Social media use in B2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: Examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler

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Possible founder application

Use this study as a bounded example related to social media use in b2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.

Reported result

What the study found

Social-media use affected performance through competitive-intelligence collection and adaptive selling; perceived usefulness was not significantly related to use; intelligence collection supported adaptive selling.

Research question

What the authors investigated

What does social media use in b2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?

Design

Empirical model of salesperson social-media use: usefulness attitude and learning orientation predict use; use predicts competitive-intelligence collection, adaptive selling, and performance, with adaptive selling modeled as a mediator.

Sample and setting

B2B salespeople recruited through a marketing research company in India; the study uses an emerging-market sales setting.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

Authors state that an earlier model found no direct social-media-use/performance relationship and that the final model therefore focuses on the mediated path; they also note that the theory includes many variables and invite further research. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.

Research sources

Study metadata and reported results were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; detailed full-text methods were not reviewed.