Zixuan Cheng, Kirk Plangger, Feng Cai, Colin L. Campbell and Leyland Pitt
This paper aims to explore how business-to-business (B2B) salespeople use social media and emulate value creation strategies used by social media influencers.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how business-to-business (B2B) salespeople use social media and emulate value creation strategies used by social media influencers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 28 interviews with salespeople, this paper develops six propositions and a conceptual framework that outlines when and how B2B salespeople use social media in value-creating sales.
Findings
This study’s findings provide a critical analysis of when social media are most effective and beneficial in supporting salespeople’s value-creating sales in various stages in the sales process (e.g. prospecting, opening relationships, qualifying prospects and serving accounts) and when they are less effective (e.g. presenting sales messages and closing sales).
Research limitations/implications
This research yields a substantive understanding of the evolving role that social media play in B2B sales by examining B2B salespeople’s value creation strategies through the lens of social media influencers’ practice and outlines ideas for future research on B2B salespeople’s social media strategies.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can be used by B2B organizations to structure the training of B2B salespeople to use social media to the fullest extent by aligning specific strategies with different parts of the sales process.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by summarizing the B2B sales literature on social media and integrating recent insights from the social media influencer literature; empirically identifying how B2B salespeople use social media to create value, thus validating previous findings and extending understanding by offering a set of six theoretical propositions; and delineating B2B salespeople’s social media practice into 11 value creation strategies that are critically explored for their place in the sales process.
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Maria Lexhagen, Mia Larson and Christine Lundberg
This chapter focuses on the importance of social media for pop culture fans. A web survey for fans of the Twilight Saga is implemented, using the concepts of cognitive, affective…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the importance of social media for pop culture fans. A web survey for fans of the Twilight Saga is implemented, using the concepts of cognitive, affective, and evaluative social identity and personal, product, and situational involvement. The purpose is to examine to what degree social identity and involvement can explain pop culture fans’ future intention to travel, make recommendations to others, and use social media. Findings show that pop culture fans use social media to a large extent and that these means are important for making decisions about traveling and event participation. Moreover, the chapter shows that involvement dimensions are more important than social identity dimensions to explain future intention to travel, to recommend to others, and to use social media.
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Haiqing Shi, Taiwen Feng and Zhiyi Li
The purpose of this study is to explore the inverted U-shaped relationship between green customer integration (GCI) and opportunistic behavior, as well as the moderating effects…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the inverted U-shaped relationship between green customer integration (GCI) and opportunistic behavior, as well as the moderating effects of contractual control and relational norms.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted hierarchical regression analysis using two-waved data from 206 Chinese manufacturing firms to test hypotheses.
Findings
The authors found that GCI has an inverted U-shaped effect on opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, both contractual control and relational norms negatively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between GCI and opportunistic behavior.
Originality/value
This study uncovers an inverted U-shaped link between GCI and opportunistic behavior by combining transaction cost economics and social exchange theory. Furthermore, this study reveals contractual control and relational norms can be deemed as two boundary conditions affecting the inverted U-shaped GCI–opportunistic behavior relationship. This study also offers managerial implications for firms curbing opportunistic behavior that may result from GCI.
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Taiwen Feng, Di Cai, Zhenglin Zhang and Bing Liu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint influence of technological newness (TN) and market newness (MN) on the relationship between customer involvement (CI) and new…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint influence of technological newness (TN) and market newness (MN) on the relationship between customer involvement (CI) and new product performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the hypothesized relationships using survey data collected from 214 Chinese manufacturing firms.
Findings
The authors found that the impact of CI on new product performance varies across the different configurations of TN and MN. Specifically, the performance effect of CI is most positive under low TN and high MN, while the performance effect is least positive under low TN and low MN.
Originality/value
This study enriches CI research by identifying different configurations of product innovativeness that augment or limit the value of CI.
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Arthur C. Graesser, Nia Dowell, Andrew J. Hampton, Anne M. Lippert, Haiying Li and David Williamson Shaffer
This chapter describes how conversational computer agents have been used in collaborative problem-solving environments. These agent-based systems are designed to (a) assess the…
Abstract
This chapter describes how conversational computer agents have been used in collaborative problem-solving environments. These agent-based systems are designed to (a) assess the students’ knowledge, skills, actions, and various other psychological states on the basis of the students’ actions and the conversational interactions, (b) generate discourse moves that are sensitive to the psychological states and the problem states, and (c) advance a solution to the problem. We describe how this was accomplished in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) in 2015. In the PISA CPS 2015 assessment, a single human test taker (15-year-old student) interacts with one, two, or three agents that stage a series of assessment episodes. This chapter proposes that this PISA framework could be extended to accommodate more open-ended natural language interaction for those languages that have developed technologies for automated computational linguistics and discourse. Two examples support this suggestion, with associated relevant empirical support. First, there is AutoTutor, an agent that collaboratively helps the student answer difficult questions and solve problems. Second, there is CPS in the context of a multi-party simulation called Land Science in which the system tracks progress and knowledge states of small groups of 3–4 students. Human mentors or computer agents prompt them to perform actions and exchange open-ended chat in a collaborative learning and problem-solving environment.
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Many studies on witch killings in Africa suggest that “witchcraft is the dark side of kinship.” But in Chinese history, where patriarchal clan system has been emphasized as the…
Abstract
Purpose
Many studies on witch killings in Africa suggest that “witchcraft is the dark side of kinship.” But in Chinese history, where patriarchal clan system has been emphasized as the foundation of the society, there have been few occurrences of witch-hunting except a large-scale one in the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The purpose of this paper is to explain the above two paradoxes.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical analysis based on preference falsification problem with regard to the effect of social structure on witch-hunting is carried out.
Findings
There is a “bright side of kinship” due to two factors: first, it would be more difficult to pick out a person as qualitatively different in Chinese culture; second, the hierarchical trust structure embedded in the Chinese culture can help mitigate the preference falsification problem, which acts as the leverage for witch-hunting. In this sense, an important factor for the Cultural Revolution is the decline of traditional social institutions and social values after 1949.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to advance the two paradoxes and offer an explanation from the perspective of social structure.
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Rajveer Kaur Ritu, Prabhjot Kaur and Amanpreet Kaur
The present research attempts to delve into the climate-agriculture-migration nexus to ascertain whether the variation in agriculture output due to climatic factors has a…
Abstract
Purpose
The present research attempts to delve into the climate-agriculture-migration nexus to ascertain whether the variation in agriculture output due to climatic factors has a significant influence on the emigration flows from the Asian and African continents.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study draws upon a rich panel of data from 27 countries (14 African and 13 Asian) between 1995 and 2020. The first stage least square, OLS and 2SLS techniques have been employed to examine the relationships between climatic factors and international migration, climatic factors and agriculture output, and agriculture output and international migration, respectively.
Findings
The results exhibit a positive relationship between temperature and international migration. The influence of temperature on agriculture output is negative but insignificant while precipitation promotes agriculture output. In addition, agriculture output negatively influences international migration, and these findings establish a climate-agriculture-migration relationship.
Practical implications
To counteract the climate-agriculture-migration nexus, it is incumbent upon governments to conduct extensive field trials and data collection exercises to assess the influence of climate in separate agro-ecological zones and devise policies accordingly.
Originality/value
The literature concerning the interrelationship between climatic factors, agriculture and migration is scarce and what is available pertains to different contexts. Moreover, no studies are based on Asia and Africa; the continents have a high dependence on agriculture and outmigration rates, and the present research covers this important gap in the literature.
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Mohamed Aboelmaged, Saadat M. Alhashmi, Gharib Hashem, Mohamed Battour, Ifzal Ahmad and Imran Ali
The literature on knowledge management in sustainable supply chain (KMSSC) has witnessed significant growth in the past two decades. However, a scientometric review that…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature on knowledge management in sustainable supply chain (KMSSC) has witnessed significant growth in the past two decades. However, a scientometric review that consolidates the primary trends and clusters within this topic has been notably absent. This paper aims to scrutinize recent advancements and identify the intellectual underpinnings of KMSSC research conducted between 2002 and 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
The present review employs a scientometric analysis approach via visualization maps of prolific contributions, co-citation, co-occurrence and thematic networks to examine a total of 114 articles and conference papers on KMSSC.
Findings
Emerging research frontiers and hotspots are revealed and a state-of-the-art framework of KMSSC research structure is developed.
Practical implications
The review provides significant implications that guide KMSSC research and better inform sustainability decisions in the supply chain context.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first review to thoroughly synthesize the intersected domain of KMSSC using scientometric analysis.
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Xiaoyi He, Liping Li, Xiaojian Liu, Yongsheng Wu, Shujiang Mei and Zhen Zhang
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease in infants and children. HFMD has caused millions of cases and a large epidemic worldwide. A number of studies…
Abstract
Purpose
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease in infants and children. HFMD has caused millions of cases and a large epidemic worldwide. A number of studies have shown that the incidence of HFMD is closely related to various factors such as meteorological factors, environmental air pollution factors and socio-economic factors. However, there are few studies that systematically consider the impact of various factors on the incidence of HFMD. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used grey correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) method to systematically analyse the impact of meteorological factors, health resource factors, socio-economic factors and environmental air pollution factors on the incidence of HFMD in Shenzhen.
Findings
The incidence of HFMD in Shenzhen was affected by multiple factors. Grey correlation analysis found eight influencing factors which are as follows: volume of industrial waste gas emission; the days of air quality equal to or above grade; the volume of industrial nitrogen oxide emission; precipitation; the mean air temperature; the gross domestic product; the expenditure for medical and health care; and the gross domestic product per capita. PCA found that the gross domestic product, the volume of industrial soot emission, the relative humidity, and the days of air quality equal to or above grade have a higher load value.
Originality/value
This study is the one of the first studies that apply the grey correlation analysis to analyse the influencing factors of HFMD in the English literature, which to some extent fills up the blank in this field.