An Inquiry into Effective Salesperson Social Media Use in Multinational Versus Local Firms

Laurianne Schmitt (), Rhett Epler, Eric Casenave () and Jessie Pallud ()
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Laurianne Schmitt: Humanis - Hommes et management en société / Humans and management in society - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg, LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Eric Casenave: Humanis - Hommes et management en société / Humans and management in society - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg
Jessie Pallud: Humanis - Hommes et management en société / Humans and management in society - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg

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Abstract: Salespeople are increasingly required to navigate an international environment—having international customers or international peers. However, much remains to be learned about how salespeople are utilizing social media in an international context. This multimethod, multistudy design contributes to international sales research by showing how business-to-business (B2B) salespeople use social media whether they are in a multinational or local firm. With a social capital lens, the authors explore the importance of social media with regard to strengthening salespeople's internal and external connections in an international context. In Study 1, 131 B2B salespeople use social media to develop customer relations (i.e., external connections) to engage in positive publicity and social media advocacy, ultimately leading to better sales performance. Specifically, social media advocacy enhances sales performance only for salespeople in multinationals. In Study 2, with 23 qualitative interviews, the authors contextualize the findings of Study 1 by comparing social media use among salespeople in multinational and local firms. The basis of the exploration involves internal and external connections with the three dimensions of social capital: structural, relational, and cognitive. The authors demonstrate that internal connections with peers on social media allows for increased knowledge transfer and other benefits.

Date: 2024-03-07
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Published in Journal of International Marketing, 2024, 32 (1), pp.72-91. ⟨10.1177/1069031X231207050⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04433449

DOI: 10.1177/1069031X231207050

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