and that these characteristics of TPO endorsement positively affect perceived value. A positive association is also found between perceived value and B2B customer loyalty, while the parasocial relationship does moderate the relationship between TPO endorsement and perceived value.     

The untapped potential of B2B advertising: A literature review and future agenda

Academic research has not kept pace with the growth of and investment in B2B advertising. Important topics need to be addressed and critical questions remain unanswered. This review systematically analyzes, consolidates and identifies knowledge gaps in prior research related to B2B advertising in order to motivate dedicated future study. Based on a methodical, concept-centric approach, B2B advertising literature is categorized by: 1) type of article; 2) theories applied; 3) message appeals, content, and strategies used; 4) media selected; 5) effectiveness and performance measurement; and 6) budgeting approaches. The review indicates limited and outdated research on several topics including message strategies and appeals, advertising budgets, advertising effective measures related to buyer and financial outcomes, and media usage. Furthermore, research on overall B2B integrated marketing communications strategies is lacking. The review highlights research opportunities and questions with the potential to provide guidance to B2B marketing managers.     

Technological advancements and B2B international trade: A bibliometric analysis and review of industrial marketing research

In the current business and political climate, deliberations concerning international trading agreements and their importance to B2B firms are increasing. Although the volume and value of international exchanges are growing, this study reveals that literature exploring issues concerning B2B international business, and particularly the role technological advancements play supporting B2B cross-border trade, is limited. This paper provides an overview of research contributions published in the Industrial Marketing Management (IMM) journal in order to reveal the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps, and propose further research directions. Following a two-stage approach, we reveal that although ‘trade’ is at the heart of IMM research, there is a scarcity of empirical studies examining technological advancements and B2B international, as well as local, trade; some attention, however, has been placed on the exploration of B2B international trade issues. Building on our findings, we propose future research directions.