Purpose – This paper aims to review the state-of-the-art literature on social media adoption in business-tobusiness (B2B) contexts to propose an inclusive and theoretical viewpoint to understand the antecedents of this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review. For this purpose, 29 studies published in academic journals, books and conference papers in the field of marketing and management from 2001 to 2017 were analysed. Findings – The results show that the number of studies has increased in the past five years. Three different groups of antecedents are identified by considering the nature of these factors (personal, organisational and external) and analysed at two different levels of adoption: individual and firm/function. Managerial implications and future research insights are provided. Research limitations/implications – This research area deserves much more attention, both theoretical and empirical, to analyse the existing classifications and develop new categories of antecedents of social media adoption in B2B. Further studies are needed on the individual level of adoption, on new skills and capabilities required to use social media as well as on the social factors influencing usage. Practical implications – The literature review allows to understand the role of personal, organisational and social antecedents and suggest ways to improve the level and quality of adoption. Originality/value – Despite a considerable interest in research on social media, this paper provides the first complete framework in the new field of study concerning social media adoption in B2B.

Introduction

Social media has been one of the most relevant topics for scholars and practitioners over the past 10 years (Schultz and Peltier, 2013; Kietzmann et al., 2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010); many top-tier journals have published special issues and encouraged a thorough research. Social media represents a sort of revolution from an economic and social point of view, leading to a growing interest from researchers. These applications enable users to communicate, create and share content in an easier way than ever before. During the past decade, both the number of social media sites and the number of users all over the world have increased; active social media users reached 2.789 billion, with a penetration rate of 37 per cent in the world population (WeAreSocial, 2017). Indeed, the widespread use of social media opened up new interaction opportunities among different people on an international level (Del Giudice et al., 2013). Furthermore, this massive adoption has determined significant transformations in almost every facets of the society, including the business environment. Some companies have already started to harness benefits from the use of social media for business and marketing purposes. For instance, Dell computer is often reported as a successful example of both business-to-customer (B2C) and business-tobusiness (B2B) social media marketing. The company established an online community on Facebook and started to handle customer service issues through social media platforms with a high success rate of 98 per cent, by turning dissatisfied customers from “demoters” to “promoters” (Katona and Sarvary, 2014). In the same vein, Maersk Line, one of the world’s biggest container and bulk shipping companies, started a successful social media presence, showing that these tools allow to gain profits for brands (Minsky and Quesenberry, 2015). Nevertheless, social media, in combination with other resources, is a powerful tool also for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their visibility and tap into new markets (Bocconcelli et al., 2017). Furthermore, social media is strictly linked to knowledge management, as they share the concept of connecting people and sharing knowledge between them (Levy, 2013). By stimulating collaboration with external partners, social media could help SMEs to overcome their typical resource limitations (Brink, 2017; Mäläskä et al., 2011). In this regard, Scuotto et al. (2017a) show that these platforms provide B2B SMEs a valuable environment for mass collaborative knowledge management, whereby customers and employees interact, exchange existing knowledge and generate new knowledge thanks to a more effective and faster communication. Social media may represent a sort of “laboratories” where SMEs can experiment innovative ideas and enhance their innovation performance (Scuotto et al., 2017b).