IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zag/market/v30y2018i2p165-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating the Impact of Salespersons’ Use of Technology and Social Media on Their Customer Relationship Performance in B2B Settings

Author

Listed:
  • Mirkó Gáti

    (Corvinus University of Budapest)

  • Ariel Mitev

    (Corvinus University of Budapest)

  • András Bauer

    (Corvinus University of Budapest)

Abstract

Purpose – Salespeople have had a long affair with technology in serving customers. Some research studies, however, indicate that too much technology may have a negative impact on salespeople’s social skills. This paper aims to analyze what impact technology – specifically, social media, in terms of attitudes and use – has on selling performance. Design/Methodology/Approach – In a sample of salespeople from different business-to-business (B2B) industries, respondents were surveyed in the form of face-to-face interviews that were conducted at their place of work. The study analyzed how the intensity of technology use, attitudes towards and the use of social media affect customer relationship performance. Variance-based structural equation modeling, especially PLS-SEM, was applied for the analysis. Findings and implications – According to the results of this study, the effects of intensive technology use on social media attitude and use, as well as on customer relationship performance, are verified. The objective of this research, namely, to understand the influence of technology use and social media attitude and use on selling performance, has been partly achieved: the presumed positive theoretical connection between social media and performance is not trivial, although company managers should be aware the risks involved with the application of technology in sales. Limitations – These results highlight that, if the focus is solely on social media, the effects of social media attitude and social media use on customer relationship performance are limited, and their explanatory power is relatively low. Therefore, a business model that focuses solely on customer retention mostly through the increased use of social media seems to have serious limitations. This study suffers from further limitations, such as small sample size and the exploratory nature of the research. Moreover, the findings are derived from perceived constructs and not from actual behavior. Originality – The analysis of technology and social media is new in the current context. With the large scale of social media use being a relatively new phenomenon, this study can presumably provide a new understanding of social media in the selling environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mirkó Gáti & Ariel Mitev & András Bauer, 2018. "Investigating the Impact of Salespersons’ Use of Technology and Social Media on Their Customer Relationship Performance in B2B Settings," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 30(2), pages 165-176.
    • Handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:165-176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/311482
    Download Restriction: None
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberta J. Schultz & Charles H. Schwepker & David J. Good, 2012. "Social media usage: an investigation of B2B salespeople," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(2), pages 174-194, October.
    2. Rapp, Adam & Ahearne, Michael & Mathieu, John & Rapp, Tammy, 2010. "Managing sales teams in a virtual environment," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 213-224.
    3. Rapp, Adam & Trainor, Kevin J. & Agnihotri, Raj, 2010. "Performance implications of customer-linking capabilities: Examining the complementary role of customer orientation and CRM technology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 1229-1236, November.
    4. Trainor, Kevin J. & Andzulis, James (Mick) & Rapp, Adam & Agnihotri, Raj, 2014. "Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1201-1208.
    5. Jean-Michel Moutot & Ganael Bascoul, 2008. "Effects of sales force automation use on sales force activities and customer relationship management processes," Post-Print hal-00765392, HAL.
    6. Roberta J. Schultz & Charles H. Schwepker, Jr & David J. Good, 2012. "Social media usage: an investigation of B2B salespeople," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 27(2), pages 174-194.
    7. Michael Ahearne & Eli Jones & Adam Rapp & John Mathieu, 2008. "High Touch Through High Tech: The Impact of Salesperson Technology Usage on Sales Performance via Mediating Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(4), pages 671-685, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Elvira Ismagilova & Nripendra P. Rana & Ramakrishnan Raman, 2023. "Social Media Adoption, Usage And Impact In Business-To-Business (B2B) Context: A State-Of-The-Art Literature Review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 971-993, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hunter, Gary K., 2019. "On conceptualizing, measuring, and managing augmented technology use in business-to-business sales contexts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 201-213.
    2. Perez-Vega, Rodrigo & Hopkinson, Paul & Singhal, Aishwarya & Mariani, Marcello M., 2022. "From CRM to social CRM: A bibliometric review and research agenda for consumer research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1-16.
    3. Lashgari, Maryam, 2014. "Social Media Technology Deployment in B2B: A Case Study," INDEK Working Paper Series 2014/9, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Industrial Economics and Management.
    4. Rapp, Adam & Beitelspacher, Lauren Skinner & Schillewaert, Niels & Baker, Thomas L., 2012. "The differing effects of technology on inside vs. outside sales forces to facilitate enhanced customer orientation and interfunctional coordination," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 929-936.
    5. Luo, Nuan & Zhang, Mingli & Hu, Mu & Wang, Yu, 2016. "How community interactions contribute to harmonious community relationships and customers’ identification in online brand community," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 673-685.
    6. Ghouri, Arsalan Mujahid & Mani, Venkatesh & Haq, Mirza Amin ul & Kamble, Sachin S., 2022. "The micro foundations of social media use: Artificial intelligence integrated routine model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 80-92.
    7. Ohiomah, Alhassan & Andreev, Pavel & Benyoucef, Morad & Hood, David, 2019. "The role of lead management systems in inside sales performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 163-177.
    8. Bachrach, Daniel G. & Mullins, Ryan, 2019. "A dual-process contingency model of leadership, transactive memory systems and team performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 297-308.
    9. Cristiane Drebes Pedron & Winnie Ng Picoto & Miguel Colaco & Cintia Cristina Araújo, 2018. "CRM System: the Role of Dynamic Capabilities in creating Innovation Capability," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 15(5), pages 494-511, September.
    10. Agnihotri, Raj & Trainor, Kevin J. & Itani, Omar S. & Rodriguez, Michael, 2017. "Examining the role of sales-based CRM technology and social media use on post-sale service behaviors in India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 144-154.
    11. Christian Homburg & Dominik M. Wielgos, 2022. "The value relevance of digital marketing capabilities to firm performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 666-688, July.
    12. Michael Rodriguez & Stefanie Boyer, 2020. "The impact of mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) on sales collaboration and sales performance," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(3), pages 137-148, September.
    13. Hyun Gon Kim & Zhan Wang, 2019. "Defining and measuring social customer-relationship management (CRM) capabilities," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 40-50, March.
    14. Trif Simona-Mihaela & Duțu Cristian & Tuleu Daniela-Liliana, 2019. "Linking CRM capabilities to business performance: a comparison within markets and between products," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 14(3), pages 292-303, September.
    15. Wang, Zhan & Kim, Hyun Gon, 2017. "Can Social Media Marketing Improve Customer Relationship Capabilities and Firm Performance? Dynamic Capability Perspective," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 15-26.
    16. Trainor, Kevin J. & Andzulis, James (Mick) & Rapp, Adam & Agnihotri, Raj, 2014. "Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1201-1208.
    17. Paniagua, Jordi & Sapena, Juan, 2014. "Business performance and social media: Love or hate?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 719-728.
    18. Wu, Chih-Wen, 2015. "Antecedents of franchise strategy and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1581-1588.
    19. Fabian Bill & Sven Feurer & Martin Klarmann, 2020. "Salesperson social media use in business-to-business relationships: An empirical test of an integrative framework linking antecedents and consequences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 734-752, July.
    20. Jordi Paniagua & Marta Peris-Ortiz & Pawel Korzynski, 2020. "Talent Goes Social: Online Corporate Networking and Business Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-13, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:165-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tanja Komarac (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fefzghr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.