Digital Media as a Game-Changer in B2B Buyer-Vendor Relationships

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.