Exploring the drivers of B2B end user engagement

Abstract

While engagement has enjoyed an abundance of academic and practitioner attention recently, few studies have examined engagement from the perspective of end users utilizing products and brands at work. In acknowledgement of the important role end users play in B2B sales and service ecosystems, the current study applies both social exchange and social identity theories to illuminate the process through which B2B end user engagement develops. By using scenarios with random assignment – an under-utilized approach in sales research – our results suggest that the perceived interactivity of supplier firm activities moderates the relationship between cognitive engagement and behaviors such that it nudges end users toward proactively advocating for the supplier firm brand. Moreover, the supplier firm activity is even more effective when a salesperson personally introduces the initiative to end users. Hence, with intentional and interactive connection, salespeople can influence end user engagement behaviors and add value to the sales process, a key insight for supplier firms. Finally, we explore two key drivers of end user engagement: end user work identity and need to belong. A better understanding of how and why end user engagement and subsequent behaviors develop will help salespeople connect more effectively with end users and ultimately drive more sales. These contributions meaningfully increase our understanding regarding contextual influences of end user engagement within the B2B sales arena.

Keywords:

• B2B end user engagement
• sales and service ecosystems
• perceived interactivity
• work identity
• need to belong
• experimental design

Declaration of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A caveat to the assumption that the end user experiences the supplier firm’s brand on the job is that the brand must be visible to the end user, for example, a branded wrench rather than a wrench with no visible brand.

2 We would like to thank our review team for making this observation.