Abstract
PurposeCurrently, online chat is in common use in e-commerce. By adding social interaction to the online context, companies hope to increase customers’ purchasing intentions. However, previous studies have not investigated how social presence is embedded in online business-to-business (B2B) chat conversations between buyers and sellers. Moreover, the functions of online chat in B2B sales have not been investigated.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected at a case company over the course of four years, from which the authors analyzed 157 online chat conversations between buyers (n = 157) and sellers (n = 9) with a theory-driven thematic analysis. In addition, data from the company’s customer relationship management system was collected to specify buyer types.FindingsThe results reveal that social presence was embedded in online B2B chat via buyers’ interactive, affective and relationship maintenance responses. Social presence differed depending on the type of buyer, with only existing customers having relationship maintenance responses. E-commerce B2B chat functions can be described as multiple and changing depending on the buyer–seller relationship stage.Research limitations/implicationsHaving data only from one case company limits the results to one type of industry.Practical implicationsThe results can be used in sales training and when developing online chat services.Originality/valueResults bring scientific utility to B2B sales and marketing research, as the authors build a bridge between social presence, the existing theoretical model on B2B buyer–seller relationship development and online chat as a communication medium. Other researchers may use this understanding when exploring B2B buyer–seller interaction in different digitalized communication media.
Highlights
Online shopping continues to grow in popularity, and new online stores are constantly being established
By focusing on B2B sales context and buyer–seller online chat conversations, we bring new knowledge (Corley and Gioia, 2011) to the field, as most of the previous studies on digital marketing have focused on consumers and B2C sales context (Nicolla and Teresa, 2016; Obal and Lancioni, 2013)
5.1 Theoretical contribution Knowledge is brought to the sales and marketing field by focusing on the B2B sales context and actual observed buyer–seller online chat conversations, as most of the previous studies on digital marketing have focused on consumers and a B2C sales context (Nicolla and Teresa, 2016; Obal and Lancioni, 2013)
Summary
Online shopping continues to grow in popularity, and new online stores are constantly being established. E-commerce and new forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have increased the use of CMC between buyers and sellers (Murphy and Sashi, 2018) and essentially changed buyer–seller interactions in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). © Jonna Pauliina Koponen and Saara Rytsy. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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