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Cold calling being one of the most preferred modes of sales strategies in the past, with all digital platforms setting in, is it still the best option a B2B service firm has? To seek answer to this interesting question is the purpose of this paper. The study seeks to understand the contributions of both the sales force and the digital marketing team towards lead conversion. The paper also aims to derive a sense-making model for lead conversion based on a few propositions of the study.

The authors have adopted mixed method approach. The authors have chosen a small enterprise offering B2B services to understand the sales process. The past one-year cold calling data were analyzed. In addition, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted among the managers and the executives of the firm. The study adopts the AIDA model of customer response and the stages of selling process to better map the sales process of the firm. Based on the analysis, a new model is proposed to aid lead conversions.

The findings suggest that cold calling is not an effective mode of sales strategies in this case as the firm experienced a very low conversion rate. However, with the integration of digital marketing efforts with sales process, the sales team could achieve higher conversion rate.

Very few studies in the literature examines the effectiveness of cold calling strategy integrated with digital marketing efforts. This is one of the few studies examining cold calling strategy in B2B service firm in India.

The aim of this chapter is to reflect on the strengths of the different core concepts within the dual marketing (DM) arena; evaluate the strategic features of these core concepts in practice; assess how these concepts may provide insights into the development and management of DM; investigate how organisations manage their DM strategy and the extent to which stakeholders are involved in this process; explore how to manage and develop the DM strategy in different settings and contexts.

This paper studies the Digital Service Innovation (DSI) concept by systematically reviewing earlier studies from various scholarly communities. This study aims to recognize how recent advances in DSI literature from different research streams complement and can be incorporated into the growing digital servitization literature to define better and understand DSI.

After systematically identifying 123 relevant articles, this study employed complementary methods, such as author bibliographic coupling, linguistic text mining/textual analysis and qualitative content analyses.

This paper first maps the intellectual structure and boundaries of the DSI-related communities and qualitatively assesses their characteristics. These communities are (1) Innovation for digital servitization, (2) Service innovation in the digital age and (3) Adoption of novel e-services enabled by information system development. Next, the composition of the DSI concept is examined and depicted to comprehend the notion's critical dimensions. The findings discuss the range of theories and methods in the existing research, including antecedents, processes and outcomes of DSI.

This study reviews, extends the understanding of origins and critically evaluates DSI-related research. Moreover, the paper redefines and clarifies the structure and boundaries of the DSI-concept. In doing so, it elaborates on the substance of DSI and identifies the essential themes for its understanding and conceptualization. Thus, the study helps the future development of the concept and allows knowledge accumulation by bridging adjacent research communities. It helps researchers and managers navigate the foggy emerging research landscape.

The purpose of this study is to present a systematic literature review of academic peer-reviewed articles in English published between 2005 and 2021. The articles were reviewed based on the following features: research topic, conceptual and theoretical characterization, artificial intelligence (AI) methods and techniques.

This study examines the extent to which AI features within academic research in retail industry and aims to consolidate existing knowledge, analyse the development on this topic, clarify key trends and highlight gaps in the scientific literature concerning the role of AI in retail.

The findings of this study indicate an increase in AI literature within the field of retailing in the past five years. However, this research field is fairly fragmented in scope and limited in methodologies, and it has several gaps. On the basis of a structured topic allocation, a total of eight priority topics were identified and highlighted that (1) optimizing the retail value chain and (2) improving customer expectations with the help of AI are key topics in published research in this field.

This study is based on academic peer-reviewed articles published before July 2021; hence, scientific outputs published after the moment of writing have not been included.

This study contributes to the in-depth and systematic exploration of the extent to which retail scholars are aware of and working on AI. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first systematic literature review within retailing research dealing with AI technology.

The purpose of this paper is to explore innovations in customer experience at the intersection of the digital, physical and social realms. It explicitly considers experiences involving new technology-enabled services, such as digital twins and automated social presence (i.e. virtual assistants and service robots).

Future customer experiences are conceptualized within a three-dimensional space – low to high digital density, low to high physical complexity and low to high social presence – yielding eight octants.

The conceptual framework identifies eight “dualities,” or specific challenges connected with integrating digital, physical and social realms that challenge organizations to create superior customer experiences in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets. The eight dualities are opposing strategic options that organizations must reconcile when co-creating customer experiences under different conditions.

A review of theory demonstrates that little research has been conducted at the intersection of the digital, physical and social realms. Most studies focus on one realm, with occasional reference to another. This paper suggests an agenda for future research and gives examples of fruitful ways to study connections among the three realms rather than in a single realm.

This paper provides guidance for managers in designing and managing customer experiences that the authors believe will need to be addressed by the year 2050.

This paper discusses important societal issues, such as individual and societal needs for privacy, security and transparency. It sets out potential avenues for service innovation in these areas.

The conceptual framework integrates knowledge about customer experiences in digital, physical and social realms in a new way, with insights for future service research, managers and public policy makers.

Summarizes some of the key findings of academic papers presented at the First World Congress on the Management of Electronic Commerce, which took place in January, 2000, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, sponsored by McMaster University. The conference was attended by 243 delegates from more than 25 countries. Outlines two meta‐management issues including: the importance of taking a strategic approach to Internet ventures as well as considering infrastructure design during implementation. Several of the papers presented fell into three broad functional categories including operations, human resources and marketing. Finally, a summary of internationalization and education implications is discussed.

Big data analytics (BDA) plays a crucial role in understanding customer behavior through Customer Relationship Management (CRM), especially in a rapidly changing business environment. This paper investigates the direct effect of BDA use on market performance, besides the mediating effect through Big Data-enabled CRM strategies adoption (e.g. customization and personalization). The paper also examines the moderating role of competitive intensity in these effects.

Drawing from a knowledge-based view (KBV) and Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT), the authors formulated the research model. Subsequently, the measurement model and hypotheses were tested through PLS-SEM on online survey data of 229 managers from 167 companies out of Egypt's top 500.

The results indicated that BDA use does not directly affect the market performance, but this effect was significant through customization and personalization strategies adoption. The results also revealed a positive association between BDA use and the adoption of these strategies. Furthermore, competitive intensity only moderates the relationship between BDA use and personalization strategy adoption.

Companies can use BDA to improve customer knowledge and experience through customization and personalization, leading to better market performance and moving towards becoming a Big Data-driven organization. This study is limited to companies in the Egyptian context, which restricts the generalizability of the results.

This study conceptually and empirically explores how BDA usage, customization and personalization strategies impact market performance under competitive intensity situations, especially in the context of emerging markets.

The paper represents a starting point of a broader research project in strategic start-up communication. The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the current state of research in this area and to compare those insights with an explorative study on the start-up ecosystem.

A neo-institutional framework is combined with the dual narrative framework of strategic communication and emergence to explain the emergence of strategic communication in this organizational field (start-up ecosystems). Research questions are derived from a systematic literature review and subjected to exploratory testing in two different qualitative surveys, with experts and investors, reflecting an external perspective, and with start-ups themselves.

Results from the literature review and the explorative interviews with expert external actors indicate eight areas in which start-ups face strategic communication challenges: the basic orientation of strategic communication, branding, external image, stakeholder relations, allocation of financial resources, owner centricity, human resources and internal communication. External consultants and funders recommend highly planned approaches like target group-oriented communication, well thought-out positioning with uniform messages and precisely applied communication channels. However, the internal perspective of start-ups presents a contrary picture based on emergent products of strategic communication.

The study indicates the importance of both the emergence in strategic start-up communication and the demonstration of planned strategic communication. Investigating a whole start-up ecosystem in a country regarding the emergence of strategic communication forms, practices and products offers potential for cross-country comparative research.

The findings indicate key challenges of strategic communication of start-ups. Bearing in mind these key challenges when founding a start-up can make a difference in the success of the start-up.

The article presents the first systematic literature review in the area of strategic start-up communication and a theoretical framework for further investigation. Moreover, the results of the explorative study demonstrate the importance of the different forms of planning and emergence in strategic start-up communication. Hence, this paper provides practical implications for practitioners working and investing in the start-up ecosystem.

The purpose of this study is to examine the negotiation tactics used in business-to-business (B2B) negotiations in creative sectors and to shed light on some of the characteristics of creative sectors that might drive these behaviors.

This is a multiple-case study involving interviews with 18 creative sector negotiators engaged in B2B negotiations.

The findings suggest that negotiators in B2B firms in creative sectors use a variety of negotiation tactics to reach agreement, but that there are some differences compared with other sectors. One group of tactics, not represented in existing taxonomies, is identified and termed closure-seeking tactics, referring to tactics intended to speed up the negotiation process and reach agreement as quickly as possible. The reasons for creative sector negotiators’ choice of closure-seeking tactics might stem from their desire to expedite the start of new projects to enable them to fulfill their creative drive.

In addition to the identification of group of tactics observed in creative sectors, but not anticipated by existing research, the findings indicate that negotiators in creative sectors seem to lack interest in, and expertise for, negotiating and might be driven more by the desire to get on with the creative process than by concerns over monetary gains when negotiating. This could reflect unique characteristics of creative sectors and the people who work in these sectors.

This work offers new insights and understanding about tactics used in B2B negotiations in creative sectors. These findings have important implications for both practitioners in creative sectors, who might be too eager to reach closure quickly, and practitioners negotiating with firms in creative sectors, who need to understand the unique characteristics of these firms.

The originality of this work lies in its consideration of tactics used in B2B negotiations in the under-studied context of creative sectors and investigation of the reasons that drive the choice of tactics.