B2C Firms Research Articles

Does the market's reaction to greenhouse gas emissions differ between B2B and B2C? Evidence from South Korea

This paper analyzes the relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the financial performance of business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations. We find that Tobin's q is positively associated with higher GHG emissions for B2B firms, implying that GHG emissions reduction is regarded as a necessary cost. Meanwhile, a negative relationship is found for B2C firms, which may be due to consumers responding to climate change issues. These findings contribute to our understanding of the heterogeneous relationship in the existing literature. The evidence also implies on the policy level that more stringent regulatory pressure may be required for B2B firms to reduce their GHG emissions.

“The ladies are not for turning”: exploring how leader gender and industry sector influence the corporate social responsibility practices of franchise firms

This study of 246 franchise firms in Spain explores differences in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices as a function of a leader's gender and the industry sector. The results suggest that female-led firms engage more with normative CSR, while male leadership prompts a more instrumental approach. Overall, B2B companies engage more in instrumental CSR, while there are no significant differences between B2B and B2C firms in normative CSR. Interestingly, the results indicate that female-led firms engage more in CSR practices (normative and instrumental) in the B2B sector compared to B2C. Male-led firms, by contrast, tend to do so more in instrumental CSR in the B2C sector, thus operating more instrumentally when the outlook appears more promising. The results challenge existing theories whereby female-led firms may engage more in CSR in the B2C sector as opposed to B2B. The results support theories proposing that female-led firms adopt more of a stewardship theory approach in the B2B sector, building relationships and social capital through activities such as CSR. The findings extend the state-of-the-art on how gender may influence CSR practices in both type (normative or instrumental) and circumstance (B2B or B2C).

The role of cool versus warm colors in B2B versus B2C firm-generated content for boosting positive eWOM

While the importance of electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) for Business-to-Business (B2B) firms is increasing, the use of B2B firm-generated content for driving positive eWOM is less understood. Given the emergence of image-oriented social media platforms, this study investigates how color features increase positive eWOM in the B2B versus B2C context by analyzing 13,356 images on Instagram. The results reveal key differences in color features in the contexts of B2B and B2C. Specifically, cool colors are more appealing in B2B content, while warm colors work better in B2C content. Further, darkness, saturation, and colorfulness moderate the cool effect in B2B content, such that darker, less saturated, and more varied colors increase the effect of cool color. In the B2C context, only colorfulness increases the effect of warm color. The findings of this research contribute to the literature examining the different drivers of eWOM between B2B and B2C social media and offer managerial implications for B2B and B2C firms on ways to encourage positive eWOM.

Two archetypes of business model innovation processes for manufacturing firms in the context of digital transformation

The digital transformation is forcing manufacturing firms to innovate beyond new products and services and to develop their digital business model innovation (BMI) processes in order to stay competitive. This study explores how the innovation processes of manufacturing firms can be designed in order to develop novel business models to address the challenges of digitalization. The study uses a multiple‐case study approach, where data on BMI processes was collected in six manufacturing firms. The results show that the design of BMI processes in the digital age differs conceptually between B2C and B2B manufacturing firms. While BMI processes in B2C firms follow a semi‐structured approach that considers experimentation, process models in B2B firms show similarities with a new product development (NPD) hybrid model comprising stage‐gate methods and agility. This new typology aims to structure the heterogeneity of BMI process models described in the literature. Finally, this study proposes two archetype process models for digital BMI for B2C and B2B firms with specific digital process characteristics that manufacturing firms could consider when designing a BMI process in the context of digital transformation without reinventing the wheel over and over again.

Exploring Textual Modes, Imagery and Claims in B to B and B to Print Advertising

ABSTRACT Purpose This exploratory inquiry examined 35 types of textual modes (stories, metaphors, puns, etc.), imagery, and claims in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) print advertising. This framework for ad content could form the foundation for further efforts with other media. Methodology/Approach A content analysis compared B2B advertising with that of B2C firms. It also compared B2B firms with and without B2C advertising experience. Print ads are a well-established context and thus provided a stable research platform that shares fundamental elements with digital ads. Qualitative surveys of advertising industry workers, content analysis of award winning ads, and analysis of the creators’ comments on the award winning ads expanded the research. Findings The results from 270 print ads showed that advertisers in general failed to employ many of the elements examined. B2B ads lagged behind B2C ads in employing some elements as well. Further, those B2B advertisers without B2C experience lagged those with B2C experience. The ads also appeared formulaic since they used a small set of elements intensively. The causes for this proved complex and ambiguous. Research Implications These insights can help researchers target important ad elements for research projects. Also, the framework used here may serve to aid researchers in creating frameworks for evaluating ads across other media. Practical Implications Ad designers should be able to take better advantage of less used tools of persuasion and create ads that are less formulaic. Advertisers may find tools here for evaluating the ads created for them. Originality/Value/Contribution The results should provide researchers and practitioners with a clearer view of print ad content. The results may also facilitate improved management of ad creation. The framework developed for classifying textual modes, imagery, and claims in print ads may also be adaptable to classifying content in digital and other advertising to facilitate integrated marketing communications.

Managing customer reactions to brand deletion in B2B and B2C contexts

• Deleting weak brands facilitates channelizing scarce resources to strong brands. • B2B and B2C firms hesitate to delete brands as they fear facing customer resistance. • Understanding customer reactions to brand deletion ensures a smooth deletion process. • Involving and offering support to customers while deleting a brand is crucial. • Providing timely notifications and brand substitutes helps reduce customer churn.

Comparing Digital Strategies and Social Media Usage in B2B and B2C Industries in Spain

ABSTRACT Using 285 responses obtained in a survey of high- and middle-level managers of firms located in Spain and by implementing clustering techniques, we identify differences in the conception and adoption of a digital strategy and the use of social media. A driver for these differences is represented by whether companies are adopting a B2C or a B2B business model. Specifically, B2B companies are slower to generate an overall digital strategy compared to B2C firms. Moreover, B2B firms adopting a digital strategy are prioritizing the use of more professionally oriented platforms (e.g., LinkedIn), while B2C firms are favoring the use of more socially oriented services (e.g., Facebook). Additionally, we find that those B2C companies without a clear digital strategy are nonetheless significantly using social media, particularly social networks, while B2B companies are delaying the use of social media until conceiving a clear digital strategy.

Internationalization of carsharing companies in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to explore the specifics of the internationalization process of carsharing companies as the largest players in the new sector of a sharing economy. The comparative analysis of the internationalization process of carsharing companies in European countries was conducted from four directions: the intensity of car use, the way to enter foreign markets, internationalization rate, and the choice of locations within a country for doing business. Carsharing companies with B2C and P2P business models pursue various strategies to penetrate foreign markets. B2C companies lead the internationalization process; in most cases they are large European automotive corporations or car rental companies. When entering the same foreign market, companies with a P2P business model cover more cities in a country than B2C firms. Also, over the internationalization period carsharing companies with a B2C business model enter the markets of more countries than P2P companies. The latter primarily enter the markets of neighboring countries, while the former internationalize in the largest markets. The further global expansion of carsharing is determined by several contradicting factors. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, most scholars had predicted a growing popularity of carsharing services. The use of electric vehicles and automated guided vehicles within the framework of carsharing sparked the main growth impacts. However, the coronavirus pandemic poses a threat to the development of sharing economy. Reinforcement of safety requirements as to minimize personal contacts and consumer interactions along with the aspiration of states to reduce their level of involvement in global processes can lead to the transformation of the process and internationalization strategies.

Whom to hire and how to coach them: a longitudinal analysis of newly hired salesperson performance

Salesperson hiring decisions are critical for firms, and managers typically accept one of two viewpoints regarding optimal hiring strategies. The first asserts that prior sales experience allows new salespeople to perform immediately upon hire and represents a valuable hiring heuristic. The second believes lack of prior experience allows managers to mold new salespeople to the hiring firm’s needs. Further complicating matters, formal sales education programs are gaining in popularity and may represent an alternative hiring heuristic for sales managers. Using unique multisource data (from both B2B and B2C firms), the authors explore the effects of these hiring heuristics in driving salespeople’s longitudinal performance trajectories, along with the moderating role of post-hire manager coaching behaviors. Results of the longitudinal growth models show the distinct and opposing effects of each hiring heuristic and coaching strategy. The authors also identify critical areas of future research and managerial practice.

Target and position article - Analyzing the impact of user-generated content on B2B Firms' stock performance: Big data analysis with machine learning methods

Marketing scholars are interested in the big data of user-generated content (UGC) from social media platforms. However, the majority of current UGC studies have been conducted in the business-to-consumer (B2C) context. To fill the knowledge gap in business-to-business (B2B) research, we investigate whether UGC has differential impacts on stock performance for B2B and B2C firms by using big data. We collect a large dataset of 84 million tweets from 20.3 million Twitter accounts and 8 years of stock data for 407 companies from the S&P500 index. The results from machine learning methods are transformed into a monthly panel data. We conduct fixed effects model on the panel data. We find that UGC has a significant impact on firms' stock performance and that its impact on stock performance is much stronger among B2C firms than among B2B firms. While consumers' positive sentiment does not play a significant role in stock performance, consumers' negative sentiment and WOM significantly impact stock prices.

Who invests why? An analysis of investment decisions in b2b or b2c equity crowdfunding projects

Crowdfunding is an interesting phenomenon in the field of financing, as it is evolving in theory and practice. However, most research is focused on non-equity-based campaigns. Hence, we shed light on a yet under researched aspect: B2B and B2C companies reaching for equity-based crowdfunding. We chose an empirical approach and conducted a quantitative study among almost 300 participants to reveal the difference between the funding decisions for startups located in either B2B or B2C markets. Our results show that differences in investments between B2B and B2C firms do exist, revealing that other success factors are necessary in those cases. Moreover, we find that the involvement of the investor as lead user has relevance for the decision to invest in both cases. We conclude with implications for theory and practice and give suggestions for future research.

A new approach to segmenting multichannel shoppers in Korea and the U.S.

Advancements in digital technology and devices enlarge dimensions of e-commerce, reforming the ways that consumers shop and purchase products and services. In particular, the mixed use of online, mobile, and offline channels and devices for shopping provides B2C firms with unprecedented challenges and opportunities to develop effective segmentation approaches that capture multitude of newly emerging consumers’ shopping patterns. This paper aims to classify consumers along with their shopping patterns and channel preferences by using rank order survey data from Korean and American consumers on their path-to-purchase behaviors. Cluster analysis and Association Rule Mining (ARM) are applied for segmentation and its characterization. Relative importance of path-to-purchase factors such as information search location, payment method, delivery option, and payment location are assessed to determine the differences in Korean and American consumers regarding their shopping patterns and preferences. Network visualization of rules shows the differences in shopping preference and patterns of Korean and US consumers both at micro and macro levels.

Investigating social media as a firm’s signaling strategy through an IPO

Initial public offerings (IPOs) are a crucial step for entrepreneurial firms. Despite the growing popularity of social media among various audiences, including potential investors, limited studies have investigated how firms can utilize social media to attract financial capital during the IPO process. We utilize the signaling theory and the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) literature to shed light on this issue. Our study, based on Twitter and SDC data of 367 firms that went public in the USA from 2014 to 2015, provides evidence in support of a positive relationship between social media use by a firm and its IPO value. Furthermore, the effectiveness of a firm’s tweets is mediated by public responses to its tweets, and such effectiveness is found to be stronger for B2C firms and firms with more traditional media coverage.

The impact of social media followers on corporate value: An investigation of Australian firms

With social media user numbers reaching billions, firms seek to partake in the benefits of investing into social media activities. Existing literature, however, provides little insight as to whether investment in social media adds value for corporations. In particular, it remains difficult to quantify the financial benefits for firms from social media activities. Prior research found uncertainty for small and large firms on whether value is derived from the information present on social media and the access to the large number of users. Based on a sample of 74 listed Australian firms for an observation period of 30 days of June 2016, this study examines the relationship between the firm’s social media activities on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and corporate value. The results show that a firm’s social media presence on LinkedIn has a significant effect on the share return of firms, while a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter did not provide statistically significant results. Interestingly, the study also found that there is a difference between B2B and B2C firms, confirming a significant impact between for B2C firms on LinkedIn and share returns. The findings are useful for corporate managers and social media activists trying to understand the financial impacts of social media on corporate value.

Strategic management of product and brand extensions: Extending corporate brands in B2B vs. B2C markets

Decisions about expanding an existing product portfolio and capturing new markets are of critical importance to a firm's financial performance and growth. Yet, important questions remain in regard to the extent to which product and brand extensions contribute to a firm's profit in B2B and B2C markets, respectively, and how firms with corporate brands in these markets should pursue an extension strategy that provides maximum impact on firm profit. The authors theorize and empirically address these questions based on a study of firms listed in the U.S. Fortune 500 published ranking. Findings of this research have important prescriptive implications for the management of B2B and B2C firms' growth-based extension strategy and contribute to B2B theory.

B2C Marketplace Prioritization Using Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic AHP

Commercial Internet rapidly developed through Business to Customer (B2C) businesses since 1990s. B2C provides free online services and discounted shopping to customers. There are lots of B2C firm alternatives in the internet for a customer who seeks for a profitable business. The selection among these B2C alternatives is a multi-attribute decision-making problem with many tangible and intangible criteria under vagueness and impreciseness. In this paper, we propose a hesitant fuzzy linguistic analytic hierarchy process method for the selection among B2C firms. Hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets are used for the assessments in the pairwise comparison matrices. An ordered weighted averaging operator is used for aggregation operator. A sensitivity analysis is also given to check the robustness of the obtained result.

Generating and exploiting customer insights from social media data

Previous research has emphasized the virtues of customer insights as a key source of competitive advantage. The rise of customers’ social media use allows firms to collect customer data in an ever-increasing volume and variety. However, to date, little is known about the capabilities required of firms to turn social media data into valuable customer insights and exploit these insights to create added value for customers. Based on the dynamic capabilities perspective, in particular the concept of absorptive capacity (ACAP), the authors conducted multiple case studies of seven mid-sized and large B2C firms in Switzerland and Germany. The results provide an in-depth analysis of the underlying processes of ACAP as well as contingent factors – that is, physical, human and organizational resources that underpin the firms’ ACAP.

The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on B2B branding and business growth in emerging markets

This study examines the relation between entrepreneurial orientation and brand orientation in industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the extent to which the two contribute to business growth in emerging markets. The authors develop and empirically test a structural model using data collected from Hungary, a country that has undergone a political and economic transition during the past two decades since the fall of the iron curtain. The results show that entrepreneurial orientation has a positive effect on business growth in emerging markets, whereas brand orientation has an adverse effect. Furthermore, the study examines whether there are differences (1) between B2B firms and B2C firms operating in emerging markets and (2) between B2B firms operating in emerging markets (Hungary) and in developed markets (Finland). The results from comparative analyses suggest that while B2B firms and B2C firms do not differ significantly from each other, there are notable differences between emerging markets and developed markets. Specifically, the study finds that although brand orientation does not contribute to business growth in Hungarian B2B firms, it has a positive effect on growth in B2B firms operating in Finland.

Determinants, Moderators and Consequences of Organizational Interaction Orientation

Interaction orientation reflects the ability of a company to interact with the individual customer and to gather information from successful interactions. Four dimensions of interaction orientation are identified in the literature: customer concept, interaction response capacity, customer empowerment and customer value management (Ramani and Kumar, 2008). This study shows that indeed a fifth dimension of interaction orientation exists and investigates the determinants, moderators and consequences of this construct. The first notable finding is that B2B companies exhibit a greater degree of interaction orientation than B2C firms. Ramani and Kumar hypothesized that in their study. We show that there are B2C industries such as financial services, whose companies also have a greater interaction orientation. This could be the reason why the authors could not prove their hypothesis. Furthermore, we examine the influence of strategic orientations on organizational performances and compare various orientations with each other.

Understanding the links between technological opportunism, marketing emphasis and firm performance: Implications for B2B

The capability of firms to sense and respond to changes in technologies, called technological opportunism, is of growing importance to managers as a source of competitive advantage. However, exactly how technological opportunism impacts firm performance is still not clearly understood. Furthermore, the role of marketing in this relationship, if any, has yet to be examined. Understanding this relationship is critical for marketing managers not only for determining strategic investments of resources but also for demonstrating marketing return on activities. This paper explores the links between technological opportunism and firm performance. The results show that technological opportunism has a strong positive impact on key measures of performance such as firm sales, profits and market value. Importantly, marketing emphasis is the mechanism through which the technological opportunism–performance relationship is achieved. Finally, the impact of marketing emphasis on B2B firms is different than that for B2C firms, highlighting the importance of these activities for B2B marketing managers.