Salesperson social media use in business-to-business relationships: An empirical test of an integrative framework linking antecedents and consequences

AbstractSocial media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) companies. The current study focuses on the number of aspects of social media such as the effect of social media, social media tools, social media use, adoption of social media use and its barriers, social media strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of use of social media. This research provides a valuable synthesis of the relevant literature on social media in B2B context by analysing, performing weight analysis and discussing the key findings from existing research on social media. The findings of this study can be used as an informative framework on social media for both, academic and practitioners.

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Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs

Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing ◽

10.1108/jbim-04-2018-0121 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 284-305 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Riyad Eid ◽

Ziad Abdelmoety ◽

Gomaa Agag

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Media Use ◽

Export Performance ◽

Empirical Evaluation ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Content Type ◽

The Social ◽

Antecedents And Consequences ◽

Use Of Social Media

Purpose The social media have enabled companies to reach out to global markets and provided them with the opportunity to customize their strategies and offerings in an unprecedented way. Given the scant empirical evaluation of social media use in the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) business-to-business (B-to-B) context, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive description of the antecedents and consequences of social media use in international B-to-B SMEs and the way in which this use affects their export performance. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of 277 British B-to-B SMEs and uses positivist research with a quantitative approach, adopting a survey strategy through questionnaires and structural equation modeling. Findings The results reveal that the use of social media influences export performance through the quality of international business contacts – understanding customers’ views and preferences, brand awareness and knowledge of the competition in various international markets. This study contributes to the emerging literature on B-to-B SMEs digital marketing by determining the mechanism through which B-to-B SMEs may benefit from using the social media in their efforts to export. Originality/value Despite the promising potential of the social media, especially for export-oriented companies, very limited attention has hitherto been paid to the relationship between the use of social media and export performance. This study attempts to fill the gap by investigating the extent to which actual use of social media impacts on the performance of exporting firms.

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Social Media Use and Potential in Business-to-Business Companies’ Innovation

International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence ◽

10.4018/jaci.2013010104 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 53-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hannu Kärkkäinen ◽

Jari Jussila ◽

Jaani Väisänen

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Media Use ◽

Innovation Process ◽

Business Sector ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Business Innovation ◽

Empirical Survey ◽

Business To Consumer ◽

The Given ◽

Business To Business

The use, potential and challenges of social media in innovation have received little attention in the literature, especially from the standpoint of the business-to-business sector. Therefore, this paper focuses on bridging this gap. The purpose of this paper is to study the use and potential of social media in the innovation context, especially from the perspective of business-to-business companies. The paper starts by defining of social media and Web 2.0, and then characterizes social media in business, social media in the business-to-business sector and social media in the business-to-business innovation process. The paper also studies the essential differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business in the given respects. Finally the authors present and analyze the results of their empirical survey of 110 respondents from Finnish companies. The results suggest that there is a significant gap between the perceived extensive potential of social media and current social media use in innovation in business-to-business companies. They have also identified potentially effective ways to reduce the gap, and clarify the found differences between B2B’s and B2C’s.

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The use of social media in the B2B sales process: a meta synthesis

RAUSP Management Journal ◽

10.1108/rausp-02-2019-0024 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Graziela Perretto Rodrigues ◽

Adriana Roseli Wünsch Takahashi ◽

Paulo Henrique Muller Henrique Prado

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Media Use ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Business Organizations ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Content Type ◽

Sales Process ◽

Use Of Social Media ◽

Business To Business

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand how business-to-business organizations use social media during the sales process. Design/methodology/approach The meta-synthesis steps methodology (Hoon, 2013) was applied. Findings This study presents a theoretical framework and contributes to improved understanding of how business can use social media in the sales process stages. The results allow identifying stages, discussing the integration between marketing and sales and generating benefits for the organization. Originality/value The proposed framework helps in understanding the previously performed fragmented studies. This study shows that social media use not only influences the sales process stages and increases the benefits to the business but also works as a mediator in the relation between sales process stages and identified benefits.

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