Purpose The purpose of this study is to clarify business-to-business (B2B) firms’ strategies of social media marketing communication. The study aims to explore the factors contributing to the formation and adoption of integration strategies and identify who the B2B firms target. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case study approach is used to compare four multinational corporations and their practices. Face-to-face interviews with key managers, and extensive readings and observations of the firms’ websites and social media platforms have been conducted. Findings The study results in a model, illustrating different processes of selection, adoption and integration involved in the development of social media communication strategy for B2B firms. Major factors involved in determining the platform type, and strategies used within different phases and processes are identified. Research limitations/implications As the chosen methodology may limit generalizability, further research is encouraged to test the model within a B2B context especially within small and medium enterprises as only large multinational corporations were investigated in this study. Practical implications The paper provides insight into how B2B marketers can align social media with their firms’ goals through the strategic selection of platforms to reach the targeted audience and communicate their message. Originality/value The study uncovers the benefits gained by B2B firms’ through interaction with individuals on social media. This is a significant contribution as the value of such interaction was previously undefined and acted as a barrier for adopting social media in some B2B firms.

Purpose -Social media has increased as a marketing channel, and Facebook is the biggest social media company globally. Facebook contains both positive and negative information about companies; therefore, it is important for companies to manage their Facebook page to best serve their own interests. Although most users are familiar with business and marketing activities on Facebook, they use it primarily for fun and personal purposes. The most effective methods for companies to use Facebook have not been clear. The personal nature of Facebook presents unique challenges for companies by raising ethical and social responsibility issues that are important to users. The purpose of this paper is to discover how companies can optimize their use of Facebook as a marketing channel. Design/methodology/approach -A survey was conducted. The respondents were 158 users of Facebook in Sweden; complete answers were provided by all respondents. In a series of specific questions and comments, the respondents were asked to describe an optimal marketing solution on Facebook for companies. They rated different functions, which were illustrated with pictures, to help in the cognitive process and to avoid misunderstandings. Findings -Most users who have an opinion on the issue accept marketing on Facebook, but only in the right amount. There are basically two groups: those who think that companies have no place on Facebook and those who want companies to be active on Facebook. The latter group emphasizes the importance of meaningful posts without unsolicited sales messages, and would prefer to search for the companies themselves rather than being bombarded by company messages. By far, status updates and pictures/images were found to be the most important functions to respondents. Research limitations/implications -The sample consisted of only Swedish users. Another limitation was that, since many Facebook users do not normally think about the implications of being exposed to marketing on Facebook, they have difficulty taking a position on many issues related to the service. Practical implications -The results give companies a clear idea of how to effectively use Facebook in their marketing efforts. Originality/value -A large number of companies are currently asking themselves, "How can we use Facebook in an optimal way?" The results in this study answer this question and lead directly to saving time and resources for these companies.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the nonlinear impact of quality dimensions of third-party logistics (3PL) services on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach By interviewing 167 small-size companies, and using penalty and reward contrast analysis, the paper explores the nonlinear impact of seven dimensions of 3PL services (safety, fault’s recovery, reliability, speed, flexibility, communication, and friendliness) on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Findings The results confirm the existence of the dimensions’ nonlinear impact on customer satisfaction. It also shows that some quality dimensions have a direct and nonlinear impact on loyalty. The dimension “friendliness” has a direct impact on loyalty if the company has a below market average performance, which may lead customers to switch service providers. “Flexibility on collection and delivery” has a direct impact if the company has a higher performance, contributing to customers’ intention to continue using the service. Another finding is that, if the company delivers good service recovery after the customer found faults in the service, and if customers trust the company service, they say they intend to continue to work with the company. Research limitations/implications The present research focused only on small companies in one country (Brazil). Further studies should be carried out to explore different countries, with different realities, and different size of companies. Practical implications 3PL companies should not only deal with customers’ satisfaction, but also with other quality aspects that directly affect customer intention to continue doing business with the 3PL service provider. These are friendliness, flexibility regarding time and frequency of collection and delivery and faults’ recovery. Originality/value The present research confirms that the personal relationship is a crucial aspect to be managed in order to keep customers in the long term. In addition, as opposed to most research looking for the antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty of 3PL customers, the present research shows that there is a direct nonlinear impact of the dimensions’ performance on customers’ loyalty, what should be taken in consideration by 3PL managers. It also shows how penalty-reward contrast analysis may reveal nonlinear antecedents that could be used for better understandings companies’ success in the long term.

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The aim of this study was to identify key success factor for SME customers of cloud based Business Intelligence products. A deep interview was made with four producers and a questionnaire was carried out among 36 SMEs. The findings suggest that the most important CSFs were the level of software functionalities, the ubiquitous access to data, responsive answers to customer support requests, handling large amounts of data and implementation cost. Each of these factors addresses a specific area that customers pay close attention to during the adoption process of a cloud BI solution. Offering ubiquitous access to date and respsonsive answers to customer requests are particularly emphasized for SMEs. We also found that industry tailored software is preferred, monthly or quarterly billings, and contact by email or phone for service. The paper shows recommendations, implications of research and suggests further research on the topic.

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Disruptive innovations are innovations that have the capacity to transform a whole business into one with products that are more accessible and affordable (cf. Christensen et al. 2009). As Christensen et al. argue no business is immune to such disruptive innovations. If these authors are right, it might be relevant to be able to recognize these innovations before they disrupt a business. Incumbents may use this information to protect their business and others may use it to participate in the disruption. Either way, gathering information about potential disruptive innovations is a relevant activity. The production of this information (we call this information “disruptive Intelligence”) is the topic of this paper. In particular, we analyze disruptive innovation theory and formulate several intelligence topics which may help in predicting disruptive innovations. In addition, we formulate several ‘biases’ which may impair the production of ‘disruptive intelligence’.