Research Unit in Business Sciences

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Organizational Unit

Publications

How companies evaluate the ROI of social media marketing programmes: insights from B2B and B2C

Publication . Silva, Susana Costa e; Duarte, Paulo Alexandre Oliveira; Almeida, Sara Resende

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand and compare how business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies evaluate the return on investment (ROI) on their social media marketing (SMM) programmes and how the investment is handled in these type of marketing programmes. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods approach involving multiple cases and a survey was used. Data were collected from personal interviews with eight professionals responsible for SMM management, from four B2B and four B2C companies, complemented with responses to a web-based survey by the other 28 companies’ marketing managers. Findings – The results show that there are some differences between B2B and B2C companies regarding SMM evaluation and investment but in general marketing managers for both types of firms use simple metrics to evaluate their SMM programmes. The main measures used relate to awareness, engagement and reach and most of the metrics identified are interaction-related. Research limitations/implications – Given the complex and sensitive nature of the subject, more research is needed focussed on providing additional evidence from a larger sample of B2B and B2C organizations to allow the extension of the finding to the population as the nonprobabilistic nature and size of the current sample impose that the findings should be interpreted carefully. Future research should focus on understanding what the firm’s characteristics predict the importance and level of effort placed in SMM and the barriers to ROI measurement in SMM programmes, especially in B2B firms. Practical implications – The current findings confirm that the topic of SMM ROI evaluation is not a priority for B2C or B2B companies. There is a need for an update of their online marketing strategy, namely, on budget definition and allocation. Furthermore, companies should increase the autonomy of SM managers, as they are dependent from marketing managers and hire specialized professionals devoted to SMM in both B2C and B2B companies. Originality/value – The findings of this study contribute to improve the understanding of the evaluation of SMM and to extend the literature on the subject. It also provides a relevant advance into the assessment and understanding on the measures used to evaluate the effectiveness of SMM programmes by offering a comparison on how B2B and B2C use metrics and allocate resources to the SMM management.

2020Journal article

Open access

Multichannel versus omnichannel: a price-segmented comparison from the fashion industry

Publication . Silva, Susana C.; Duarte, Paulo; Sundetova, Anel

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore and compare how fashion and apparel brands are using the multiple available channels to increase the number of touchpoints with clients by evaluating the use of multichannel and omnichannel strategies. Design/methodology/approach – To determine the differences between fashion and apparel brands in terms of marketing channel used, a multiple case study approach was selected based on a sample of nine wellknown and successful fashion brands from three different price segments. The research was carried out by analysing the online and mobile presence of the brands, company reports, news, magazines, and other types of articles. Findings – The results illustrate that fashion brands tend to act in the same way and have only slight differences concerning the number of channels and features available to clients despite the price segment they belong. The findings indicate that the brands under study have good channel integration, order tracking, online communication, and social media. Overall, the findings allow concluding that irrespective of the price segment, all fashion brands act almost in the same way and present only slight differences between the number of channels used and features available. Originality/value – The current study provides an innovative price-segmented comparison on channel use and integration by fashion brands’ and additional valuable information about channel strategy that can be used to guide new comparative research and helps new brands defining points-of-parity and points-ofdifference with regard to market standards.

2020Journal article

Restricted access

Need-for-touch and online purchase propensity: a comparative study of Portuguese and Chinese consumers

Publication . Duarte, Paulo; Silva, Susana Costa e

This study analyses the impact of Need-for-Touch (NFT) on online purchase propensity by evaluating the influence of the consumer's country of origin. Although NFT has been a major topic of research over the past years, the link between NFT and purchase propensity has rarely been empirically proven. For assessing the relationship an online questionnaire was made available in Portugal and China. A total of 295 complete responses were obtained and the data studied through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, namely multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling using AMOS. The results indicate that the consumer's country of origin seems to affect the relevance of the sense of touch for apparel. Consumers with high levels of NFT are more likely to engage in additional brand touchpoints and consequently having stronger brand experiences. The impact of perceived information credibility and brand experience on the perceived product quality influences the propensity to search and to purchase online. Consumer NFT was shown having no direct influence on online purchase propensity but instead is mediated by other variables such as brand experience and the online research propensity. This study is innovative by comparing the NFT between two very different cultures and by providing insights on the relationships between cultural differences and NFT, which could be of great interest for Portuguese companies planning on investing in the Chinese market and vice versa.

2020Journal article

Open access