The article is devoted to the problem of improving customer management in B2B markets in the context of digitalization. By analyzing the literature on the issues under study, the authors identified ...the main factors contributing to the transition from managing key customers to managing all the company’s customers in order to identify prospective customers, their development and strengthening relationships. Customer management based on the initial segmentation of customers, and then interaction with them in accordance with their position lead to a significant improvement in productivity. The analysis of foreign studies, as well as the survey conducted within the framework of this study, made it possible to justify the need to use modern strategies for managing key clients and marketing managing. The article identifies and systematizes the factors contributing to the effective implementation of strategies for managing key clients and marketing in the practical activities of modern companies, and also a questionnaire has been developed. The analysis of the research, in turn, revealed promising areas in the management of all the company’s clients, such as the gradual introduction of digital marketing methods, the use of technological advances (artificial intelligence and cloud computing), the provision of more personalized experience, the creation of scalable strategies, the development and implementation of domestic digital platforms for managing all the company’s clients.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies use message strategies on social media platform and how these strategies are effective in improving customer perceived ...value and encouraging customer engagement, as well as how B2B companies differ from business-to-customer (B2C) counterparts in terms of utilization and effectiveness of social media message strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on content analysis of Sina Weibo brand pages and survey of website visitors, this paper examines the differences of social media message strategies and their impacts upon customer perceived value and customer engagement between B2B and B2C companies.
Findings
B2B companies use more rational appeals and less emotional appeals, have lower degree of informativeness and perform better in interactivity and variety than B2C companies. These five dimensions of message strategy have different roles in engaging customers via perceived value across B2B and B2C settings.
Originality/value
The research makes significant contributions to B2B social media marketing literature by answering two interrelated questions, namely, “What companies are doing?” and “What companies should do?” on social media websites. Besides, it provides insightful implications for B2B companies on how to implement appropriate message strategies in their social media marketing efforts by conducting Importance-Performance Analysis.
The five-level active neutral-point-clamped (5L-ANPC) converter has a great application potential in high power variable-frequency drives with high and medium voltage. However, the traditional method ...for capacitor voltage buildup is not applicable to the capacitors inside the back-to-back (B2B) 5L-ANPC converter. To solve this problem, the topological features of the B2B-5L-ANPC converter are fully analyzed, and a capacitor voltage precharge strategy for this converter is also proposed in this article. With this strategy, all the capacitors in the converter can be charged by controlling the on and off states of switch tubes in the bridge arm, no additional hardware is needed. Moreover, the structural features of the voltage booster circuit were examined in four stages, and used to derive the capacitor voltage buildup formula in each stage. In addition, the relationship between voltage buildup rate, equivalent precharge resistor, and capacity of capacitor is identified. Finally, simulation results from a B2B-5L-ANPC simulation model which is constructed according to the actual system parameters and experimental results from a scaled-down prototype are provided to support the proposed control strategy.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of users’ simulated experience in a virtual store and to show the subsequent impact of that experience on engagement. The outcome of ...that engagement is examined in relation to enjoyment, satisfaction and purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The method comprised an experiment comparing users’ perceptions of a standard 2D online clothing store with an enhanced, immersive one that aimed to provide shopping value approaching that of a traditional store by using a 3D experience where participants wore special glasses and a data glove.
Findings
Results demonstrate the major role of telepresence components in simulated experience and the critical role of that experience, along with hedonic and utilitarian values, in engagement. Purchase intention is influenced by satisfaction, which is in turn influenced by enjoyment and engagement. Engagement in turn is influenced by utilitarian and hedonic value and the experience of product simulation or telepresence, which is composed of control, colour and graphics vividness, and 3D authenticity. In the immersive, 3D environment, experience is more associated with engagement and enjoyment, leading to greater purchase intention. The immersive, 3D environment, thus, has the potential to rival traditional shopping in terms of experience, resulting in higher sales for retailers and satisfaction for consumers.
Originality/value
This work has evaluated a robust model of purchase intention and demonstrated it to hold not only in a 3D environment on a conventional computer platform, but also in an immersive one, where participants wear special glasses and a data glove.
Social media message strategy is critical in determining how customers will engage with B2B firms on social media platforms. The present study examined the role of message source (i.e., ...firm-generated vs. employee-generated) and message content (i.e., emojis and objective information) in determining social media engagement. Four experiments were conducted to test the proposed relationships. The study findings revealed that employee-generated content leads to higher social media engagement (i.e., intentions and behaviors) than firm-generated content. Content-based trust and engagement-based trust were found to be the underlying mechanisms by which message source impacts social media engagement. Furthermore, we observed that, for an employee-generated message, including emojis has a greater impact on customer engagement than when they are included in a firm-generated message. Finally, no evidence was found concerning the effectiveness of incorporating objective information in social media messages on customer engagement. These findings have marked implications for B2B marketers in developing effective social media message strategies.
•Message source influences social media engagement.•Employee-generated content results in higher social media engagement than firm-generated content.•Trust is the underlying mechanism by which message source influences social media engagement.•Emojis accentuate the effect of employee-generated content on social media engagement.
Purpose
This study aims to map the major research constituents and trends for the
Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing
(JBIM) during its 34-year history (1986–2019). It also identifies JBIM’s ...thematic structure and the key factors affecting the impact of its articles.
Design/methodology/approach
The Scopus database is used to identify the bibliographic data of JBIM. The most prolific authors, institutions and countries in the journal are analyzed through weighted distributions of articles. The thematic structure of the journal is evaluated by means of bibliographic coupling analysis. The study also examines the factors influencing citations of JBIM articles through regression modeling.
Findings
JBIM publishes contributions from around the world, though the most prolific contributors are affiliated with the USA, UK and Finland. Thematic analysis divided JBIM articles into five major themes. Citation analysis reveals that article age, special issue appearance, number of author keywords and number of references are prominent factors explaining an article’s impact.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses data from the Scopus database, and limitations of the database have implications for the findings.
Originality/value
This is the first comprehensive study to identify the thematic structure and the factors affecting citations of JBIM articles.
It is now widely accepted that firms should direct more effort into retaining existing customers than to attracting new ones. To achieve this, customers likely to defect need to be identified so that ...they can be approached with tailored incentives or other bespoke retention offers. Such strategies call for predictive models capable of identifying customers with higher probabilities of defecting in the relatively near future. A review of the extant literature on customer churn models reveals that although several predictive models have been developed to model churn in B2C contexts, the B2B context in general, and non-contractual settings in particular, have received less attention in this regard. Therefore, to address these gaps, this study proposes a data-mining approach to model non-contractual customer churn in B2B contexts. Several modeling techniques are compared in terms of their ability to predict true churners. The best performing data-mining technique (boosting) is then applied to develop a profit maximizing retention campaign. Results confirm that the model driven approach to churn prediction and developing retention strategies outperforms commonly used managerial heuristics.
•Introduces data mining models to predict customer churn in B2B contexts.•Finds that the boosting technique performs best in terms of its ability to predict true churners.•Proposes a profitability metric to maximize the profit of a retention campaign.•Tests the performance of the proposed model on transactional data from a major Australian FMCG retailer.•Results confirm that the model driven approach to churn management outperforms commonly used managerial heuristics.
Purpose
In the era of digital disruption and customer loyalty loss, it has become even more important to shape the experience journey of a firm’s stakeholders. The benefits of experience data (XD) ...analysis for a competitive advantage and firm performance are well proven in the business-to-customer context. Therefore, this study aims to explore the limited exploitation of XD in the business-to-business (B2B) context.
Design/methodology/approach
The data of 338 B2B firms is generated through computer-assisted telephone interviewing using a structured interview guideline. A Mann–Whitney U test and binary linear regression are applied to test hypotheses derived from literature.
Findings
The results suggest that XD non-collectors see XD increase efficiency, whereas XD collectors view XD strategically beyond customer data. Additionally, the successful application of XD in firms can be fostered by connecting XD with operational data through digitalised processes, strategic usage and data collection at certain defined points of time.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the understanding of XD perception between collectors and non-collectors and develops determinants for the successful application of XD management. Based on the results, B2B marketing executives from academics and practice can foster the implementation of XD management to improve all firm’s stakeholders’ experiences. In this way, this study contributes to the understanding of managing not only customers’ but other stakeholders’ experiences.
We develop an overarching model to explain the adoption of business-to-business e-commerce using five business factors: external environment, organizational context, decision-maker’s characteristics, ...technology context, and organizational learning. Data collected from IS executives was analyzed using logistic regression. Our model has a good fit with over 77 % variance explained. Findings indicate that the existence of informal interest groups, and the tolerant attitude of decision makers towards negative information about business-to-business e-commerce have significant influence on the adoption decision. In addition, our results indicate that price intensity and perceived barriers negatively affect the adoption decision.
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