Abstract/Summary

Recent academic and practitioner studies indicate that Social Media in B2B-Business Development is an emerging phenomenon with little direction and scant guidance. While Social Media has received extensive attention in Business-To-Consumer, there is a paucity of Business-To-Business studies with joint research being a novelty. This research attempts to explore and explain how Social Media impacts the B2B-Business Development process cycle in the software solutions and services environment by testing a conceptual model applying a cross-sectional survey of more than 530 practitioners. This research develops a conceptual framework of different fields such as Relationship Marketing and Information System Theory incorporating Social Capital and Usage Criteria as critical moderators leading to new business. The B2B-Business Development process phases represent constructs conceptualising the behavioural outcome of business performance. The cross-sectional research design follows a post-positivist approach with an exploratory and explanatory phase. The model was adjusted by open-ended expert, qualitative semistructured interviews with gatekeepers and decision-makers of various functions, industries and regions. Measurements were developed based on the literature, and a large-scale online survey was performed to test and validate the conceptual model and instruments. The research gap (focus on salesforce) suggests considering vendor, third-party and buyer executives as a unit of analysis. The sample from LinkedIn/XING was established at the research outset in 2015. The mixed methods approach (Thematic Analysis) and quantitative data analyses (IBM SPSS-Statistics v23, Structural Equation Modelling AMOS v23) allowed for exploration and analyses in the same study. The findings contribute to existing academic knowledge by raising awareness about the B2BBusiness Development liaison and its process phases in general and the impact of selected Social Media, in particular, to influence processes with the objective of enhancing the perceived and expected business performance. Overall, the results uphold the theoretical conjectures and create a parsimonious and innovative model by integrating Social Media into B2B-Business Development processes and acknowledging the pivotal role Social Capital plays. In conclusion, Social Media Usage affects Business Performance increasingly by accelerating the B2B-Business Development process cycle as an auxiliary technology which should however not be overestimated. Academic and managerial contributions include the definition of Social Business Relevance and Social Business Motivation Indices advancing the ROI debate, the classification of B2B-Business Developers in Social Media Advocates, Mixed Types, and Sceptics, defining and optimising B2B-Business Development processes critical to the global software environment and deriving recommendations and guidelines to render B2B-Business Development operations more agile through enhanced cooperation and interaction. The methodological contributions comprise refined measurement scales and an engaging Social Media approach to collect large amounts of data within a foreseeable period.