دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی بینش ها در مورد پذیرش بازاریابی رسانه های اجتماعی در خدمات B2B - امرالد 2018

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review extant literature on social media marketing (SMM) in B2B service markets, by scrutinizing and categorizing potential benefits for firms. The study, in particular, empirically investigates the adoption of social media (SM) tools by firms operating in two conservative B2B service industries. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review is carried out driving to a deeper understanding of the current state of knowledge on SM in B2B services. Leading peer-review international journals are scrutinized performing ad-hoc queries on the Scopus database using pre-defined keywords. Moreover, a quantitative research is conducted on 60 firms, i.e. tanker shipping companies and ocean carriers, providing empirical insights on their SM activity on three SM platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Findings – The outcomes from sample firms shed lights on the adoption rate of the most diffused SM tools, the size of the digital networks of stakeholders (number of followers), the intensity of the communication activity (number of posts, shares, photos, videos), and the level of customer engagement (number of likes and shares). Practical implications – Research findings suggest to managers that SMM might be an easy-accessible and low-cost option for keeping the pace of sectorial transformations and creating a competitive advantage even in conservative sectors. Originality/value – The paper, by investigating B2B service sectors, addresses an interesting gap in SMM literature as prior studies mostly focused on B2C industries and manufacturing contexts.

6. Limitations and conclusion This manuscript investigates the adoption and use of SM tools by B2B service companies operating in conservative businesses. In particular, the paper aims at reviewing extant literature on SMM in B2B service contexts (RO1), scrutinizing and categorizing potential benefits which originate from the adoption of SM tools by B2B service firms operating in conservative industries (RO2), and empirically analyzing their current use of SMM tools (RO3).

As concerns RO1, the findings suggest that although academic contributions related to B2C businesses outnumber studies dedicated to B2B companies, appreciable efforts have been recently done in this direction.

Current studies have analyzed the role of SM marketing tools: supporting innovation activities and co-creation in B2B contexts; developing supply chain relations; fostering positive WoM from customers. Antecedents of SM usage and barriers for SM adoption constitute further valuable fields of investigation until so far, whereas conversations between firms and customers and interactions among customers are still underexplored. Nonetheless, a gap in extant literature on SMM in B2B services remains. Up to now, only few studies have investigated the advantages related to the adoption of SMM tools in B2B services.

Consistent with RO2, we grouped benefits stemming from the adoption of SMM, according to the main target of each SMM activity (i.e. customer, employees as well as supply chain and business community). In addition, we disarticulated the group of benefits related to customers, along with each phase of the marketing process. Our conceptual framework suggests that SM can affect the entire marketing process of B2B service firms, even if operating in conservative industries.