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This paper aims to investigate the influential aspects of industrial branding in building customer brand engagement from the buyer’s and the seller’s points of view. Collecting buyer and seller information is essential to understand business-to-business interaction better. Buyer’s and seller’s perspective integration is significant for stakeholders to develop proper strategies to achieve customer brand engagement.

This study uses a structural equation model to examine the antecedents of customer brand engagement from the buyer’s perspective; then, the result is compared with the seller’s view by conducting an analytical hierarchy process. The authors exercise 140 valid data from the buyer’s industry and 9 experts from the seller’s industry.

This study finds that in developing customer brand engagement, rational brand quality is the most influential from the buyer’s view and top priority from the seller’s view. Surprisingly, both parties have different perspectives about the second and third priorities. The buyers put emotional brand associations as a second priority; perceived value is meaningless and insignificant. On the contrary, the sellers set the perceived value as the second priority and emotional brand associations as the last.

The respondents from the buyer industry cover various industries, and the research is limited to the buyer and the seller in the chemical polymer emulsion market, a market where product quality and application quality on the buyers’ side are essential and where the buyer–seller interaction is intense. Replicating the study in other industries and cultural backgrounds is recommended for generalization.

The paper’s novelty is that there are different priorities and perspectives from the buyer’s and the seller’s views. This study contributes to industrial brand engagement research studies. Investigation of the buyer’s and the seller’s perspectives in industrial brand engagement research studies is still limited.

Relational engagement is offered as a framework to describe how buyers and sellers conduct exchange. Relational engagement is conceptualized as a higher-order construct comprising three dimensions: legal bonds, knowledge exchange and co-production. This paper aims to examine the efficacy of the construct by testing its influence on buyer–perceived seller brand equity.

An online survey of 401 US-based industrial buyers was conducted. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Empirical analysis supports the proposed conceptualization of relational engagement, as well as its influence on seller brand equity through influencing buyer-perceived relationship effectiveness.

Relational engagement offers a template to sellers for engaging organizational buyers. A relational engagement strategy has favorable implications for seller brand equity.

Relational engagement offers a comprehensive strategic perspective on inter-organizational exchange, moving beyond tactical approaches. The framework reflects the continuum of exchange, incorporating transactional-dominant and relationship-dominant forms of inter-organizational marketing practices.

Buyer engagement proves important supports for suppliers' corporate social responsibility (CSR); however, little is known about whether and how buyer CSR engagement can be actively searched for by a supplier and what activities and policies of suppliers could enhance buyer CSR engagement. From the perspective of resource dependence theory, this study aims to explore how suppliers seek to achieve buyers' CSR engagement.

The proposed model and hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling methodology using survey data collected from 243 manufacturing and service firms in China.

The results show that instrumental CSR motives and internalization of CSR policies jointly improve buyers' dependence, which in turn increases buyers' CSR engagement. In addition, this study investigates the influence of suppliers' trust on the effect of buyers' dependence on buyers' CSR engagement and finds a negative moderating effect on the dependence–engagement relation.

The findings show that suppliers can actively engage in CSR to strengthen their position and improve the buyer CSR engagement. In fact, proactive CSR policies and implementation do pay off in the long run for them.

This study offers a fresh perspective on the role of suppliers in improving CSR. In contrast to much of the literature that has considered buyer-initiated practices and policies, this is the first theoretical and empirical investigation into how suppliers can increase the buyer CSR engagement.

Researchers and practitioners have traditionally maintained that organizational buying requires rational decision-making. However, individuals at organizations make decisions daily applying a confluence of rationalizations and emotions. This study aims to address the roles of personal feelings, facts and emotional advertising content in the organizational decision-making process.

In two studies, the authors apply both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore emotional and cognitive reactions to advertising. In Study 1, depth interviews were conducted with marketing and advertising content developers from a Fortune 100 technology company. In Study 2, a web-based survey was sent out to a Fortune 100 company’s buyer panel.

Results suggest that advertising using emotion-based themes helps to foster brand engagement tendencies and advocacy for a brand. Findings also demonstrate that organizational status (C-level executive’s vs non-C-level employees) moderates the relationship between buyers’ reliance on facts and their receptivity to advertising using emotion-based themes, such that reliance on facts increases the appeal of emotional advertising.

This research contributes to the organizational buying literature by addressing the dearth of research on the role of emotions in organizational decision-making and providing insight into the role of advertising in business-to-business (B2B) decision-making.

These results imply that advertising incorporating emotion-based themes provide meaningful information to B2B buyers and is especially effective when targeted at buyers at higher levels in an organization.

B2B buying behavior has traditionally been considered a rational undertaking. This research explores how decision-making orientation and the presence of advertising using emotion-based themes help to foster engagement and advocacy for the brand.

The study aims to investigate how the collaborative activities of joint action and knowledge-sharing between cross-border buyers and sellers influence the affect-state of buyers and eventually develop their strategic performance under the contingent condition of psychic distance.

Survey data collected from 235 Taiwanese importers were analyzed using partial least squares to test the proposed conceptual framework.

Joint action and knowledge-sharing are found to increase buyer’s engagement and affective commitment. Psychic distance is found to weaken the effect of collaborative activities on engagement and affective commitment. Both engagement and affective commitment are found to increase strategic performance, and the findings confirm their intervening role in the collaborative activities-strategic performance relationship.

The study offers insights into the under researched areas of collaborative activities and strategic performance in international exchanges and highlights the role of psychic distance in the success or failure of relational exchanges in international environments. The study introduces the concept of engagement and advances the theoretical understanding of the concept’s significance and application in international buyer–seller exchanges.

This study aims to examine how the widespread adoption of digital technology (DT) in business-to-business (B2B) markets affects and, in particular, increases the velocity of relationship development over time.

A literature search was conducted to develop propositions concerning DT’s effect on the various stages of an existing B2B buyer-seller relationship development model. A group of 55 experienced practitioners was used to obtain reactions to the propositions.

DT affects buyer-seller relationship development by reducing the time needed to initiate and advance through sequential relationship stages. Agility in the decision-making process fosters stronger inter-firm relationships and influences other important attributes of B2B relationships, such as organizational commitment, organizational embeddedness, trust and value creation.

A broader, more diverse sample of commercial buyers and sellers is required to permit testing the generalizability of the study’s findings.

DT affects the speed and agility of B2B relationship formation regardless of stage. As DT evolves in the age of Industry 4.0, an understanding of the effects of DT will aid managers in assessing ways to leverage its potential and apply appropriate DT strategies throughout the B2B relationship process to capitalize on current and future business opportunities. Firms need to explore the positive and negative effects of the digital revolution on managers within their supply chain networks.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that specifically addresses DT’s impact during the specific stages of the relationship development process.

The advent of the internet and in particular the interactive features of Web 2.0 in recent years have led to an explosion of interest in customer engagement. The opportunities presented by social media to help build close relationships with customers seem to have excited practitioners in a wide variety of industries worldwide. Academic scholarship on customer engagement, however, has lagged practice and its theoretical foundation is relatively underdeveloped and a better understanding of the concept is essential to develop strategies for customer engagement. This paper seeks to address some of these issues.

The paper attempts to enhance understanding of customer engagement by examining practitioner views of customer engagement, linking it to the marketing concept, market orientation, and relationship marketing, modeling the customer engagement cycle, and developing a customer engagement matrix.

The paper develops a model of the customer engagement cycle with connection, interaction, satisfaction, retention, loyalty, advocacy, and engagement as stages in the cycle. It arrays customers in a customer engagement matrix according to the degree of relational exchange and emotional bonds that characterize their relationship with sellers. Four types of relationships emerge: transactional customers, delighted customers, loyal customers, and fans.

The paper is an initial attempt to develop a theoretical framework for customer engagement and further research is required to better understand several aspects of the framework. Future research can also investigate questions stemming from this research, for instance, how different Web 2.0 tools may be used to build customer engagement in consumer and business markets.

Customer engagement turns customers into fans. But for customers to become fans they have to progress through the stages of the customer engagement cycle. In addition to current fans, sellers need a mix of transactional, delighted, and loyal customers who can be turned into fans in the future. A mix of digital and nondigital technologies can be employed to facilitate customers' transition through the stages in the customer engagement cycle.

The paper develops a conceptual model of customer engagement that improves understanding of the concept and provides the foundation for strategies to better satisfy customers using Web 2.0 tools like social media.

Drawing on organizational learning and dynamic capabilities literature, this study aims to explore how suppliers from traditional emerging economies (STEE) can acquire, assimilate and use new knowledge essential for the development of production and marketing capabilities. These capabilities then facilitate suppliers in climbing the value chain from B-to-B to B-to-C.

The study adopted a longitudinal and multiple case study design to examine the practices of suppliers operating in a traditional emerging economy setting. This study selected Pakistan textile industry as an empirical setting, which is a predominantly supplier market for global buyers. Data sources entail semi-structured interviews with top executives and senior-level managers in four case firms and secondary data obtained from diverse sources.

The study identified transitionary phases of capabilities development that are facilitated by boundary-spanning knowledge acquisition and transformation in a dynamic manner. These capabilities are essential for a supplier’s entry into downstream international markets (i.e. launching its own products/brands in the end consumers’ market).

The findings could help managers in STEEs to understand the strategic importance of supply chain ties in their learning and capabilities development. It also provides strategic insights on what, how and why involved parties do engage over an extended period of time. Moreover, the findings of this study could help other firms to know and adopt the right type of technology(s) and systems that can help them reduce the technological gap in producing and marketing market-winning products.

This study advances the recent academic discussion that focusses on learning by supplying and the value-chain movement of suppliers (i.e. B-to-C) from their B-to-B engagements. The findings identified the vital and beneficial role of long-term relationships with global value chain partners in learning and capabilities development that led to value creation in the traditional emerging economy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a detail review of the social selling literature and to offer future research needs. Social selling has gained the attention of sales researchers. Rather than merely a new tool, social selling redefines the traditional sales process. However, the literature is spread across topics of social media and sales, social customer relationship management, salesforce automation and social selling, and does not provide an agreed-upon definition or tested construct for implementation.

The paper presents a comprehensive literature review of social selling and all related terminology.

The authors propose a social selling framework that includes personal branding, information exchange, networking and social listening to define and outline the construct while suggesting the antecedents and outcomes to guide future research. Findings from a literature review include outlining key theories used in social selling research.

This review offers a conceptual framework of social selling, including both antecedents and outcomes, to inform future research and guide academics and practitioners.

The aim of this paper is to explore how micro‐enterprises interact with public procurement systems. The paper seeks to give public procurement managers a better understanding of how micro‐enterprises approach the procurement process.

The sample consists of microenterprises competing for public procurement contracts in Ireland. The data are firstly submitted to principal component analysis to identify a set of factors that represent the public procurement process. This is later used to create four distinct clusters which describe how suppliers interact with the process.

A typology of four interaction patterns is generated from the data. This shows that small firms weight the three phases of the procurement process differently. The data support and extend the argument that small firms are not a homogeneous group and illustrate that small firms use divergent strategies when competing for procurement contracts.

The practical implications of the research include the need to assess the potential for buyer‐supplier mentoring in order to develop relational competency in public procurement. The firms investigated are domiciled in Ireland and therefore generalisability of the findings may be limited. The scope of the study is restricted to micro‐enterprises only.

The paper demonstrates that pre‐tender engagement is a necessary condition for small suppliers to achieve above average bid outcomes. The paper offers insights to public buyers, teams and managers as to the importance of engaging with suppliers to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.