Supplier-customer engagement for collaborative innovation using video conferencing: A study of SMEs

Abstract

Co-creation of innovation, as transcending perspective of marketing, is of growing interest in recent years. Developing new products through collaboration is recognized as beneficial to suppliers as well as customers. Businesses face challenges as to how to build and develop close and long-lasting collaborative relationships for innovation success. Owners/managers need to know about which platform to use appropriate for different engagement aspects in the relationship development. The advancement in virtual technology may offer new platforms in enabling customer engagement apart from traditional platforms. This study explores how suppliers and customers are engaged in videoconferencing in their engagement processes in collaborative innovation. Based on an empirical study of in-depth interviews with seventeen owners/managers in biotech SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise), from a supplier's perspective it reveals that the engagement is processual and has two dimensions for the successful collaborative relationships. Videoconferencing is a platform for engagement when distance is a barrier, it's used in both dimensions of the engagement, and to facilitate cognition and support affect which help form and cement trusting relationships. The authors explain the process of videoconference engagement by a ladder of engagement model through social networking theory in building and applying social capital.

The digital marketing capabilities gap

“…The authors resolved any differences through iteration and discussion, with reference to the full text of the articles under consideration. (Avlonitis & Karayanni, 2000) ▪ Participation in electronic markets (Grewal et al, 2001) ▪ E-readiness (Berthon, Pitt, Berthon, Campbell, & Thwaites, 2008) ▪ Website (Chakraborty, Lala, & Warren, 2002) ▪ Web-based portal (Clarke III & Flaherty, 2003) ▪ E-marketplace (Eng, 2004) Multichannel (13 appearances) ▪ Channel integration (Long et al, 2007) ▪ Channel coordination (Osmonbekov et al, 2009) ▪ Multi-channel capability (Kabadayi et al, 2007) ▪ Hybrid sales structure (Thaichon et al, 2018) Mobile (3 appearances) ▪ Mobile device usage (Müller et al, 2018) ▪ Mobile sales assistants (Spreer & Rauschnabel, 2016) ▪ Mobile app (Gill et al, 2017) Theme 2: Social Media Social Media (34 appearances) ▪ Social media use (Agnihotri, Kothandaraman, Kashyap, & Singh, 2012) ▪ Social media messaging (Swani et al, 2014) ▪ Social media knowledge (Nguyen, Yu, Melewar, & Chen, 2015) ▪ Social CRM technologies (Trainor, 2012) ▪ Social media community (Wang, Hsiao, Yang, & Hajli, 2016) ▪ Positive customer reviews (Steward et al, 2018) (Keramati, Mehrabi, & Mojir, 2010) ▪ Video conferencing usage (Hardwick & Anderson, 2019) ▪ Digital CRM (Keramati et al, 2010) ▪ CRM technology (Agnihotri et al, 2017) Employees (4 appearances) ▪ Implementing technological change (Sarin et al, 2010) ▪ Technology capability (Lassk et al, 2012) ▪ Salesperson social media competency (Guesalaga, 2016) ▪ Digitalization for internal branding (Li et al, 2018) Theme 4: Digital Technologies Technologies (18 appearances) ▪ IT capability (Grewal et al, 2001) ▪ Artificial intelligence and machine learning…”

Effects of entrepreneurial orientation on social media adoption and SME performance: The moderating role of innovation capabilities

“…SM adoption and its effects on firm performance remain unexplored in SMEs located in Pakistan. First, empirical studies devoted to the adoption and use of SM between the firms collaborating for innovation purposes is limited [ 28 ]. Second, while few researchers proclaim that SM adoption and usage expedites innovation and entrepreneurial activities [ 29 ], others claim that empirical research on SM’s benefits is insufficient [ 30 , 31 ].…”

Adaptive Capability, Social Media Agility, Ambidextrous Marketing Capability, and Business Survival: A Mediation Analysis

“…In the event of unprecedented market dynamics, where customers exhibit erratic behavior and competition becomes aggressive, it becomes critical for firms to gather customer-intelligence that would enhance their ability to respond to the market need more effectively (Chuang, 2020;Hardwick & Anderson, 2019;Koponen, Julkunen, & Asai, 2019;Mpandare & Li, 2020;Murphy & Sashi, 2018;Quach, Thaichon, Lee, Weaven, & Palmatier, 2020). Otherwise, failure to be responsive to this competitive market dynamics suggests a firm that is not interested in being competitive nor wanting to survive the harsh business environment.…”