摘要
Purpose:The article examines the role of digital and,in particular,social media in business-to-business marketing in the international software industry.The authors responded to calls for empirical research on how these media impact buyer-vendor relationships and the conjunction of the marketing and sales processes,particularly the distribution of complex software solutions.This paper develops a digital framework and discusses the managerial consequences.Design/methodology/approach:The model arises by merging themes derived from literature,experts,and job descriptions.Mixed Methods included conducting semi-structured interviews across marketing,business development,and sales executives from buyers,vendors,and third parties of various industries,supplemented by a survey of 530+executives.Findings:Multinational companies secure competitive advantage through agile business processes to improve buyer-vendor relationships in the digital era.Digital media enable vendors to interact continuously with buyers,gather intelligence,and foster mutually beneficial,trustworthy,long-term relationships.The objective is to prompt transactions and secure revenue streams.Research limitations/implications:The outcomes of this research center on North America,Western Europe(including the UK),and DACH(Germany-Austria-Switzerland),affecting the generalizability.Originality/value:The research is novel and bridges several gaps concerning industrial relationships in digitalization:it merges buyer,vendor,and third-party’s perspectives on an international scale.It provides deeper insights into existing and new relationships by identifying relevant digital/social media platforms,the underlying usage motivation,and fundamental B2B processes.Finally,it equips practitioners with metrics to improve performance.
