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The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the B2B customers’ perspective regarding salespeople’s social media use.

The study adopts a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 26 key informants performing their job in customer role in various industries.

The authors inductively identify five themes regarding the B2B customers’ perspective of social media use in B2B selling. These themes allow for valuable implications for social selling activities and expected outcomes.

Against a growing body of literature on drivers, best practices and outcomes of social media use by B2B salespeople, less attention has been paid to the customer’s side. The authors extend current research by providing a more complete picture of social selling activities and expected outcomes.

This study aims to explore what characteristics contribute to the definition of relevance in business-to-business (B2B) marketing research and how/why different strands of B2B marketing maintain or lose their relevance.

This study is conceptual. It adopts a performative-phenomenal standpoint for B2B marketing research and approaches relevance through the concept of episteme, which is considered pivotal for understanding this phenomenon.

This study proposes four axioms that define the characteristics of relevance in B2B marketing research and discusses their implications for scholars and practitioners. Consequently, an action plan for revitalizing B2B marketing research is developed, comprising learning and temporal dimensions, resulting in nine different relevance types.

The central argument put forward in this study is that different research strands of B2B marketing have deeply rooted epistemic underpinnings that influence their interpretation of relevance. Consequently, fostering dialogue between practitioners and scholars is considered necessary to sustain relevance in B2B marketing research. B2B scholars are urged to think beyond their subspecialized silos and acknowledge how the business environment and the various strands of B2B marketing congruently shape B2B marketing relevance, while also embracing research methods that bring them closer to business practice.

Marketing practitioners and academics continue to drift apart. This study puts forward three recommendations to bring marketing academics and practitioners closer together.

The study contributes to the B2B marketing literature by grappling with the theory-praxis gap and critically exploring what constitutes relevance in B2B marketing research.

Cause-related B2B marketing programs involve sponsoring organisations working with B2B suppliers with the help of non-profit organisations (NPOs) on practises relating to environmental friendliness, workforce diversity, human rights, safety, philanthropy and business ethics. The study aims to identify the combinatory factors driving the adoption of Digital B2B platforms for managing cause-related B2B marketing programs.

The study adopts an innovative approach of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on data collated from top corporations in India supporting cause-related B2B marketing programs. Sponsoring organisations and NPO dyads (i.e. survey both) filled out an email survey on 264 cause-related B2B marketing programs.

The study establishes that the combination of technological, organisational and environmental factors would lead to the adoption of Digital B2B platforms in managing cause-related B2B marketing programs. The study identifies six combinations of these factors for adopting Digital B2B platforms within and across sponsoring organisations and NPOs.

The study findings would aid cause-related B2B marketers in developing Digital B2B platforms’ capabilities by understanding the different combinations of factors driving adoption. Digital B2B platforms’ capabilities can improve market performance if developed as core competencies.

The study findings would enable improvements in the implementation and performance of cause-related B2B marketing programs. Better management of cause-related B2B marketing programs would help increase beneficiary coverage and the realisation of societal goals.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to apply the TOE framework in conjunction with complexity theory to explain the diffusion of adoption of Digital B2B platforms for managing cause-related B2B marketing programs.

This study aims to focus on a specific project marketing concept, i.e. “discontinuity,” and analyzes how this concept emerged in project marketing, becoming its key scholarly embodiment, how it became decoupled from the increasingly service-intensive project business practice and what the relevance of discontinuity is for project marketers moving forward.

This study is built on a systematic literature review of 31 years (1993–2023) of publishing data from major marketing and management journals.

This study provides three findings. First, the author reveals the risks related to marketing scholars and practitioners losing sight of each other as business practices evolve much faster than scholarly research can keep up. Second, the author highlights the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing conceptual innovations. Finally, the research elucidates the need for broader metatheoretical reflection to keep this research tradition on an upward trajectory.

The aim of this study is not to criticize project marketing, as many strands of business-to-business (B2B) marketing face the same challenge, but to elucidate a need for conceptual innovations, collaboration with practitioners and other disciplines and broader metatheoretical reflection to keep this research tradition on an upward trajectory.

This study makes several contributions to the project marketing research tradition. First, it reviews the emergence and dissipation of the concept of discontinuity, drawing on semantical, etymological and epistemological insights. It also reflects on recent disruptions in the marketplace and envisions future research trajectories for this elusive concept. In addition, the author develops a conceptual framework that combines project types with exchange elements in project and service businesses. This conceptual framework helps elucidate what part of the exchange is continuing and what is discontinuing in the resulting business relationships. Furthermore, the research contributes to B2B marketing more broadly by highlighting the fleeting correspondence between theory and the real world. It underscores the need for constant updates to maintain relevance.

The role of procurement managers is crucial for diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. Whether or not they are willing to pay for sustainability is an important and not yet fully understood question. The authors examine antecedents and consequences of their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainability.

The authors develop a multi-level framework to examine the WTP for sustainability in a B2B context. The authors test this multi-level framework with 372 procurement managers from multiple sectors and countries using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The authors find that individual values of procurement managers and institutional pressures directly, while ethical organizational culture indirectly influence WTP for sustainability. Functional and cognitive competencies of procurement managers improve the sustainability of procurement, but not WTP for sustainability. Importantly, WTP for sustainability directly influences the performance of the procurement function which in turn is positively associated with increased organizational performance.

The study, examining the interplay between individual, organizational and contextual factors, provides empirical evidence on the pivotal role of procurement managers in diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. The findings of the study, on the one hand, contribute to the literature on operations management and sustainability, and on the other hand, guide policy and managerial actions.

Research in the business-to-business (B2B) and user entrepreneurship literature agrees that “user-driven” perspectives allow entrepreneurs to develop innovative products superior to conventional products. Other researchers argue that such “user-driven” products have limited success and limited impact in certain markets (e.g. niche and industrial markets). This study aims to understand the extent to which user input or co-creation becomes critical in determining product performance.

The key informant approach is used for data collection. Data were collected using a survey instrument via an online panel. Existing scales are used to measure all the focal constructs. Partial least square-based structural equation modeling was used to check for the psychometric properties of the scales and test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that user entrepreneurship is significantly related to firm collaboration efforts and customer collaboration efforts in the B2B market. Both firm collaboration efforts and customer collaboration efforts are significantly related to product performance and mediate the relationship between user entrepreneurship and product performance. Also, findings show that there is an “n” relationship between firm collaboration efforts and product performance.

This study supports the concerns raised by researchers about the dark side of value co-creation and highlights that value co-creation can impede product performance when user entrepreneurs lay too much emphasis on the collaboration processes.

This study aims to investigate the role of team problem-solving creativity in new product development (NPD) in the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) in business-to-business firms. This study synthesizes perspectives from NPD, creativity and leadership to examine how work-related factors such as NPD managers’ role ambiguity and individual-related factors such as CEO’s ambidextrous leadership style interact to determine team problem-solving creativity and its effect on new product performance (NPP).

The hypotheses are tested using data from a multi-informant survey of 274 middle-level managers within 137 local BoP manufacturing firms in a sub-Saharan African country.

The results show that an NPD team’s ability to solve problems creatively determines NPP in BoP markets. The findings also show that NPD managers’ role ambiguity has a negative effect on team problem-solving creativity. However, a CEO’s ambidextrous leadership neutralizes the negative impact of role ambiguity on problem-solving creativity.

This study combines three distinct streams of literature, including NPD, creativity and leadership, to explore the antecedents and outcomes of problem-solving creativity. Drawing on creativity and leadership theories, this study reports that the success of creative idea exchanges depends heavily on a supportive environment for NPD team members and minimizing the NPD manager’s role ambiguity.

This study aims to examine the differences in the impact of three leadership styles (transactional, transformational and creative) on intraorganizational online knowledge-sharing and employee creativity. Specifically, we use self-determination theory (SDT) to examine the impact of these three leadership styles on four aspects of online knowledge sharing (knowledge donating, knowledge collecting, lurking and active lurking) and the moderating role of organizational innovation on these relationships.

Data were collected from 361 employees of business-to-business organizations in Vietnam to support all our hypotheses. Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.

Transformational, transactional and creative leadership were found to affect online knowledge sharing, wherein creative leadership had the most potent effect. Online knowledge sharing was found to mediate the impact of three types of leadership on employee creativity. The results also showed that organizational innovation moderates the influence of leadership on online knowledge sharing.

This paper extends the current knowledge management research on online knowledge sharing by studying two new behaviors (lurking and active lurking), linking diverse leadership styles to these behaviors and employee creativity, and exploring the moderating role of organizational innovation. Our findings shed light on the complexity of the relationship between leadership and online knowledge sharing. This study also provides valuable implications for practitioners to help them choose the most appropriate leadership style for their digitalization process to ensure optimal outcomes.

Agriculture is one sector where the Internet of things (IoT) is expected to make a major impact. Yet, its adoption in the sector falls behind expectations. The purpose of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of IoT in agriculture and investigate its slow adoption in the sector.

The authors have undertaken a systematic review and a synthesis of 1355 relevant publications over the last decade.

This literature review reveals that the “big three” barriers for the overall sector are cost, skills and standardization. The lack of connectivity and data governance are two key reasons why most of the proposed IoT solutions are standalone systems of limited scope, while the majority of commercial IoT efforts focus on practices in the protected indoor environment. Lastly, the analysis of past research along the five layers of the IoT system architecture reveals limited attention to barriers and solutions at the business layer, which represents a research opportunity for information systems scholars.

It is possible that some of relevant publications were missed in the literature search, although the search queries were kept as broad as possible to avoid the exclusion of any relevant work. Any publication written in any other language other than English was excluded from the review. Given the geographical distribution of the reviewed English publications (see section 4.1), it is highly likely that important works written by Chinese and European scholars in their native language were overlooked.

This study provides practical insights into the technical and organisational challenges on the ground. It is the hope that this literature review lays the groundwork for IS researchers who are well positioned to investigate technology adoption challenges in the relatively understudied agriculture sector.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review of adoption barriers and solutions across all five layers of the IoT system architecture.

This study aims to delve into entrepreneurs’ perceptions and interpretations of short video marketing on TikTok.

In light of the study’s exploratory nature, a qualitative approach was used. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 17 entrepreneurs to uncover their insights on short video marketing via TikTok. Data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis and NVivo, and rigorous measures were in place to ensure the quality of the study.

This study’s findings suggested that entrepreneurs’ usage of TikTok is customer-oriented, with the purposes of promoting their businesses, generating word-of-mouth and managing customer relationships. As such, the gratification of connection with their audience, entertainment and information provision needs motivate entrepreneurs’ use of TikTok for social media marketing. Additionally, entrepreneurs’ use of TikTok may also contribute to their gratification of creativity and spontaneity needs, which may otherwise be limited in the context of other social media platforms.

This study expands the previous literature on entrepreneurship, social media marketing and the uses and gratification approach by revealing the specifics, nuances and dynamics of TikTok marketing from the entrepreneurs’ emic perspective.