This study examines options to revitalize a B2B textile trading platform, exploring user satisfaction and perceptions of the importance of several website features. Between June 8 and June 21, 2023, fashion studies majors and domestic fashion brand product planners were asked to use the website of an open B2B textile platform for 30 minutes and then evaluate its features by responding to a survey. The final sample for analysis wad comprised of 150 questionnaires. To analyze the key textile website features, a paired t-test, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), and multiple regression analysis were utilized. The analysis classified the key textile website features related to user importance and satisfaction into the following categories: convenience, appearance, product information, and uniqueness. An analysis investigation of the differences in importance and satisfaction for each website evaluation attribute found significant differences in 12 attributes. The IPA analysis revealed that attributes such as product reliability, quality, a convenient search function, and convenient page movement are highly important to users and garner high user satisfaction; these findings demonstrate the importance of maintaining these elements. Images on the main screen, the latest trend information, and product prominence attributes also garner high importance ratings, but result in low user satisfaction, which signifies extensive revision is required. Finally, user evaluation of the convenience, appearance, and product information of the website was found to affect user recommendation intention.

Agility involves dynamic capabilities that can adapt to change, reduce complexity, and reconfigure resources. Research on B2B firms' agility in complex international ecosystems is limited. This study explores the essential dynamic capabilities necessary for B2B marketing to enhance organizational agility. Qualitative methods are applied, including focus groups and interviews with managers and officials in various industries. The aim is to contribute to the discussion on B2B firms' capabilities, strategies, and patterns to gain agility in internationalization efforts.

Customers’ service experience is related to the perceived state in the process of interacting with the target at various channel touchpoints (Kaushal & Yadav, 2023). Furthermore, positive customers’ service experiences can increase the repurchase intention of buyers by strengthening the interconnection and cooperation between buyers and suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) firms and reinforcing corporate competitive positioning.

B2B marketers increasingly encounter a pressure to be digitally present in digital channels and to generate content that is tempting in driving potential customers to interact with the company online (Wiersema, 2013; Andersson & Wikström 2017). This is what B2B lead nurturing is about as the objective of lead nurturing is to provide the audience with relevant and valuable content which leads to an increased brand interest and awareness, with the goal of bringing in new customers (Marketo, 2023). To better understand how prospects and leads react to digital content, companies can build lead scoring into a strategic tool for the salespeople to qualify the prospective customers down to a list of leads, meaning prospects who are considered the most likely to convert to a positive business outcome and to be contacted in person by the salespeople (Järvinen & Taiminen 2016; Paschen et al. 2020).

A secure digital platform (SDP) can provide B2B marketers with confidence to use communications technology (CT) and engage in information sharing that facilitates resource utilization. Interlinked digital platforms constitute the company’s ecosystem and barriers in the form of a lack of skills and knowledge in relation to governance and compliance can be overcome through organizational intervention that is external to an individual’s capability of control. A framework for an SDP was developed by utilizing network theory and data were collected via an online survey and analysed (n=207) using SEM, AMOS. Organizational intervention through an SDP can help B2B marketers to increase the organization’s resource capability through improved interaction. It can also help individuals to become pro-actively compliant and be less at risk from various threats (e.g., fake news) as the organization provides a safer digital environment.

Customer experience is a top priority for business executives and a competitive ground for marketing. Business-to-business (B2B) customer experience is more intricate as it involves multiple actors with distinct roles and objectives, necessitating more customization and knowledge. Hence, it is paramount for organizations operating in the B2B space to understand and enhance the customer experience to gain a competitive edge. This complexity is further amplified in cross-border settings where partners face additional differences and distances, requiring even more mutual adaptations than in domestic business interactions. In such scenarios, individuals involved may significantly differ in terms of culture, language, and business practices.

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of a random sample of 100 consecutive Facebook posts by a specialist industrial firm which is its industry leader in terms of brand performance on Social Media. It demonstrates how the messages content, encoding, and interactivity strategies achieve the Page’s audience engagement.

Price-setting research has mainly focused on normative processes. However, a conception of pricing practices in B2B-companies is missing. Information deficits lead pricing managers to deviate from normative processes. We complement and extent normative models by assessing pricing managers’ compensation behavior in cases of information deficits. We propose a typology of approaches to missing price-related information.

This study aims to present the differentiating factors of B2B salesperson competency through comparing the suppliers and buyers in Korean steel industry in their perception on the importance and priority of B2B salesperson competency. Based on previous studies, analysis on B2B salesperson competency has been analyzed using the B2B salesperson performance competency measure factors and appropriately reorganizing them for better application to the steel industry. The required performance competencies of B2B salesperson can be categorized into 3 different types, namely social exchange competency, advisory sales competency, and skill & knowledge competency. AHP analysis was performed for analyzing the relative importance of B2B salesperson competency based on the factors of previous studies, in which categorization of the aforementioned types had been done. As the result, first, it has been confirmed that there is a difference in 1st layer main factors between the supplier group and buyer group. The supplier group valued the advisory sales competency, while the buyer group valued skill & knowledge competency. Second, it has been proved that there is same result of relative importance in 2nd detailed factors between the supplier group and buyer group. Both group confirmed that customer member, identify customer needs and communication skill are very important factors. Third, as the result of analysis on the gap between B2B salesperson competency of the suppliers and buyers, the gap in the product knowledge and sales team member need improvement for buyer’s satisfaction according to overall results of relative importance and priority. The steel supplier was able to develop B2B salesperson competency according to the buyers’ needs based on the result of this study, and furthermore it is expected that this study will be able to contribute to increase in buyer competitiveness through differentiation in B2B salesperson competency.

Marketing automation influence the marketer’s decisions, enables them to automate traditionally marketing. Customers should receive automated and personalized communications. Marketing automation is the fastest growing tools in terms of adoption among digital marketers because of its capacity to achieve one-to-one communications and marketing tasks without any technical or personal skills.

With the advancement of digital technologies, the importance of inbound marketing in the B2B is increasing rapidly. Previous studies on B2B marketing suggested that compelling content is a key component in B2B suppliers' inbound marketing. The most representative marketing content of B2B supplier firms is BRC (business reference content). BRC refers to a content, such as a ‘case study’ and/or a ‘success story’ that describes, in detail, deliveries of existing satisfied customers. Prior researchers argued that using existing customers as referrers enhances the confidence of potential customers, lowers perception of purchase risk. For these reasons, many B2B marketing experts consider BRC as the core of B2B digital marketing. Nonetheless, little is known regarding with researches on BRC in the academic domain. Therefore, there is urgent need for empirical research and an integrated model that can clarify the underlying mechanism of BRC. The focus of this study is to identify how BRC influences prospective customers' purchase decisions. To examine the underlying mechanism of BRC, our research focused on two unique aspects of BRC: 1) BRC format (narrative formant vs non-narrative format), and 2) ‘transportation’ to explain BRC effect process. Using a scenario-based online experiment, our results provide several interesting insights on the BRC. Results showed that stronger transportation takes place in narrative BRC (vs non-narrative BRC). In addition, narrative BRC has a positive impact on a favorable attitude toward referrer through transportation, which in turn lowers purchase risks (e.g. product performance risk, psychosocial risk, potential financial risk, and potential time risk). The results provide a clear basis for why it is important to use BRC in B2B supplier firms' marketing communication.

Purchase engagement reflects the attitudes and behaviors of the customer in relation to their present and future purchases of the firm’s service (Kumar & Pansari, 2016). However, the concept of engagement in marketing has received less attention in business-to-business (B2B) contexts due to the complexity and heterogeneity in which the number of people involved in B2B buying decisions remains high than in consumer markets (Lilien, 2016). The challenges in developing B2B marketing theory also depends on the context and one such area that has been under-researched is the professional service firm (PSF) context (Casidy & Nyadzayo, 2017). According to Heirati et al. (2016, p.51) “…the field of B2B marketing contains limited research examining the role of PSFs' simultaneous collaboration with customers and suppliers under differing environmental conditions.” Also, there are calls for research to examine the drivers and outcomes of purchase engagement as it is a relatively nascent construct (Kumar & Pansari, 2016). Thus, this study sought to examine the drivers and outcomes of purchase engagement in B2B professional services. Using the structural equation modelling approach, the results from a survey of CEOs and/or owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia found that customization and loyalty to the account manager are two salient drivers of purchase engagement. In turn, purchase engagement is found to impact three outcomes namely consideration set size (CSZ), dependence and willingness to pay a premium price (WTP). An interesting finding in this study is the mediating role played by dependence as a mechanism through which engagement can impact CSZ and WTP. Practical and theoretical implications as well as research limitations and future research are discussed.