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The purpose of this study is to review and analyze the status of word-of-mouth (WOM) research in the business-to-business (B2B) context and discuss and identify new possible future directions.

A systematic review was conducted and 36 articles on B2B WOM were collected to evaluate the current state of the literature and clarify possible future research directions.

This thematic analysis categorize these articles into three themes: WOM generation, WOM usage and reference marketing. Under each theme, the authors reveal research findings unique to B2B research and different from business-to-consumer (B2C) WOM research. This study identifies several research questions that should be addressed by future research.

Both academic researchers and business practitioners recognize that WOM plays an essential role in B2B marketing. However, no review paper focuses on WOM in the B2B context. Findings in the B2C WOM literature suggest that WOM substantially influences firms’ performance, but that managers cannot simply attempt to extrapolate B2C findings to the B2B arena. By synthesizing and assessing prior research on WOM in the B2B context, this study contributes to a better understanding of the B2B WOM phenomenon and facilitates future research on this topic.

While extant research has increasingly examined minority entrepreneurs, less attention has been paid to Eastern European immigrant entrepreneurs and the role that marketing agility and risk propensity play in their resilience and survival in Nordic countries. This paper aims to highlight the importance of these factors for Eastern European immigrant entrepreneurs in the developed Nordic economy of Denmark.

This paper adopts the dynamic capabilities view as a theoretical framework and uses a qualitative research approach with interviews as the main data collection method. The empirical sample comprises 12 entrepreneurs originating from Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, who operate in Denmark.

The findings show that contrary to prior studies that have highlighted a reliance among the migrant entrepreneurial community on ethnic networks as their dominant target market, Eastern European immigrant entrepreneurs located in Denmark, in contrast, focused on attracting Danish consumers as their target market audience. Leveraging multiple networks was therefore found to be critical to the survival of these immigrant ventures. Additionally, the entrepreneurs' marketing agility, underpinned by their optimistic approach, growth ambitions and passion for entrepreneurship, was found to play a pivotal role in their survival. Finally, despite the stable institutional environment in Denmark and the ease of doing business (both of which are influential factors in shaping the risk propensity and risk perception of entrepreneurs), the authors found immigrant entrepreneurs' risk propensity to be rather low, which was contrary to the expectations.

The current paper is one of the first studies that explicitly analyzes the roles of marketing agility and risk propensity in the resilience and survival of the ventures of relatively skilled immigrant entrepreneurs from Eastern Europe in a developed Nordic economy (Denmark). The paper's findings also challenge the notion associated with immigrant entrepreneurial ventures being primarily focused on ethnic customers or enclaves. The paper also specifies the peculiarities of marketing agility in immigrant entrepreneurial contexts and solidifies the importance of diverse networks in immigrant business survival and development.

Over time, the concept of word of mouth (WOM) has spread beyond marketing into other disciplines. This is because WOM is important in decision-making at both the individual and organisational levels. Also, people are more likely to trust recommendations from their peers than those from companies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived usefulness of WOM messages for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers in participating in Tanzanian public procurement opportunities.

The study collected cross-sectional data from 214 SME suppliers who supply common use items to public procuring organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania. Structural equation modelling was used to test the direct relationships between study variables, and Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to test for the indirect effect of WOM message delivery on WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM.

WOM attributes that include expertise differential, perceptual homophily, and trustworthiness are related to the perceived usefulness of WOM. Also, WOM message delivery mediates the relationship between the WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM in enhancing public procurement participation. Therefore, the study's findings revealed that WOM is applicable in the public procurement context, under which public buyers act as senders and suppliers act as receivers. The latter finds out about public procurement opportunities and responds to them, while the former gives suppliers whatever information they need to respond to public procurement tenders that have been advertised.

Because the study was cross-sectional, it was difficult to determine whether the opinions gathered over time remained consistent. Furthermore, only suppliers who are parties to framework contracts under Government Procurement Services Agency were included in the study. Therefore, the sample was limited to only suppliers supplying common use items to various public organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania.

This paper integrates the concept of WOM from the marketing discipline and public procurement. As a result, the study adds to the understanding of the use of information transmission in terms of the contribution of WOM messages from public buyers to suppliers to enhance small and medium enterprises' participation in public procurement opportunities.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of service recovery experiences on customer engagement in negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in the hotel industry and explore the psychological motives and mediating mechanisms driving consumer behavior.

A scenario-based experimental design on Qualtrics was used, with a pre-test (N = 200). The main study data were collected using Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform.

Findings reveal that negative service experiences lead to higher engagement in negative WOM compared to positive and satisfactory recovery service experiences. Even well-executed recovery efforts may not completely eliminate negative WOM. The mediating role of emotional responses is substantiated, as heightened negative service experiences result in more intense negative emotional responses, leading to increased engagement in negative WOM.

The study emphasizes the importance of service recovery strategies and the need for businesses to consistently strive for exceptional service quality. It also highlights the complexity of customer reactions to service experiences, suggesting that further research is needed to explore the factors that minimize negative WOM across various service contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to compare two brand posts with the different content created by a celebrity (emotional content vs rational content) on Instagram and their effects on users’ willingness to use offline word of mouth (WOM) and electronic WOM (eWOM). The research model also consists of product involvement as the moderator.

Based on the results of the pretest stages, the study included two stimuli, and respondents were presented with two different brand posts (i.e. two manipulated pictures and texts on the Instagram frame). A two-group comparison (positive emotional brand post vs negative rational brand post) between-subjects experiment (n = 214) was conducted.

The results indicate that WOM and eWOM are more affected by a celebrity’s emotional brand post than a celebrity’s rational brand post. Furthermore, both types of WOM are more affected through high product involvement enhanced by a celebrity’s rational brand post than through high product involvement boosted by a celebrity’s emotional brand post.

Managerial implications for social media marketing and Instagram celebrity-based branding are provided. Practical implications are also provided in the form of evidence of how the impacts of two different brand posts on positive offline WOM and eWOM are affected differently through the moderation of product involvement.

The research argues for theoretical implications for the marketing literature on celebrity endorsements. The study also tests one moderating effect on the relationship between brand post content and WOM and eWOM.

El propósito de este trabajo es comparar dos posts de marcas con diferente contenido creado por una celebridad (contenido emocional vs. contenido racional) en Instagram y sus efectos en la disposición de los usuarios a utilizar WOM y eWOM. El modelo de investigación también incluye la implicación del producto como moderador.

Sobre la base de los resultados de las etapas de prueba previa, el estudio incluyó dos estímulos, y a los encuestados se les presentaron dos publicaciones de marca diferentes (es decir, dos imágenes y textos manipulados en el marco de Instagram). Se realizó un experimento entre sujetos (n = 214) de comparación de dos grupos (post de marca emocional positivo frente a post de marca racional negativo).

Los resultados indican que el WOM y el eWOM se ven más afectados por el post emocional de la marca de un famoso que por el post racional de la marca de un famoso. Además, ambos tipos de boca a boca se ven más afectados por la alta implicación del producto potenciada por el post racional de la marca de un famoso que por la alta implicación del producto potenciada por el post emocional de la marca de un famoso.

se ofrecen implicaciones de gestión para el marketing en las redes sociales y el branding basado en los famosos de Instagram. Las implicaciones prácticas también se proporcionan en forma de evidencia de cómo los impactos de dos publicaciones de marca diferentes en el WOM positivo y el eWOM se ven afectados de manera diferente a través de la moderación de la implicación con el producto.

La investigación aporta implicaciones teóricas para la literatura de marketing sobre el patrocinio de los famosos. El estudio también prueba un efecto moderador en la relación entre el contenido de los posts de marca y el WOM y el eWOM.

本文旨在比较Instagram上两个由名人创作的不同内容的品牌帖子（感性内容Vs.理性内容）, 以及其对用户使用线下口碑（WOM）和电子口碑（eWOM）意愿的影响。该研究模型还包括产品涉入作为调节变量。

研究包括两个刺激物, 受访者被呈现两个不同的品牌帖子(即Instagram框架上的两个被操纵的图片和文字)。进行了两组比较(积极感性品牌帖子vs. 消极理性品牌帖子) 的主体间实验 (n = 214) 。

结果表明, 与名人的理性品牌帖子相比, WOM和eWOM受名人感性品牌帖子的影响更大。此外, 这两种类型的口碑通过名人的理性品牌帖子所增强的高产品涉入度比通过名人的感性品牌帖子所增强的高产品涉入度受到的影响更大。

提供了对社交媒体营销和Instagram名人品牌的管理意义。研究还提供了实际意义, 证明了两种不同的品牌帖子对积极的WOM和eWOM的影响是如何通过产品涉入度的调节而不同的。

该研究论证了名人代言的营销文献的理论意义。该研究还检验了品牌帖子内容与WOM和eWOM之间关系的调节效应。