Social media capability in B2B marketing: toward a definition and a research model

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore organizational social media capability in business-to-business (B2B) marketing, by focusing on what social media capability is in a B2B marketing context and how it is developed in firms engaged in B2B marketing. Design/methodology/approach This is a thematic literature review, drawing on both B2B marketing and Information Systems literature. In total, 112 academic articles from nine journals were identified and analyzed. The findings were synthesized and compiled to provide answers to the predefined research questions. Findings The results suggest that organizational social media capability is dependent on a deep understanding of a firm’s technological capability, i.e. recognizing the key features and categories of social media and dynamically upgrading the recognition in response to the environmental change. A four-level Social Media Capability Maturity Model (technological, operational, managed and strategic level) that collectively transfers social media’s technological capability to dynamic organizational capability is proposed. Originality/value This study contributes to an understanding of the use of social media in the context of B2B marketing from an organizational dynamic capability perspective. The model is particularly relevant to organizations that have adopted or plan to adopt a B2B social media strategy and is relevant for B2B researchers who are interested in social media research.

How companies evaluate the ROI of social media marketing programmes: insights from B2B and B2C

“…These findings help conclude that many companies are still at an immature level concerning the level of knowledge about the ROI of SMM programmes, as the most-used metrics identified are as follows: accesses, number of leads, followers, visits, clicks, likes, comments, sharing of contents and extra figures on interaction. These results also suggest that B2B companies may be positioned in the initial stages of the social marketing capability maturity model proposed by Wang et al (2017). This lack of maturity may explain why investment in SMM programmes is not seen as a priority by B2B companies despite they consider it important.…”

“…The decision must consider the firm's characteristics and resources such as internal digital infrastructure, human resources, knowledge, media choices and target consumers' preferences to select the best investment decisions. According to Wang et al(2017) these dimensions constitute the firm's SM capability and could be grouped in four levels, the: 1 technological level; 2 operational level; 3 managed level; and 4 strategic level; which must be aligned with each other to provide the maximum value from the use of SM to develop marketing activities.…”

Process Level Social Media Business Value Configuration of SMEs in Saudi Arabia

“…In this study, the selected social media dynamic capabilities are those considered necessary for the adaption of an organization's essential processes in a business environment changing due to circumstances such as technological change, including social media innovation and collaborative capabilities [43], social media strategic capabilities [19], and social media knowledge management capabilities [44]. The scale used to rate the social media dynamic capabilities was adapted from Yang and Chen [45], Nguyen et al [24], Wong et al [43] and Wang et al [2].…”

“…The use of social media among business and society is increasing, creating strategic advantage [1]. Only a few studies have investigated how SMEs integrate social media technology into their operations and strategies [2]. However, many studies in the Saudi context have sought to investigate how SMEs can create value from social media [1].…”

Theoretical Foundations of the Relationship Management Mid-Range Theory

“…Meanwhile, in strategic management, there is an ongoing trend to describe almost every activity of a company in the context of relationship management capabilities. Examples include absorptive capability (Cohen and Levinthal 1990), customer agility (Roberts and Grover 2012), customer response capability (Jayachandran et al 2004), dynamic marketing capability (Mitrega 2019), employee capability (Kim & Kim 2009), network capability (Mitrega et al 2012), portfolio management (Möller and Halinen 1999), relationship learning and renewal capability (Jarratt 2008), social media capability (Wang et al 2017) and supplier relationship management capability (Forkmann et al 2016). However, the view of a company from the RM capabilities perspective faces the same prescriptive limits as the traditional RBV (Pukas 2019).…”