Social media and B2B sales: An integrative framework and future directions

Abstract

Embracing social media can enable sales organizations remain competitive in a socially connected business environment. Despite its critical role, however, B2B salespeople still report infrequent use of social media. Academic research focusing on social media in B2B sales, although growing, has yet to reach consensus regarding pathways from social media use to sales performance at the salesperson and organization levels. Accordingly, the number of empirical studies on social media and B2B sales remains limited. In addition, methodological concerns still remain. In this editorial, we briefly review the B2B sales literature and describe how each of the five articles included in this special issue contributes to this field. Moreover, we suggest future research opportunities with regard to issues and topics that remain largely under-investigated.