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This study aimed to examine the digital transformation of business-to-business (B2B) sales and its effects on the management of value-based selling.

The study adopted a qualitative interview research design. A total of two participant groups—one consisting of sales management professionals and the other consisting of buyers—were created to conduct abductive data analysis to gain a new understanding of B2B sales management.

As a result of the digital transformation of sales, companies are shifting B2B sales towards value-based selling using a more proactive, continuous process wherein digital value co-creation activities play a big role. Similarly, their buyers now expect more proactive communication about new value propositions, but social media channels are of little importance to most B2B buyers. The management of digital value co-creation activities should be addressed from the sales ecosystem perspective, where non-sellers tend to have a strong role in communicating new value propositions.

There needs to be further research on digital value co-creation activities in the sales ecosystem, as value-based selling requires that selling organizations focus more on educational digital content marketing and engagement with non-sellers via both marketing and sales activities.

Companies rarely exploit experts and project personnel when implementing digital sales strategies; however, they often meet with customers personally and network with them. This requires a broader perspective on sales management.

This is one of the first studies to explore the management of value-based selling from both seller and buyer perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to unfold how different digital marketing tools and strategies influence recruitment effectiveness. More specifically, it focusses on understanding if, and how, information sources’ credibility, content marketing, and organisational reputation influence candidates’ decision to apply for a job in the Portuguese market.

A qualitative research, aligned with a content analysis, was conducted to focus on the insights from the 21 participants interviewed, to understand their thoughts and experiences regarding the subject.

The results show that digital marketing tools owned by the company are seen to be more credible and more relevant for the job application decision. LinkedIn is considered to be a more credible platform for advertising job openings than Facebook. In terms of content marketing, LinkedIn has a positive influence on candidates’ decision, as well as companies’ reputation.

This study provides practical implications which are useful for both HR and marketing managers, namely, the implementation of an integrated marketing communication strategy, the reinforcement of the company’s website and LinkedIn page and a presence on universities’ platforms, and also in terms of the information that content marketing should focus on.

This research paper incorporates marketing insights into a well-known HRM subject – recruitment, and thus adds further knowledge to the literature and prepares the ground for researchers who wish to explore this subject further.

Based on theories related to coopetition, the purpose of this paper is to examine the patterns of business-to-business digital referrals inscribed in businesses’ digital content.

A complete industry-wise digital data set is formed by extracting digital referrals in all the content pages. The authors outline how digital referrals are strategically used among peer businesses in the peer-to-peer digital network and in the augmented digital network, taking into consideration geographical framing and physical distance.

The authors reveal how geographical framing and physical distance influence peer-to-peer referral patterns in the digital space. Quite counter-intuitively, businesses are more likely to give digital referrals for peers residing in the same region, as well as for peers located in closer proximity. Further, results from the augmented digital network show that peer businesses in closer proximity exhibit greater strategic similarity in their digital referring strategy.

The findings extend the understanding of business-to-business coopetition to the digital space and suggest that geographical framing and physical distance can induce reciprocated relationships between peers by offering each other digital referrals.

The findings shed light on the formation of a business-to-business digital coopetition strategy using digital referral marketing.

This study highlights the impact of digital referrals in business-to-business relationship management, especially in the digital coopetition context.

For companies that intend to respond to the modern conscious consumers' needs, a great competitive advantage is played on the ability to incorporate sustainability messages in marketing communications. The aim of this paper is to address this important priority in the web context, building a semantic algorithm that allows content managers to evaluate the quality of sustainability web contents for search engines, considering the current semantic web development.

Following the Design Science (DS) methodological approach, the study develops the algorithm as an artefact capable of solving a practical problem and improving the operation of content managerial process.

The algorithm considers multiple factors of evaluation, grouped in three parameters: completeness, clarity and consistency. An applicability test of the algorithm was conducted on a sample of web pages of the Google blog on sustainability to highlight the correspondence between the established evaluation factors and those actually used by Google.

Studying content marketing for sustainability communication constitutes a new field of research that offers exciting opportunities. Writing sustainability contents in an effective way is a fundamental step to trigger stakeholder engagement mechanisms online. It could be a positive social engineering technique in the hands of marketers to make web users able to pursue sustainable development in their choices.

This is the first study that creates a theoretical connection between digital content marketing and sustainability communication focussing, especially, on the aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). The algorithm of “Sustainability-contents SEO” is the first operational software tool, with a regulatory nature, that is able to analyse the web contents, detecting the terms of the sustainability language and measuring the compliance to SEO requirements.

This case study examines the new product development (NPD) process of digital information products (DIPs) and its critical success factors (CSFs) in a small-sized German enterprise.

A case study was conducted with a small firm focused on the development of DIPs; data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, direct observation and document analysis.

The firm uses an informal and cross-functional NPD process (idea generation, idea validation, product creation and product launch) in converting an idea into a sellable product. Peculiar aspects of each stage within the process as well as ten CSFs to NPD projects were verified.

Limitations are attributed to its qualitative nature, which does not allow generalizations, though careful attention was given to validity and reliability issues through the use of data source triangulation.

The paper provides a conceptual process that may benefit further initiatives for developing and launching DIPs, as well as a comprehensive list of CSFs for such projects.

This paper is the first one to schematize the NPD process and practices for DIPs, as well as key capabilities. It contributes to the NPD literature in discussing dynamic aspects that are typical to the firm analyzed and to others operating in a digital context. At the same time, it reinforces other traditional aspects that have become overlooked in digital business debates.

The objective of this paper is to propose a taxonomy of sustainability communication (SC) topics that provide digital content managers with a guide for setting a sustainability content agenda and for fostering stakeholder engagement mechanisms on environmental, social and economic issues that increasingly characterize conversations on social media of all stakeholder groups.

Taxonomy is a conceptual and qualitative way used to classify and represent the corporate sustainability (CS) domain of knowledge. The taxonomy categories of SC topics are both theoretically and empirically derived, combining an in-depth literature review with a thematic content analysis of 300 web pages of the corporate websites of the top ten sustainable brands selected in “The 2019 GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey.”

The analysis of the results led to the construction of a hierarchical dictionary of tags that categorizes all sustainability topics based on a new, four-dimensional conceptual structure: planet, people, profit and governance. Each dimension is organized in four groups of sustainability themes, which, in turn, group multiple topics, considered the smallest communication unit to develop the SC content.

The taxonomy provides a concise and immediate conceptual framework on all those topics of broader interest, which, suitably modulated, can act as touch points with several groups of stakeholders. Drawn upon the best practices of thematic organization of SCs via the web, the taxonomy represents a guide for programming an editorial plan based on environmental, social, economic and governance issues from a sustainability content marketing perspective. The taxonomy of sustainability topics also finds application as a framework for a content intelligent system, providing a dictionary of tags that can be used for the indexing and retrieval of SC web content.

The study represents the first attempt at reaching a taxonomic organization of the sustainability aspects from a communicational perspective, supporting a new way of thinking and managing SC in the digital realm. Moreover, the results highlight, for the first time, that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory, applied to corporate communications, lacks the governance aspect, which is essential to pursue sustainability consistently and effectively.

The purpose of this study is to provide a contextualized understanding of how business-to-business (B2B) firms use the sales development function for efficient and effective lead funnel management.

The authors adopted a qualitative field-study approach and interviewed 13 people from eight firms. While software as a service (SaaS) firms are the most prevalent application context for the sales development function, the authors also included respondents from non-SaaS firms to develop an in-depth understanding of the contextualized nature of the sales development process.

Sales development processes can be applied in outbound prospect-focused, outbound account-based, inbound prospect-focused and inbound account-based lead management contexts. The sales development processes of lead research, engagement and handover vary depending on the nature of the lead management context. These processes are supported by the appropriate design of organizational, technological and people platforms.

The authors explain how sales development as a form of inside sales can support effective lead funnel management in B2B firms through technology-enabled lead research and nurture processes designed to prepare customers for meaningful conversations with field sales.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to focus purely on the sales development function as a form of inside sales. They explain how the sales development processes relating to lead research, engagement and handover are conducted in four distinct application contexts to qualify leads for the outside salesforce.

Explore the use of Gender-Fair Language (GFL) by influencers on Instagram.

The clustering methodology. A digital Bag-of-Words (BoW) Method called GFL Clustering BoW Methodology to identify whether an inclusive marketing (IM) strategy can be used. Thus, this research has a methodological and practical contribution to increasing the number of marketing technology tools.

This study is original as it proposes an inclusive digital marketing strategy and contributes with methods associated with digital transfers in order to improve marketing strategies, tactics and operations for inclusive content with a data integrity approach.

Due to the limitations of the application programming interface (API) of the social network Instagram, a limited number of text data were used, which allowed for retrieving the last 12 publications of each studied profile. In addition, it should be considered that this study only includes the Spanish language and is applied to a sample of influencers from Chile.

The practical contribution of this study will lead to a key finding for the definition of communication strategies in both public and private organizations.

The originality of this work lies in its attractive implications for nonprofit and for-profit organizations, government bodies and private enterprises in the measurement of the success of campaigns with an IM communicational strategy and to incorporate inclusive and non-sexist content for their consumers so as to contribute to society.

本研究擬探究有影響力的人士在使用即時電報 (Instagram) 時、如何使用性別中立語言。

研究使用了聚類分析法;具體來說, 研究人員採用一個叫 GFL聚類詞袋法的數位詞袋分析法, 去確定研究可否使用信息管理策略。因此, 本研究在行銷科技方面、添加了一個工具, 就此而言, 本研究在學術的研究法和實務方面、均作出貢獻。

本研究建議了一個包括一切的數位行銷策略;研究亦構建了若干與數位傳輸有關的方法, 以能利用數據完整性的理念, 為行銷策略、行銷戰術和市場營銷, 在內容的全面包含度方面取得改善。

因為社交網站即時電報的應用程式介面有其局限, 故使用了少量的文本數據, 這可使每個被探討的傳略的最後12個發佈能被撿回。另外需注意的是、本研究只涵蓋西班牙語, 而且, 研究使用的樣本只是來自智利有影響力的人士。

本研究在實務方面的貢獻是、它為探討在公共機構和私營機構內使用的溝通策略的定義上、帶來重要的啟發和發現。

本研究的原創性在於它給營利和非營利組織、政府機關和私人企業帶來頗具吸引力的啟示。而這些啟示是與測量以包括一切的行銷溝通策略進行的專門活動是否成功有關的。另外, 涵蓋一切和無性別歧視的內容被納入供消費者使用, 以此為社會帶來裨益。

The main goal of viral marketing is to affect brands positively. But most studies concern the causes of an ad going viral, not its impact on brands. In this sense, this study aims to demonstrate and compare video ads' value drivers on brands and sharing, determining which antecedents maximize results on each, enabling the best ad performance for advertisers.

A survey was conducted with 368 respondents who watched viral video ads from five global companies on YouTube. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS4.

The results of this study demonstrated that product category involvement is essential for viral advertising. Furthermore, the entertainment value is the most relevant antecedent of sharing, but it does not affect brand equity; it is the social value responsible for brand equity.

Marketing managers should create ads that simultaneously generate entertainment and social values, maximizing sharing and branding effects. However, if only one of the two effects (brand/share) is achieved, then the advertiser will fail to obtain maximum performance.

The mainstream of viral marketing research is focused on antecedents of sharing. However, sharing is not enough to provide brand effects and return on investment of advertisement. This study reveals that different consumers’ values drive sharing and brand equity, suggesting that firms should consider a dual value generation strategy regarding the performance of viral video ads. On the other hand, this research conciliates the extant literature about the phenomena with the importance of product category involvement.

El objetivo principal del marketing viral es influir positivamente en las marcas. Pero la mayoría de las investigaciones se refieren a las causas de que un anuncio se vuelva viral, no a su impacto en las marcas. En este sentido, esta investigación tiene como objetivo demostrar y comparar los impulsores de valor de los anuncios de video en las marcas y su viralización, determinando qué antecedentes maximizan los resultados en cada uno, permitiendo el mejor rendimiento publicitario para los anunciantes.

Se realizó una encuesta con 368 participantes que vieron anuncios de video virales de cinco empresas globales en YouTube. El modelo estructural se analizó mediante ecuaciones estructurales basada en mínimos cuadrados utilizando SmartPLS4.

Los resultados demostraron que la participación en la categoría de productos es esencial para la publicidad viral. Además, el valor de entretenimiento es el antecedente más relevante de compartir, pero no afecta el valor de la marca; es el valor social responsable del valor de la marca.

Los gerentes de marketing deben crear anuncios que generen simultáneamente entretenimiento y valores sociales, maximizando los efectos de uso compartido y de marca. Sin embargo, si solo se consigue uno de los dos efectos (marca/participación), el anunciante no conseguirá obtener el máximo rendimiento.

La corriente principal de la investigación de marketing viral se centra en los antecedentes de compartir. Sin embargo, compartir no es suficiente para proporcionar efectos de marca y ROI de publicidad. Este estudio revela que los diferentes valores de los consumidores impulsan el intercambio y el valor de la marca, lo que sugiere que las empresas deberían considerar una estrategia de generación de valor dual con respecto al rendimiento de los anuncios de video virales. Por otro lado, esta investigación concilia la literatura existente sobre los fenómenos con la importancia de la participación de la categoría de productos.

病毒式营销的主要目标是对品牌产生积极的影响。但大多数研究关注的是广告走红的原因, 而不是它对品牌的影响。在这个意义上, 本研究旨在证明和比较视频广告对品牌和分享的价值驱动因素, 确定哪些前因能使每一个因素的结果最大化, 为广告商带来最佳的广告效果。

对368名受访者进行了调查, 他们在YouTube上观看了五家全球公司的病毒视频广告。在SmartPLS4中使用结构方程模型 对提议的模型进行了测试。

结果表明, 产品类别的参与对于病毒式广告来说是至关重要的。此外, 娱乐价值是分享的最相关前因, 但它并不影响品牌资产; 对品牌资产负责的是社会价值。

营销经理应该创造同时产生娱乐和社会价值的广告, 使分享和品牌效应最大化。然而, 如果只实现两种效果（品牌/分享）中的一种, 广告商将无法获得最大的绩效。

病毒式营销研究的主流是关注分享的前因后果。然而, 分享并不足以提供品牌效应和广告的投资回报率。本研究揭示了不同消费者的价值观对分享和品牌资产的推动作用, 表明企业应该考虑关于病毒视频广告表现的双重价值产生策略。另一方面, 本研究将现有的文献与产品类别参与的重要性结合在一起。

Digital platform users not only consume but also produce communication related to their experiences. Although service research has explored users' motivations to communicate and focused on outcomes such as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), it remains largely unexplored how users iteratively interact with communication artifacts and potentially create value for themselves, other users and service providers. The purpose of this paper is, thus, to introduce communicative affordances as a framework to advance user-created communication (UCC) in service.

Drawing from the literature in communication, service research and interactive marketing, an affordance perspective on UCC in service is introduced.

Three UCC affordances for the service context are presented – interactivity, visibility and anonymity – opportunities and challenges for service providers associated with these affordances are discussed and, finally, affordance-specific research questions and general recommendations for future research are offered.

By conceptualizing UCC in service from an affordances perspective, this paper moves beyond the traditional sender–receiver communication framework and emphasizes opportunities and challenges for service research and practice.

Instead of focusing separately on specific technologies or user behaviors, it is recommended that service managers adopt a holistic perspective of user goals and motivations, use experiences and platform design.

By conceptualizing UCC as an augmenting, dialogical process concerning users’ experiences, and by introducing communicative affordances as a framework to advance UCC in service, an in-depth understanding of the diverse and ever-evolving landscape of communication in service is offered.