The use of social media in a B2B context

The advent of Web 2.0 has created new ways to communicate, collaborate and share content (Enders et al. 2008). Social media builds on the technological and ideological foundations of Web 2.0 (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010) and encompasses the “activities, practices, and behaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media” (Safko and Brake 2009: 6). Social media, or otherwise ‘user-generated communication’, now represents a prevalent source of information; it has changed the tools and strategies companies use to communicate, highlighting that the information control now lies with the customer (Mangold & Faulds 2009). Despite the popularity of social media (SM) and in particular social networking sites (SNS), their importance in shaping commercial online interaction (Mislove et al. 2007) and their potential to support brands (Christodoulides 2009), research into SNS is very limited, and focuses largely on the consumer in a B2C domain. To date, there is paucity of systematic research on how SNS are used by companies, particularly B2B companies, and how they contribute to brand objectives. Anecdotal evidence (e.g. Shih 2009) suggests that SM is important for B2B companies. B2B companies can use SM and specifically SNS such as Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate with their customers and suppliers, build relationships and trust, as well as to identify prospective partners in terms of B2B selling (Shih, 2009). Recently, Michaelidou et al. (2011) examined the usage of SNS by B2B SMEs and identified a number of perceived benefits including attracting new customers, cultivating relationships, increasing awareness, communicating brands, receiving feedback and interacting with suppliers. Further, the adoption of SM by B2B sales forces has been found to improve sales processes and relationship sales performance (Rodriguez et al. 2012). This study builds on the limited literature on SM in a B2B context and aims to identify the extent of SNS usage, perceived benefits and barriers as well as common metrics used by B2B organisations

The impact of comparative affective states on online brand perceptions: a five-country study

The impact of comparative affective states on online brand perceptions: a five-country stud

The Behavioural Effects of Consumer Ethnocentrism: The moderating role of product category, brand and country of origin

Purpose – Despite the well-established impact of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) on purchase intentions, extant literature offers limited evidence on actual purchase behaviour. This study addresses this gap by investigating the factors underlying variations in consumer ethnocentric behaviour using reported brand purchases. Product category, product cost and visibility, brand and country of origin of purchased products are investigated for their impact on the differences in the behavioural effects of CET. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses survey data collected in the United States from a sample of 468 consumers. Self-reported brand purchases are used and involve 10 product categories, 432 brands, and 22 countries of origin. Logistic regressions for repeated measures are used to test the hypotheses formulated. Findings – The results confirm that product category is an important determinant of the behavioural effects of CET. CET also has a significant impact on purchases of the most expensive product categories rather than frequently purchased convenient items. Contrary to existing empirical evidence, cultural similarity does not mitigate the negative effects of CET and product visibility does not strengthen the behavioural effect of CET. Practical implications – The study results should enhance managers’ understanding of the determinants of ethnocentric behaviour. The results caution managers about the value of self-reported measures and indicate that product features other than country of origin may be more effective in mitigating the negative effects of CET. Originality/value – This study contributes to extant literature on CET and country of origin by investigating, for the first time, the problem of inconsistent predictions of purchase behaviour in the context of foreign versus domestic brands. For this purpose, the study adopted a novel methodological approach to investigate actual brand purchases

Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations

Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organization

Avoiding the brand for me, us, or them? Consumer reactions to negative brand events

Consumers react negatively to wrongdoings by brands. In this regard, managers often struggle to allocate their recovery resources effectively, as some consumers react more negatively to incidents that affect only themselves while others react more strongly to events that affect many people. In three experiments, we examine how consumers react to negative brand events (NBEs) that only affect themselves (i.e., personal scope) and NBEs that affect many people, including or excluding themselves (i.e., communal scope or external scope). Drawing on self-bias theory, we find that consumers experience stronger feelings of betrayal following an NBE with a personal (vs communal or external) scope, which in turn drives avoidance. We show that this effect may be mitigated if consumers are less self-focused (i.e., score low in grandiose narcissism or egocentric selfishness) or are from a less self-focused culture (i.e., collectivists). This research provides actionable implications for brand managers regarding NBEs

UK consumers’ perceived risk of buying products from emerging economies : a moderated mediation model

While considerable research has been conducted on consumer attitude towards foreign products, most of these studies focuses on the attitude of products from Western developed countries. Our study intends to investigate the effects of consumers’ national identification and culture sensitivity on their perceived risk of buying products from Eastern developing countries. Especially, this study advances the literature by identifying the mediation effect of consumer ethnocentrism and the moderating effect of consumer value consciousness. Taking China and India as focal emerging economies, the consumer survey (n=308) in the UK produced the following results. First, UK consumers’ national identification is positively related to their perceived risk of buying eastern products through consumer ethnocentrism, whilst their cultural sensitivity has a negative relationship. Second, the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on the perceived risk of buying eastern products is moderated by consumer value consciousness. Third, value consciousness also attenuates the indirect relationships between national identification / cultural sensitivity and perceived risk via consumer ethnocentrism

Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations

This study contributes to the current dearth of knowledge on the potential of social media as a marketing tool in industrial settings, by focusing on factors that determine social media adoption by B2B organizations. A conceptual model, which draws on the technology acceptance model and resource-based theory, is developed and tested using quantitative data from B2B organizations in the UK. Findings suggest that perceived usefulness of social media within B2B organizational contexts is determined by image, perceived ease of use and perceived barriers. Additionally, the results show that adoption of social media is significantly affected by organizational innovativeness and perceived usefulness. The moderating role of organizational innovativeness is also tested but no support is found. The findings of the study are further validated via nine qualitative interviews with B2B senior managers, yielding additional interesting and in-depth insights into the drivers of social media adoption by B2B organizations