Loading...

Media is loading
 

Paper Number

1755

Paper Type

Short

Description

The importance of professional social media usage by business-to-business (B2B) sales employees has been well acknowledged, but the understanding of corporate influencers in B2B marketing a more thorough investigation. Literature has primarily focused on salespeople’s social media behavior, performance outcomes and effects on customer relations. However, little is known about salespeople’s motivation to act as corporate influencers, their actual activities on social media when they enact this role, as well as opportunities and challenges of salespeople who purposefully take on a corporate influencer role. We use a grounded theory approach to investigate this phenomenon. Based on in-depth interviews with experts from various B2B industries, we identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that drive LinkedIn usage as well as opportunities and challenges of corporate influencer activities. These findings extend previous corporate influencer research. Moreover, we offer actionable practical implications.

Comments

15-SocialMedia

Share

COinS
 
Dec 12th, 12:00 AM

Corporate Influencers in Business-to-Business Sales: A Grounded Theory Study

The importance of professional social media usage by business-to-business (B2B) sales employees has been well acknowledged, but the understanding of corporate influencers in B2B marketing a more thorough investigation. Literature has primarily focused on salespeople’s social media behavior, performance outcomes and effects on customer relations. However, little is known about salespeople’s motivation to act as corporate influencers, their actual activities on social media when they enact this role, as well as opportunities and challenges of salespeople who purposefully take on a corporate influencer role. We use a grounded theory approach to investigate this phenomenon. Based on in-depth interviews with experts from various B2B industries, we identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that drive LinkedIn usage as well as opportunities and challenges of corporate influencer activities. These findings extend previous corporate influencer research. Moreover, we offer actionable practical implications.

When commenting on articles, please be friendly, welcoming, respectful and abide by the AIS eLibrary Discussion Thread Code of Conduct posted here.