ABSTRACT
Given the indirect role of social media in value creation, the article “Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales” by Agnihotri, Dingus, Hu, and Krush (2016) is notable for highlighting the role of social media as an antecedent to value generation within the sales process. Considering the fast pace at which knowledge of the impact of social media within B2B sales is developing, we critically appraise Agnihotri et al.'s work and position it within the emerging literature on social media communication in the sales process. We conclude with a research agenda identifying a diverse set of new directions for investigating social media within the sales process.
5. Conclusions
The work of Agnihotri et al. (2016) provides an important step toward understanding, at both a practical and a theoretical level, the use of social media as a tool within sales processes. Specifically, by highlighting the indirect role of social media communication as an antecedent to customer satisfaction, their study pinpoints a role for social media that is grounded in the reality of B2B marketing. Their work illustrates a central point about the study of social media in B2B marketing—namely, to generate value from social media, marketing strategies must be aligned with the specific dynamics and characteristics of the value chains existing in B2B sales contexts. At the same time, Agnihotri et al. underscore the potentially transformative role of social media in how B2B marketing will operate in the future. In our research agenda, we aimed to identify the diversity of areas in which this transformation may occur. In conclusion, we hope that this review will encourage scholars to undertake further empirical work to generate more evidence of the specific benefits and risks of social media, most notably in expanding knowledge of the consumer perspective.
