Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Methodology

۳٫ Publication activities in the field – Descriptive analysis

۴٫ Thematic review

۵٫ Discussion

۶٫ Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Appendix A

References

Abstract

Social media are increasingly becoming a valuable tool for Business-to-Business (B2B) organizations. However, social media research in B2B lacks a comprehensive overview from a strategic perspective, with most research to date having been focused on the tactical use of social media platforms, that is to say, in describing specific tools to implement a strategy. In the present systematic literature review we address this deficiency. Our findings reveal that prior B2B research predominately investigated social media as short-term tactics with context-specific limitations. Our thematic analysis extends beyond these boundaries and extracts from the literature three relationship-orientated themes in social media, namely their use as a tool for: 1) sales-facilitation, 2) integrated communication, and 3) employee engagement. These three themes are distinct yet interdependent and are each necessary if organizations are to develop a competitive advantage within the social media environment. The descriptive statistics and thematic analysis in the study present a set of five key findings that reflect the research gaps presently in the literature and thus highlight significant future research directions. The study also highlights the utility for organizations to employ social media in a strategic manner rather than simply as a tactical tool.

۱٫ Introduction

While social media are extensively explored in business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors, corresponding research within the business-to-business (B2B) context remains relatively sparse (Iankova, Davies, ArcherBrown, Marder, & Yau, 2019; Ogilvie, Agnihotri, Rapp, & Trainor, 2018; Siamagka, Christodoulides, Michaelidou, & Valvi, 2015). On one hand, B2C social media marketing focuses on the interactions of organizations with consumers and consumers’ interactions with each other (Kaplan, 2012; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). The use of social media by B2B organizations emphasizes complex interactions with multiple internal and external stakeholders, such as customers, employees and even competitors (Singaraju, Nguyen, Niininen, & Sullivan-Mort, 2016). Our perspective views customers as external stakeholders and employees as internal stakeholders. Despite the present inadequate understanding of social media in B2B, social media use can nonetheless improve organizational and individual performance by applying the intellectual capital (e.g., know-how and expertise) of employees to develop and sustain valuable relationships with customers (Archer-Brown & Kietzmann, 2018; Kwahk & Park, 2016). Aiming to articulate and document current understanding of social media use by B2B organizations, we now present a systematic literature review (SLR).