Linking BI competency and assimilation through absorptive capacity: a conceptual framework

Business intelligence (BI) can help support decision-making processes and so contribute to improved BI assimilation and organisational performance. However, a BI undertaking may be effective and profitable for some organisations but not others. How can these differing outcomes be explained for those firms that have adopted BI systems? Drawing on the literature pertaining to absorptive capacity theory, IT competency, and BI assimilation we develop a conceptual framework to investigate the relationships between BI competency, absorptive capacity, and BI assimilation. This research provides insights for BI stakeholders in understanding the mediating role of organisational absorptive capacity within a complex BI environment, enabling many organisations that have implemented BI to leverage the benefits from their costly investments. The conceptual framework provides a sound basis for further research to shed light on the effects of BI competency and organisational absorptive capacity on BI assimilation. Contributions to research and practice are discussed

LINKING BI COMPETENCY AND ASSIMILATION THROUGH ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract Business intelligence (BI

Business Intelligence Enables Greater Efficiency When Strategically Designed and Tactically Implemented

This paper was completed as part of the final research component in the University of Oregon Applied Information Management Master's Degree Program [see htpp://aim.uoregon.edu].This annotated bibliography summarizes 32 articles published between 2000 and 2011 that address the question Why should a company adopt a strategic approach to business intelligence (BI) and business analysis (BA)in addition to specific tactical approaches, to achieve potential efficiency gains? Factors are identified related to system design, employee education, and technology to capture, store and analyze high quality data. The goal is to present upper managers a set of key factors for implementation success

Inside sales social media use and its strategic implications for salesperson-customer digital engagement and performance

Highlights Inside salespeople rely on four main strategies when it comes to using social media in their roles to engage with customers. Inside sales strategic social media use leads to higher levels of customer digital engagement and, ultimately, performance. Firm digital technology resources may shape the effects of inside sales strategic social media use. Abstract The nature of inside sales has shifted, increasing in autonomy, importance, and scope. Moreover, buyers are changing their preferences from face-to-face interactions to virtual-based relationships, leading to a future full of opportunities for inside salespeople using social media. The practitioner literature suggests that inside sales represent the sales business model of the digital era and a distinct strategic selling approach. While there has been a recent surge in theoretical research on inside sales, extant research fails to explore how and why inside salespeople uses social media as a critical tool. Research on social media use in sales has neglected to consider the growing role of inside sales, where sellers lack the opportunity to meet with customers face-to-face and must routinely rely on remote communication to interact with customers. As such, we use a grounded theory approach to investigate the “lived experiences” of inside salespeople at the intersection with social media in sales. Emergent from our findings is a framework depicting: inside sales strategic social media use → inside salesperson-customer digital engagement → inside sales performance. We also find that firm digital technology resources serve as enablement factors that shape the effects of the social media strategies that inside salespeople use

Artificial intelligence in business-to-business marketing: a bibliometric analysis of current research status, development and future directions

Purpose-Although the value of AI has been acknowledged by companies, the literature shows challenges concerning AI-enabled B2B marketing innovation, as well as the diversity of roles AI can play in this regard. Accordingly, this study investigates the approaches that AI can be used for enabling B2B marketing innovation. Design/methodology/approach-Applying a bibliometric research method, this study systematically investigates the literature regarding AI-enabled B2B marketing. It synthesises state-of-the-art knowledge from 221 journal articles published between 1990 and 2021. Findings-Apart from offering specific information regarding the most influential authors and most frequently cited articles, the study further categorises the use of AI for innovation in B2B marketing into five domains, identified the main trends in the literature, and suggest directions for future research. Practical implications-Through our identified five domains, practitioners can assess their current use of AI ability in terms of their conceptualisation capability, technological applications, and identify their future needs in the relevant domains in order to make appropriate decisions on whether to invest in AI. Thus, the research outcomes can help companies to realise their digital marketing innovation strategy through AI. Originality/value-While more and more studies acknowledge the potential value of AI in B2B marketing, few attempts have been made to synthesise the literature. The results from the study can contribute by 1) obtaining and comparing the most influential works based on a series of analyses; 2) identifying five domains of research into how AI can be used for facilitating B2B marketing innovation; and 3) classifying relevant articles into five different time periods in order to identify both past trends and future directions in this specific field

Aligning marketing and sales - the case of marketing automation in Finnish B2B companies

People are spending increasing amounts of time in digital channels and making purchasing decisions online. During recent years marketing has been under increasing pressure to adapt to this changing customer behavior. The megatrend of digitalization poses new possibilities and threats to all business units, but especially marketing and sales need to find new ways to interact with customers in digital channels. New products are continuously introduced in the marketing technology field, and companies are facing tough decisions on how and what technologies they should invest in to enhance their customer experience and operational effectiveness of marketing and sales. One of the most talked concepts in marketing at the moment, especially in B2B domain, is marketing automation. At the same time, almost every company claims to aim for a customer-centric organization and service experience. Becoming customer-centric requires seamless alignment of marketing and sales, and the early evidence from the field of marketing automation suggests that marketing automation can act as an integrator between marketing and sales to enable that alignment. The purpose of this research is to identify, analyze and categorize what kind of problems Finnish companies encounter when aligning their B2B marketing-sales interface with a marketing automation system. In addition, this research aims to clarify what does a successful marketing automation adaption require in the marketing-sales interface. The theoretical framework of the research is formed from the scattered research field of marketing-sales alignment. Mostly unresearched field of marketing automation and the field of technology as an integrator of marketing and sales are also present in the theory section for better understanding of the context. The research was conducted as an inductive qualitative case research with open and semi-structured interviews. A grounded theory approach was applied for data generation and analysis, where these two phases complemented each other in parallel. Six marketing consultants and six in-house organization experts were interviewed for this research. The key dimensions where Finnish companies seem to face troubles when aligning their sales and marketing with a marketing automation system can be broadly categorized under vision, culture, structure, process and people. Under these dimensions the success themes that emerged from the interview data, by the means of grounded theory, were top-management team, development prioritization, expectations management, data-driven culture, marcomms and sales structure, integrators, metrics, content production and distribution, roles and language, sales activities, customer knowledge generation, knowledge dissemination, incentives and rewards, and training and hiring of people. These themes are the ones that a company planning on investing in a marketing automation platform should revise. The findings of this research indicate that companies aligning their sales-marketing interface with marketing automation system face several aspects that need to be addressed, or the return on investment of a marketing automation system may turn out poor. The findings also support that a marketing automation project should be treated as a business development project, not merely a technology project