Understanding Social Selling Using a Social Capital Theory

摘要

Buyers' immense interest in social media has made it essential for sales organizations to understand and evaluate the potential impacts of utilizing social selling, i.e. social media in the selling process. The unprecedented growth in use of social media has impacted every aspect of business. Sales and marketing operations have been most affected due to the high level of customer involvement. There is a widespread adoption of social media by customers. However, companies have been cautious in embracing social media. The effect of social media on business, marketing and sales needs greater understanding. Furthermore, there is no clear understanding of the role played by social media in salesperson relational sales management and sales outcomes. Our study uses the social capital lens, that encompasses both social network connections and the potential returns such connections offer to individuals and firms, to investigate how the usage of social media has an impact on relational sales management and consequently on sales performance.