ABSTRACT

Purpose

The extant literature has indicated that interacting with customers to obtain their input during new service development projects is key to developing successful new services. However, the literature has focused mostly on the use of traditional face-to-face interaction with the customers. Lately, a growing trend among many B2B firms is to collaborate with the customers via various social media platforms. Yet, the literature has overlooked the use of social media as a key mode of interaction for obtaining customer input for new service development. Also, the question, how to use social media for customer interaction alongside other traditional modes of interactions has remained unanswered. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the use of social media along with the traditional modes of customer interaction for developing new B2B financial services.

Methodology

To achieve the above research objective, we developed a multi-phase, longitudinal and robust qualitative research design. We collected data from several new service development projects being pursued by a large financial service firm in India. First, we interviewed 17 managers, who were in charge of the new service projects in the firm. In addition, we interviewed 92 customers that were involved in interaction with the managers during the new service development process. During and after the interviews, several documents and archival records were consulted to triangulate the data provided by the respondents. We also ethnographically observed social media interactions among customers and managers for about 11 months. We analyzed the data using open, axial, and selective coding and maintained a robust case study database.

Findings

The findings highlight a promising new facet of customer interaction in which both traditional modes and social media can be effectively combined for obtaining rich customer input thereby increasing the odds for developing successful new services in the B2B financial services industry. The findings also suggest that social media alone cannot help a firm obtain rich customer input because social media interactions produce mainly corroborative information. Thus, to develop innovative new services a firm must combine various modes of interaction, both traditional modes and social media.

Research Implications

The article has implications for the literature related to B2B services industry. Particularly, the findings of this study advance the current knowledge of social media interaction and new service development in B2B firms. We also contribute to the important but relatively sparse literature treating social media as a mode of customer interaction. Our study also advances the literature of new service development and global marketing by studying the new service development process in the emerging market of India.

Practical Implications

Customer interaction should be a key element in a firm’s new service development activity. This article has proposed several customer interaction strategies in order to outline a course of action that the service managers can apply in their quest for successful new services. In particular, our research offers actionable guidance to the managers and companies in the emerging markets aiming to use the strategy of customer interaction and leveraging the power of social media for their NSD programs. Many B2B financial service firms in the emerging markets will find the strategy and process described in this research useful for developing successful new services for their business customers.

Originality and Contributions

This study reflects the current academic and practitioner interest in the emerging role of social media particularly in the B2B context. Arguably, this is the first study that bridges the gap between research on social media and customer interaction for the purpose of developing new B2B services. Particularly, combining the traditional modes of interaction with social media interaction is a unique contribution of this study. The research also adds to the emergent research theme of customer interaction for developing new B2B services in the emerging market. Overall, this study offers new insights into the current understanding of customer interaction against the backdrop of increasing digitization of various business functions including new service development in the B2B context.

中文翻译：

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整合社交媒体和传统客户交互模式以开发新的 B2B 服务

摘要

目的

现有文献表明，在新服务开发项目期间与客户互动以获得他们的意见是开发成功的新服务的关键。然而，文献主要集中在使用传统的与客户面对面的互动上。最近，许多 B2B 公司的增长趋势是通过各种社交媒体平台与客户合作。然而，文献忽略了使用社交媒体作为获取客户输入以开发新服务的关键交互模式。此外，如何使用社交媒体与其他传统互动模式一起进行客户互动的问题仍未得到解答。所以，

方法

为了实现上述研究目标，我们开发了一个多阶段、纵向和稳健的定性研究设计。我们收集了印度一家大型金融服务公司正在开展的几个新服务开发项目的数据。首先，我们采访了 17 位负责公司新服务项目的经理。此外，我们还采访了在新服务开发过程中与经理互动的 92 位客户。在访谈期间和之后，查阅了一些文件和档案记录，以对受访者提供的数据进行三角测量。我们还在人种学上观察了大约 11 个月的客户和经理之间的社交媒体互动。我们使用开放、轴向和选择性编码分析了数据，并维护了一个强大的案例研究数据库。

发现

研究结果突出了客户互动的一个有前途的新方面，其中传统模式和社交媒体可以有效结合以获得丰富的客户输入，从而增加在 B2B 金融服务行业开发成功新服务的几率。研究结果还表明，社交媒体本身并不能帮助公司获得丰富的客户输入，因为社交媒体互动主要产生佐证信息。因此，要开发创新的新服务，公司必须结合各种互动模式，包括传统模式和社交媒体。

研究意义

这篇文章对与 B2B 服务行业相关的文献有影响。特别是，本研究的结果推进了 B2B 公司当前对社交媒体互动和新服务开发的了解。我们还为将社交媒体视为客户互动模式的重要但相对稀少的文献做出了贡献。我们的研究还通过研究印度新兴市场的新服务开发过程，推进了新服务开发和全球营销的文献。

实际影响

客户互动应该是公司新服务开发活动的关键要素。本文提出了几种客户交互策略，以概述服务经理在寻求成功的新服务时可以应用的行动方案。特别是，我们的研究为新兴市场的经理和公司提供了可操作的指导，旨在使用客户互动策略并利用社交媒体的力量进行 NSD 计划。新兴市场中的许多 B2B 金融服务公司会发现本研究中描述的战略和流程有助于为其商业客户开发成功的新服务。

原创与贡献

这项研究反映了当前学术界和从业者对社交媒体的新兴作用的兴趣，尤其是在 B2B 环境中。可以说，这是第一项弥合社交媒体研究与客户互动研究之间差距的研究，旨在开发新的 B2B 服务。特别是，将传统互动模式与社交媒体互动相结合是本研究的独特贡献。该研究还增加了客户互动的新兴研究主题，以在新兴市场开发新的 B2B 服务。总体而言，在各种业务功能日益数字化的背景下，包括 B2B 环境中的新服务开发，本研究为当前对客户交互的理解提供了新的见解。