5. CONCLUSIONS
5.4 L IMITATIONS AND F UTURE R ESEARCH
It is worth mentioning that this study is a single case study, with the interviews only focusing on one company, which means the results might not be as generalizable. It has been argued that the purpose of case studies is more to expand current theories than bring new ones (Burns 2000). Even though there is no correct number of interviews that have to be done (Hirsjärvi & Hurme 2000), the number of individuals in the study is quite limited, with only six interviewees. The representatives also have very similar demographic backgrounds, such as age group. These factors might lower the level of reliability and the ability to make scientific generalization based on the results of the study (Berry & Otley 2004). However, the benefit of case studies is the ability to examine the collected data closely within a specific context and understand the research problem better (Zainal 2007).
As this research was a single case study, it could be expanded further to get more reliable results. It could also be interesting to ask more specific questions on the use of online interaction tools from a bigger sample size and study the possible impact of the interviewees demographical background in their preferred online interaction methods. It can be assumed that people experience touchpoints and online interactions differently and it would be interesting to see, what factors affect this perception. In addition, it would be interesting to study the same topics regarding a different kind of purchase, either something completely different or, for example, a smaller software purchase. Some software can be purchased completely online, and do not require customization or set up with the supplier, which makes the purchase process significantly different from this case.
REFERENCES
Abbott, L. (1955). Quality and Competition. New York: Columbia University Press.
Alderson, W. (1957). Marketing Behavior and Executive Action: A Functionalist
Approach to Marketing Theory. The American Economic Review, 47(6), pp. 1058-1060.
Aliaga, D. (1997). Virtual Objects in the Real World. Communications of the ACM, 40(3), pp. 49-54.
Ashton, K. (2009). That “Internet of Things” Thing: In the Real World Things Matter More than Ideas. RFID Journal, 22(4), pp. 97-114.
Azuma, R. Baillot, Y., Behringer, R., Feiner, S., Julier, S. and MacIntyre, B. (2001).
Recent Advances in Augmented Reality. Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 21(6), pp. 34-67.
Bartolacci, G. (2019). What is Conversational Marketing? [online] New Breed Marketing.
Available at: https://www.newbreedmarketing.com/blog/what-is-conversational-marketing [Accessed 28th of November 2020].
Baxendale, S., Macdonald, E.K., and Wilson, H.N (2015). The Impact of Different Touchpoints on Brand Consideration. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), pp. 235-53.
Belk, R., Fischer, E., and Kozinets, R.V. (2012). Qualitative Consumer and Marketing Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Berry, A.J. and Otley, D.T. (2004). Case-Based Research in Accounting. In C. Humphrey and B. Lee (Eds.) The Real-Life Guide to Accounting Research: A Behind the Scenes View of Using Qualitative Research Methods. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Bertrand, K. (1993). Crafting ‘win-win’ Situations in Buyer-Supplier Relationships.
Reprinted in Kijewski, V., Donath, R. and Wilson, D.T. (Eds) The Best Readings from Business Marketing Magazine.
Biswal, P., and Mohanty, P. (2020). Development of Quadruped Walking Robots: A Review. Ain Shams Engineering Journal. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.11.005 [Accessed 27th of April 2021]
Bitner, M.J. (1990). Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses. Journal of Marketing, 54(2), pp. 69-82.
Brandtzaeg, P. and Følstad, A. (2017). Why People Use Chatbots. In: International Conference on Internet Science. [online] City: Thessaloniki. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 10673, pp. 377-392. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70284-1_30 [Accessed 27th of April 2021].
Burnham, T., Frels, J. and Mahajan, V. (2003). Consumer Switching Costs: A Typology, Antecedents, and Consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(2), pp.
109-126.
Burns, R.B. (2000). Introduction to Research Methods. 4th Edition. French Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.
Carbone, L.P. (1998). Total Customer Experience Drives Value. Management Review, 87(7), pp. 62.
CEB Global (2018). The Digital Evolution in B2B marketing. [online]. Available at:
http://www.cebglobal.com/marketing-communications/digital-evolution.html [Accessed 21st of January 2021].
Chaffey, D. (2007). Customer Engagement Interview with Richard Sedley of cScape. [online]. Available at:
www.smartinsights.com/blog/customer-engagement/customer-engagement-interviewwith-richard-sedley-of-cscape/ [Accessed 17th February 2021].
Chisnall, P. (1997). Consumer Behaviour. London: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Christensen, C., Cook, S. and Hall, T. (2005). Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure. Harvard Business Review, 83(12), pp. 74-83.
Clement, J. (2020a). Number of global social network users 2017-2025. [online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/markets/424/topic/2494/communications/ [Accessed 28th of November 2020].
Clement, J. (2020b). Global social network ranked by number of users [online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ [Accessed 28th of November 2020].
Collins, A. (2021). The Beginner’s Guide to Conversational Marketing. [online]. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/conversational-marketing [Accessed 14th March 2021].
Cyert, R., Simon, H., and Trow, D. (1956). Observation of a Business Decision. The Journal of Business, 4(29), pp. 237-248.
Dale, R. (2016). The Return of the Chatbot. Natural Language Engineering, 22(5), pp. 811-817.
Davis, Z (2019). Conversational Marketing Blueprint [online]. Available at:
https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/interactive-marketing/conversational-marketing-blueprint/ [Accessed 28th November 2020].
Delignieres, N. (2020). Understand the concepts of Leads, Prospects, MQL and SQL [online]. Available at: https://www.salesodyssey.com/blog/lead-mql-sql-definition/
[Accessed 13th January 2021].
Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2005). Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 1-32. Sage Publications Ltd.
Dewey, J. (1910). How We Think. Boston: D.C. Health & Company, 2nd edition.
Drift (2020). Conversational Marketing [online] Available at:
https://www.drift.com/conversational-marketing/ [Accessed 27th of November 2020].
Dunn, J. (2016). We put Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana Trough a Marathon of Tests to See Who’s Winning the Virtual Assistant Race – Here’s What We Found.
Business Insider. [online]. Available: https://www.businessinsider.com/siri-vs-google-assistant-cortana-alexa-2016-11 [Accessed 17th February 2021].
Edelman, D. (2010). Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places. Harvard Business Review, 88(12), pp. 62-69.
Edelman, D. and Singer, M. (2015). Competing on Customer Journeys. Harvard Business Review, 8(4), pp. 88-100.
Eskola, J., and Suoranta, J. (2008). Johdatus laadulliseen tutkimukseen. Jyväskylä:
Gummerrus Kirjapaino Oy.
Field, A.P. (2005). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. 2nd Edition. London: Sage Publications, Ltd.
Foroudi, P., Gupta, S., Sivarajah, U., and Broderick, A. (2018). Investigating the effects of smart technology on customer dynamics and customer experience. Computers in Human Behavior, 80, pp. 271-282
Fry, Ed. (2019). Customer Journey Mapping: The Complete Guide for B2B SaaS. [online].
Available at: https://www.hull.io/blog/customer-journey-mapping [Accessed 6th February 2021].
Gartner (2017). New B2B Buying Journey & Its Implications for Sales [online] Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/sales/insights/b2b-buying-journey [Accessed 14th Match 2021].
Gerard, M. (2014). The buyer's journey demystified by Forrester. [online]. Available at:
http://curata.com/blog/the-buyers-journey-demystified-by-forrester [Accessed 3rd February 2021].
Grönroos, C. (2008). Service Logic Revisited: Who Creates Value? And Who Co-Creates?
European Business Review, 20(4), pp. 298-314.
Gupta, A. (2004). An Empirical Study of Consumer Switching from Traditional to Electronic Channels: A Purchase Decision Process Perspective. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 8(3), pp. 131-161.
Gupta, S., Lehmann, D.R. and Stuart, J.A. (2003). Valuing Customers. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(1), pp. 7-18.
Haaparanta, I. and Niiniluoto, L. (2016). Johdatus Tieteelliseen Ajatteluun. Helsinki:
Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press.
Hanssens, D., Pauwels, K.H., Srinivasan, S., Vanhuele, M. and Yildirim, G. (2014).
Consumer Attitude Metrics for Guiding Marketing Mix Decisions. Marketing Science, 33(4), pp. 534-550.
Hilken, T., Ruyter K.D., Chylinski, M., Mahr, D. and Keeling, D. (2017). Augmenting the Eye of the Beholder: Exploring the Strategic Potential of Augmented Reality to Enhance Online Service Experiences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(6), pp. 884-905.
Hines, E. (2017). 10 Stats You Should Know About the B2B Buyers Journey. [online].
Available at: https://www.fronetics.com/10-stats-know-b2b-buyers-journey/ [Accessed 20th April 2021].
Hirsjärvi, S. and Hurme, H. (2000). Tutkimushaastattelu: Teemahaastattelun teoria ja käytäntö. Helsinki: Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press.
Hirsjärvi, S., Remes, P. and Sajavaara, P. (2008). Tutki ja Kirjoita. Hämeenlinna: Kariston Kirjapaino Oy.
Hoar, A. (2015). Death of a B2B Salesman. Forrester. [online]. Available at:
https://go.forrester.com/blogs/15-04-14-death_of_a_b2b_salesman/ [Accessed 10th October 2020].
Howard, J. and Sheth, J. (1969). The Theory of Buyer Behavior. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Hoyer, W., Kroschkeb, M., Schmittc, B., Kraumed, K. and Shankar, V. (2020).
Transforming the Customer Experience Through New Technologies. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 8(51), pp. 57-71.
Huang, J., Zhou, M. and Yang, D. (2007). Extracting chatbot knowledge from online discussion forums in International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Hyderabad, India, pp. 423-428.
Huang, T-L. and Liao, S. (2015). A Model of Acceptance of Augmented-Reality Interactive Technology: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Innovativeness. Electronic Commerce Research, 15(2), 269–295.
HubSpot (2020). The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2020. [online]. Available at:
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [Accessed 14th March 2021].
Huer, M. (2013). Three Myths of the “67 Percent” Statistic. Forrester. [online]. Available at: https://go.forrester.com/blogs/three-myths-of-the-67-percent-statistic/ [Accessed 10th October 2020].
Johnston, W.J., and Lewin, J.E. (1996). Organizational Buying Behavior Toward an Integrative Framework. Journal of Business Research, 1(35), pp. 1-15.
Joshi, N. (2020). Choosing Between Rule-Based Bots and AI Bots. Forbes. [online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2020/02/23/choosing-between-rule-based-bots-and-ai-bots/ [Accessed 30th November 2020].
Kamers, R. (2015). The Role of Trust in the B2B buying process. IBA Bachelors Thesis Conference, University of Twente.
Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the World, Unite! The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), pp. 59-68.
Keller, S. and Conradin, K. (2018). Semi-structured interviews. [online]. Available at:
https://sswm.info/planning-and-programming/decisionmaking/gathering-ideas/semi-structured-interviews [Accessed 28th February 2021].
Knapp, S. (2018). Mapping Out the SaaS Customer Journey [online] Available at:
https://www.bigdropinc.com/blog/saas-customer-journey/ [Accessed 6th February 2021].
Kodra, E., Senechal, T., McDuff, D. and El Kaliouby, R. (2013). From Dials to Facial Coding: Automated Detection of Spontaneous Facial Expressions for Media Research. In:
International Conference and Workshops on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG). [online]. pp.1-6 Available at: 10.1109/FG.2013.6553780. [Accessed 8th of May 2021].
Kotler, P. (1976). Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management Millennium Edition. 10th edition, Pearson custom publishing.
Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2015). Marketing Management, 15th Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kumar, V. and Shah, D. (2009). Expanding the Role of Marketing: From Customer Equity to Market Capitalization. Journal of Marketing, 73(6), pp. 119-136.
Kusinitz, S. (2014). The Definition of a Buyer Persona (in Under 100 Words). [online].
Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr [Accessed 5th February 2021].
Laine, M., Bamberg, J. and Jokinen, P. (2007). Tapaustutkimuksen taito. 3rd edition, Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press.
Lee, L., Jeffrey, I.J., Argo, J., Bottger, T., Dholakia, U. and Gilbride, T. (2018). From Browsing to Beyond: The Needs-adaptive Shopper Journey Model. Journal of Association of Consumer Research, 3(3), pp. 277-293.
Leftronic (2019). Must-Know Chatbots Statistics in 2020. [online]. Available at:
https://leftronic.com/chatbot-statistics/ [Accessed 29th November 2020].
Lemon, K. and Verhoef, P. (2016). Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), pp. 69-96.
Libai, B., Bart, Y., Gensler, S., Hofacker, C., Kaplan, A., Kötterheinrich, K. and Eike, B.
(2020). Brand New World? On AI and the Management of Customer Relationships.
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 51, pp. 44-56.
Liberatore, M.J. and Wagner, W.P. (2021). Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Reality: A Systematic Review for Immersive Systems Research. Virtual Reality. Advance online publication.
Lin, J.C., and Liang, H. (2011). The Influence of Service Environments on Customer Emotion and Service Outcomes. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 21(2), pp. 350-72.
Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
LinkedIn (2016). Rethink the B2B Buyer’s Journey. [online]. Available at:
https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/cx/2016/pdfs/Rethink-The-B2B-Buyers-Journey-v03.08.pdf [Accessed 14th Match 2021].
MacDonnell, R.B. (2020). Engage Your Prospects in More Personal Ways with Conversation Ads. [online]. Available at: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-news/2020/linkedin-introduces-conversation-ads [Accessed 28th November 2020].
Makkonen, H., Olkkonen, R., and Halinen, A. (2012). Organizational buying as muddling through: A practice-theory approach. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), pp. 773-780.
McHugh, M. (2018). The Era of the Chatterbots. Computer Reseller News, 7, pp. 34-35.
Milgram, P. and Kishino, F. (1994). Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, E77-D(12), pp. 1321-1329.
MIT Technology Review (2016) 10 Breakthrough Technologies [online] Available at:
https://www.technologyreview.com/10-breakthrough-technologies/2016/ [Accessed 19th February 2021].
Neslin, S.A, Grewal, D., Leghorn, R., Shankar, V., Teerling M.L. and Thomas, J.S. (2006).
Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Customer Management. Journal of Service Research, 9(2), pp. 95–112.
Ng, I.C.L and Wakenshaw, S.Y.L. (2017). The Internet-of-Things: Review and Research Directions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), pp. 3-21.
Oganowski, A., Montandon, A., Botha, E. and Reyneke, M. (2014). Should new online stores invest in social presence elements? The effect of social presence on initial trust formation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(4), pp. 482-491.
Okuda, T. and Shonda, S. (2018). AI-based Chatbot Service for Financial Industry. Fujitsu Scientific and Technical Journal, 54(2), pp. 4-8.
Oldroyd, J.B., McElheran, K., and Elkington, D. (2011). The short life of online sales leads. Harvard Business Review, 89(3), pp. 28.
Palmer, A. (2010). Customer Experience Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Services Marketing, 24(3), pp. 196-208.
Paschen, J., Kietzmann, J., Kietzmann, T.C. (2019). Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for market knowledge in B2B marketing. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), pp. 1410-1419.
Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. London: Sage Publications.
Prahalad, C.K. and Ramaswamy, V. (2004). Co-creation Experiences: The Next Practice in Value Creation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(3), pp. 5-14.
Przegalinska, A., Ciechanowski, L., Stroz, A., Gloor, P. and Mazurek, G. (2019). In Bot We Trust: A New Methodology of Chatbot Performance Measures. Business Horizons, 62, pp. 785-797.
Puccinelli, N., Goodstein, R., Grewal, Dhruv., Price, R., Raghubir, P. and Stewart, D.
(2009). Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process. Journal of Retailing, 85(1), pp. 15–30.
Purvis, D. (2019). Understanding the Difference Between a Sales Lead and Prospect.
[online]. Available at: https://blog.marketo.com/2019/01/understanding-the-difference-between-a-sales-lead-and-prospect.html [Accessed 13th January 2020].
Puusa, A., Reijonen, H., Juuti, P. and Laukkanen, T. (2015). Akatemiasta markkinapaikalle – Johtaminen ja markkinointi aikansa kuvina. 5th edition. Liettua, BALTO Print. pp. 179–
181.
Rawson, A., Duncan, E. and Jones, C. (2013). Touchpoints Matter, But It’s the Full Journey That Counts. Harvard business review, 91(9), pp. 90-98.
Reichheld, F. (2003). The One Number You Need to Grow: Harvard Business Review.
[online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/2003/12/the-one-number-you-need-to-grow [Accessed 8th May 2021].
Relay (2018). Chatbot Statistics: The 2018 State of Chatbots. [online]. Available at:
https://www.goboomtown.com/blog/chatbot-statistics-study [Accessed 8th May 2021].
Ritchie, J. and Lewis, J. (2003). Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Rust, R., Lemon, K. and Zeithaml, V. (2014). Return on Marketing: Using Customer Equity to Focus Marketing Strategy. Journal of Marketing, 68(1), pp. 109-127.
Sankhé, A. (2020). What are AI-powered chatbots? [online]. Available at:
https://www.engati.com/blog/what-are-ai-powered-chatbots-engati [Accessed 29th November 2020].
Sashi, C.M. (2012). Customer Engagement, Buyer-Seller Relationships and Social Media.
Management Decision, 50(2), pp. 253-272.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009). Research Methods for Business Students. 5th edition. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.
Sawhney, M., Verona, G., and Prandelli, E. (2005). Collaborating to Create: The Internet as a Platform for Customer Engagement in Product Innovation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 19(4), pp. 1-14.
Schiffman, L., Kanuk, L. and Hansen, H. (2012). Consumer behaviour. Pearson.
Schmitt, B., Brakus, J. and Zarantonello, L. (2015). From Experiental Psychology to Consumer Experience. Journal of Consumer Psychology. 1(25), pp. 166-171.
Schuetzler, R.M., Grimes, G.M. and Giboney, J.S. (2018). An investigation of conversational agent relevance, presence, and engagement. Twenty-Fourth Americas Conference on Information Systems, pp. 1-10.
Schwager, A. and Meyer, C. (2007). Understanding the Customer Experience. Harward Business Review. [online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/2007/02/understanding-customer-experience. [Accessed 18th January 2021].
Seyedghorban, Z., Simpson, D. and Matanda, M.J. (2020). The Role of Brand
Representatives in Predicting Trust in Early Buyer-Supplier Relationships. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Advance online publication.
Shankar, V. (2018). How Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Reshaping Retailing. Journal of Retailing, 94(4), pp. 6-11.
Shaheen, M. (2016). Impacts of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Decision-Making Process: Descriptive Study of Pakistan. Journal of Business Strategies, 10(1), pp. 57-71.
Sheth, J.N. (1973). A Model of Industrial Buyer Behavior. Journal of Marketing, 37(4), pp.
50-56.
Simonite, T. (2014). 2014 in Computing: Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence. MIT Technology Review. [online]. Available at:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/12/29/169759/2014-in-computing-breakthroughs-in-artificial-intelligence/ [Accessed 9th May 2021].
Sinch (2019). What Do Internet Users Worldwide View Positive Aspects of Chatbots? E-marketer. [online]. Available at: https://www.eE-marketer.com/chart/232379/what-do- https://www.emarketer.com/chart/232379/what-do-internet-users-worldwide-view-positive-aspects-of-chatbots-of-respondents-aug-2019 [Accessed 18th February 2021].
Solomon, M.R. (2004). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having and Being. 6th Edition. New Jersey, Pearson Education.
Stake, R. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Statista (2021). Number of Smartphone Users Worldwide. [online]. Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/
[Accessed 3rd April 2021].
Steward, M. D., Narus, J. A., Roehm, M. L., and Ritz, W. (2019). From transactions to journeys and beyond: The evolution of B2B buying process modelling. Industrial Marketing Management, 4(83), pp. 288-300.
Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling Methods in Research Methodology: How to Choose a Sampling Technique for Research. SSRN Electronic Journal, 5(2), pp. 18-27.
Think with Google (2013). B2B’s Digital Evolution. Future of Marketing. [online].
Available at: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/future-of-marketing/digital-transformation/b2b-digital-evolution/ [Accessed 10th October 2020].
Tikkanen, H., Hietanen, J., Henttonen, T. and Rokka, J., (2009). Exploring Virtual Worlds:
Success Factors in Virtual World Marketing. Management Decision, 47(8), pp. 1357–81.
Toman, N., Adamson, B. and Gomes, C. (2017). The New Sales Imperative. Harvard Business Review, 2, pp. 118–125.
Tuomi, J. and Sarajärvi, A. (2018). Laadullinen tutkimus ja sisällönanalyysi. Jyväskylä, Kustannusosakeyhtiö Tammi.
Twilio (2019). Twilio Study Shows Consumers Aren’t Paying Attention to Brands’ Social Media or Mobile Apps – They Prefer Email or Text Instead. [online]. Available at:
https://www.twilio.com/press/releases/twilio-study-shows-consumers-arent-paying-attention-to-brands-social-media-or-mobile-apps-they-prefer-email-or-text-instead [Accessed 28th November 2020].
Tyrväinen, P. and Selin, J. (2011). How to Sell SaaS: A Model for Main Factors of Marketing and Selling Software-as-a-Service. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 80:2, pp. 2–16.
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2004). Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing.
Journal of Marketing, 68(1), pp. 1-17.
Verhoef, P.C., Neslin, S.A. and Vroomen, B. (2007). Multichannel Customer
Management: Understanding the Research-Shopper Phenomenon. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24(2), pp. 129-148.
Vivek, S., Beatty, S. and Morgan, R. (2012). Customer Engagement: Exploring Customer Relationships Beyond Purchase. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20(2), pp.
127 -145.
Webster Jr, F. (1965). Modelling the Industrial Buying Process, Journal of Marketing Research, 4(37), pp. 370-376.
Webster Jr., F. and Wind, Y. (1972). A General Model for Understanding Organizational Buying Behaviour. Journal of Marketing, 36(2), pp. 12-19.
Weizenbaum, J. (1996). ELIZA – A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man and Machine. Communications of the ACM, 9(1), pp. 36-45.
Wells, C. (2020). Understanding the B2B Buying Process: The Key Factors and Stages that Affect B2B Decisions. [online]. Available at:
https://www.hello- adience.com/blog/insights/understanding-the-b2b-buying-process-the-key-factors-and-stages-that-affect-decisions/ [Accessed 14th Match 2021].
Wilson, E. (1994). Organizational Buying in the Quality Revolution. Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing, 6, pp. 33 - 58.
Wilson, E., Lilien, L. and Wilson, D. (1991). Developing and testing a contingency paradigm of group choice in organizational buying. Journal of Marketing Research, 3(28), pp. 452-466.
Yin, R.K. (1994). Discovering the Future of the Case Study Method in Evaluation Research. American Journal of Evaluation, 15(3), pp. 283-290.
Yin, R.K. (2009). Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 4th Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Zainal, Z. (2007). Case Study as a Research Method. Jurnal Kemanusiaan, 9(1), pp. 2-7.
Ziegeldorf, J.H., Morchon, O.G., and Wehrle, K. (2014). Privacy in the Internet of Things:
Threats and Challenges. Security and Communication Networks, 7(12), pp. 2728-2742.
Zolkiewski, J., Story, V. and Burton, J. (2017). Strategic B2B Customer Experience Management: The importance of outcomes-based measures. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(2), pp. 172–184.
Åge, L. (2011). Business Manoeuvring: A Model of B2B Selling Processes. Management Decision, 49(9), pp. 1574–1591.
APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Interview Template
Explain the research topic and aims, describe the interview process Explain the interviewee’s right for anonymity
Explain how the data is handled during and after the research Ask for the permission to record the interview
1. BACKGROUND QUESTIONS ON THE INTERVIEWEE AND THEIR COMPANY 1. In what field does your company operate in?
2. How much staff is there in the company?
3. What is your role and for how long have you been working at the company?
4. What was the last software purchase you have participated in?
5. Is there anything you would like to add?
2. PRE-PURCHASE STAGE
1. When did you recognize a need or want for the new software?
a. Describe the process – how long was it?
b. In what part of the process were you a part of it?
c. What was your main role in the purchase process?
d. Was the role determined together, or did it “fall on you randomly”?
2. Where did you look for information about the software?
a. What kind of information are you looking for? What do you need to know?
b. What are the most important factors for you in a new software?
c. Where do you look for this information?
d. In what form would you like to receive this information? (e.g., download a guide, attend a webinar, contact sales, watch a video, use a chatbot)
3. In your company’s recent software purchase, who was the one to initiate the process?
a. What happened next? Was there a “purchase team”?
b. Who in the team looked for information and compared potential software?
c. What did you want to know about the software at this stage?
d. In what ways did you communicate with the software provider?
4. Imagine you came across a new software (e.g., through an online advertisement) that, in your opinion, could be beneficial to your company. No one has mentioned a need to change or take on a new software, but you are interested. What would you do?
5. Who would you contact after discovering a new potential software – your own colleagues / management or the software company to find out more?
a. If someone from your own company, who? (e.g., your boss, team members) b. If the software company, in what way would you contact them? (e.g., via
phone, email, website form, chatbot)
6. Imagine you have now found useful information about the product, and it seems like a really good fit for your company. What is the next thing you do? Who do you have to “sell it to”?
7. Imagine you notice a need for a new software solution in your company through day-to-day communications with the employees, who are not happy with the
7. Imagine you notice a need for a new software solution in your company through day-to-day communications with the employees, who are not happy with the