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Article
Publication date: 18 August 2022

Jonna Pauliina Koponen and Saara Maria Julkunen

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering…

5557

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and relational cost and reward evaluations.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.

Findings

Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.

Research limitations/implications

The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.

Practical implications

Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.

Originality/value

The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 April 2020

Jonna Pauliina Koponen and Saara Rytsy

Currently, 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…

6241

Abstract

Purpose

Currently, 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/approach

The 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.

Findings

The 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/implications

Having data only from one case company limits the results to one type of industry.

Practical implications

The results can be used in sales training and when developing online chat services.

Originality/value

Results 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.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 54 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 May 2024

Lotta Salin and Jonna Koponen

Drawing on media richness theory and a framework of interpersonal communication goals, this study investigates how and why the IT industry's top managers use communication media…

1338

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on media richness theory and a framework of interpersonal communication goals, this study investigates how and why the IT industry's top managers use communication media to achieve their interaction goals in e-leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach is applied to understand top managers' communication media use and interaction goals. The empirical data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 33 top managers from large IT companies and analysed using theory-guided thematic and ideal-type analyses.

Findings

Top managers were categorized into three types, based on their communication goals through face-to-face communication. Relationship-oriented top managers pursued relational and communal goals, whereas task-oriented ones wished to achieve instrumental and communal goals. Task- and relationship-oriented top managers pursued relational, instrumental, and communal goals. This study indicates that communal, instrumental, relational, and self-presentational goals influence managers' communication media selection.

Originality/value

This study brings new knowledge to the management communication research field. It expands the framework of interpersonal communication goals by identifying communal goals as a new category, in addition to existing instrumental, relational and self-presentational goals. This study suggests that media richness theory could be advanced by recognizing that a broader set of communication goals – including communal, instrumental, relational, and self-presentational – influences managers' communication media selection.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 37 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 August 2021

Jonna Koponen, Saara Julkunen, Mika Gabrielsson and Ellen Bolman Pullins

The purpose of this paper is to explore how business-to-business (B2B), intercultural, interpersonal salesperson–customer relationships develop using the lens of identity…

6757

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how business-to-business (B2B), intercultural, interpersonal salesperson–customer relationships develop using the lens of identity management theory (IMT; Imahori and Cupach, 2005).

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses qualitative semi-structured interviews on 18 targeted relationships with customers from another culture conducted with business-to-business salespeople.

Findings

The findings indicate that our respondents' relationships moved from trial toward enmeshment and on occasion toward the renegotiation phase, as described in IMT. In the case of low cultural diversity between salesperson and customer, the relationships reached the trial and enmeshment phase. In the case of high cultural diversity between salesperson and customer, the relationships on occasion evolved toward the renegotiation phase. Salespeople's cultural intelligence (CQ) facilitates the development of interpersonal, intercultural salesperson–customer relationships.

Originality/value

The authors transfer IMT from the personal relationship development arena to B2B intercultural, interpersonal relationships, address a gap in the literature in the understanding of salesperson–customer interpersonal relationships in different contexts and develop a theoretical model to understand intercultural, interpersonal salesperson–customer relationship development across different levels of cultural diversity.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 38 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 21 June 2011

Jonna Koponen, Eeva Pyörälä and Pekka Isotalus

This study aims to compare Finnish medical students' perceptions of the suitability of three experiential methods in learning interpersonal communication competence (ICC). The…

698

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to compare Finnish medical students' perceptions of the suitability of three experiential methods in learning interpersonal communication competence (ICC). The three methods it seeks to explore are: theatre in education; simulated patient interview with amateur actors; and role‐play with peers. The methods were introduced in a pilot course of speech communication.

Design/methodology/approach

Students (n=132) were randomly assigned to three groups. The data were collected via questionnaire and focus group interviews, and analysed using qualitative content analysis and cross‐case analysis.

Findings

Most of the medical students thought these methods were suitable or very suitable for learning ICC. The methods had five similar elements: the doctor's role, the patient's role, reflective participation, emotional reactions and teachers' actions. Being in a doctor's role, realistic scripts and patient‐roles, observing the interaction and reflection in small groups were the most helpful elements in these methods.

Originality/value

The results of this study show that simulated patient interview with amateur actors, role‐play with peers, and TIE are very suitable methods for practising professionally relevant ICC in the context of doctor‐patient encounters from the medical students' perspective.

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Article
Publication date: 8 September 2022

Jonatan Leer and Camilla Hoff-Jørgensen

This article explores consumers' attitudes to the trend of gourmet burgers, notably the gourmet burgers' combination of highbrow food (gourmet) and lowbrow food (fast food). The…

384

Abstract

Purpose

This article explores consumers' attitudes to the trend of gourmet burgers, notably the gourmet burgers' combination of highbrow food (gourmet) and lowbrow food (fast food). The authors use the case of the NOMA cheeseburger from the iconic New Nordic restaurant NOMA.

Design/methodology/approach

The data set consists of interviews (n = 20) with urban Danish consumers attending the NOMA burger pop-up.

Findings

The analysis highlights an acceptance among informants of “gourmetfied” burgers. This signals a change in the culinary status of burgers in Danish food culture. The authors also discovered some ambivalence in relation to the highbrow-lowbrow negotiations: while all informants celebrate the casualization of NOMA during the burger pop-up, half of the informants found the burger underwhelming: it did not live up to the edginess of the NOMA brand.

Practical implications

The authors believe this research can inform people working with culinary highbrow-lowbrow mix in their food designs, notably in relation to developing and matching the relation between symbolic and material aspects of the food design.

Originality/value

The authors argue that the concept of transgression can help us theorize how consumers accept, refuse, and negotiate boundaries in relation to gourmet burgers, and more generally between food consumption mixing highbrow and lowbrow elements. More particularly, the authors propose to distinguish between symbolic, social, and material transgressions. This perspective might also be interesting for practitioners in the field.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 125 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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