Abstract
The article offers a literature review on the role of trust in the business relationship development. It describes the role of social media in the cognitive and affective trust building. The focal point of the article is devoted to an empirical research covering the use of LinkedIn and GoldenLine professional social media platforms by Polish export professionals. It indicates their overall passivity in maintaining a trusty online appearance, but it also touches the limitations of social media communications. The article gives also some managerial recommendations dealing social media B2B involvement and argues that in predictable future the deployment of social media in business networking will remain in its infancy.
Highlights
What makes a good trustworthy business relationship? The research body on business relationships comes with various answers to this question including the openness for communication as one of the basic prerequisites (Mohr, Fisher & Nevin, 1996; Steffel & Ellis, 2009; Murphy, 2013)
Based on the literature review on trust in business relationships and social networking as well as on the assumptions dealing with the focus group and LinkedIn’s position in the social media world, two research hypotheses were made
The capacity of Polish export managers to actively use the modern ways of communication and to maintain online relations seems to be very limited
Summary
What makes a good trustworthy business relationship? The research body on business relationships comes with various answers to this question including the openness for communication as one of the basic prerequisites (Mohr, Fisher & Nevin, 1996; Steffel & Ellis, 2009; Murphy, 2013). LinkedIn as the most known professional social media tool (a platform designed for networking on business and professional career) constitutes the basic research environment in this study. It seems it provides the shortest path through the business network that is most likely to make valuable connections, such as potential sales contacts (Kane, 2015). Based on the literature review on trust in business relationships and social networking as well as on the assumptions dealing with the focus group and LinkedIn’s position in the social media world, two research hypotheses were made. Comes the methodological description, followed by several sections covering the results of subsequent research procedures, discussion on these results, and concluding remarks
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