This study aims to provide a comprehensive view of social media usage for its usefulness and ease-of-use in Business-to-Business (B2B) context, encompassing buying and selling centers in India. The study involved quantitative research with data collected through an online survey-based questionnaire from the chosen practitioners across buying and selling centers. The data was collected from 448 practitioners in India across buying (203) and selling centers (245). The data was analyzed using a structural equations modeling approach to test the hypotheses. Descriptive analysis of the categorical variables was done. The analysis of data revealed a holistic view of social media usage in the B2B context by identifying the social media usage drivers in buying and selling centers. The ease of use of social media positively influences its usefulness and the usage among B2B practitioners. Further, the usefulness of social media positively influences the usage. Furthermore, the responses were significantly different between the buying and selling centers. However, the difference among categorical variables such as gender, age, role level and industry type did not elicit significant difference. The results offer buying and selling practitioners in India with a view on how to craft their social media strategy. This study extends existing literature in B2B social media in the India context by providing a holistic view of social media usage among buying and selling centers.

Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., and Krush, M. T., 2016. Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial marketing management, 53, pp.172-180.

Ancillai, C., Terho, H., Cardinali, S., and Pascucci, F., 2019. Advancing social media driven sales research: Establishing conceptual foundations for B-to-B social selling. Industrial Marketing Management, 82, pp.293-308.

Andzulis, J. M., Panagopoulos, N. G., and Rapp, A., 2012. A review of social media and implications for the sales process. Journal of personal selling & sales management, 32(3), pp.305-316.

Buratti, N., Parola, F., and Satta, G., 2018. Insights on the adoption of social media marketing in B2B services. The TQM Journal, 30(5), pp.490-529.

Byrne, B. M., 2013. Structural equation modeling with Mplus: Basic concepts, applications, and programming. routledge.

Cartwright, S., Liu, H., and Raddats, C., 2021. Strategic use of social media within business-to-business (B2B) marketing: A systematic literature review. Industrial Marketing Management, 97, pp.35-58.

Chaudhari, V., (2023), “The digital evolution of B2B marketing”, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/12/11/the-digital-evolution-of-b2b-marketing/?sh=259d34d566a0 (Accessed on 10 January 2024)

Chin, W. W., 1998. The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. Modern methods for business research, 295(2), pp.295-336.

Constantinides, E., and Fountain, S. J., 2008. Web 2.0: Conceptual foundations and marketing issues. Journal of direct, data and digital marketing practice, 9, pp.231-244.

Davis, F. D., 1989. Technology acceptance model: TAM. Al-Suqri, MN, Al-Aufi, AS: Information Seeking Behavior and Technology Adoption, 205, pp.219.

Diba, H., Vella, J. M., and Abratt, R., 2019. Social media influence on the B2B buying process. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), pp.1482-1496.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Rana, N. P., and Raman, R., 2023. Social media adoption, usage and impact in business-to-business (B2B) context: A state-of-the-art literature review. Information Systems Frontiers, pp.1-23.

Eid, R., Abdelmoety, Z., and Agag, G., 2020. Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 35(2), pp.284-305.

Grewal, R., Lilien, G. L., Bharadwaj, S., Jindal, P., Kayande, U., Lusch, R. F., ... and Sridhar, S., 2015. Business-to-business buying: Challenges and opportunities. Customer needs and Solutions, 2, pp.193-208.

Gustafson, B. M., Pomirleanu, N., Mariadoss, B. J., and Johnson, J. L., 2021. The social buyer: A framework for the dynamic role of social media in organizational buying. Journal of Business Research, 125, pp.806-814.

Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., and Ringle, C. M., 2019. When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European business review, 31(1), pp.2-24.

Hair, J. F., Sarstedt, M., Pieper, T. M., and Ringle, C. M., 2012. The use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in strategic management research: a review of past practices and recommendations for future applications. Long range planning, 45(5-6), pp.320-340.

Heng Wei, L., Chuan Huat, O. and Arumugam, P.V., 2023. Social media communication with intensified pandemic fears: evaluating the relative impact of user-and firm-generated content on brand loyalty. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 15(2), pp.161-187.

Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., and Sarstedt, M., 2015. A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 43, pp.115-135.

Hsiao, S. H., Wang, Y. Y., Wang, T., and Kao, T. W., 2020. How social media shapes the fashion industry: The spillover effects between private labels and national brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 86, pp.40-51.

Hu, L. T., and Bentler, P. M., 1999. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), pp.1-55.

Iankova, S., Davies, I., Archer-Brown, C., Marder, B., and Yau, A., 2019. A comparison of social media marketing between B2B, B2C and mixed business models. Industrial Marketing Management, 81, pp.169-179.

Jensen, K. B., and Helles, R., 2017. Speaking into the system: Social media and many-to-one communication. European Journal of Communication, 32(1), pp.16-25.

Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, pp.606-613.

Keinänen, H., and Kuivalainen, O., 2015. Antecedents of social media B2B use in industrial marketing context: customers’ view. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(6), pp.711-722.

Kock, H., and Rantala, T., 2017. Innovating the use of digital channels in B2B sales with customers. In ISPIM Conference Proceedings (pp. 1-11). The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).

Kranzbühler, A. M., Kleijnen, M. H., Morgan, R. E., and Teerling, M., 2018. The multilevel nature of customer experience research: an integrative review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(2), pp.433-456.

Kreitner, R., Kinicki, A., and Buelens, M., 2001. Organizational behavior. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Kumar, B., and Sharma, A., 2022. Examining the research on social media in business-to-business marketing with a focus on sales and the selling process. Industrial Marketing Management, 102, pp.122-140.

Lacka, E., and Chong, A., 2016. Usability perspective on social media sites' adoption in the B2B context. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, pp.80-91.

Lam, S. K., DeCarlo, T. E., and Sharma, A., 2019. Salesperson ambidexterity in customer engagement: do customer base characteristics matter? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, pp.659-680.

Lamberton, C., and Stephen, A. T., 2016. A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future inquiry. Journal of marketing, 80(6), pp.146-172.

Lashgari, M., Sutton-Brady, C., Søilen, K. S., and Ulfvengren, P., 2018. Adoption strategies of social media in B2B firms: a multiple case study approach. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 33(5), pp.730-743.

Licong, H., and Ghosh, A., 2023. Effect of Combined Use of social media, Digital, and Traditional Communication Tools in the Business-to-Business Sales Process of Multinational Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Asia-Pacific Journal of Management and Technology (AJMT), 3(4), pp.10-18.

McGrath, H., O'Toole, T., and Drummond, C. (Eds.)., 2023. Social Media in Business-to-business Interaction, Engagement, Co-creation, and Communication. Emerald.

MintLeads., (2023), “Understanding the differences between B2B and B2C”, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/b2b-vs-b2c-marketing-understanding-differences-mint-leads?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_more-articles_related-content-card (accessed on 12 January 2024)

Nielsen, J. (1994). Usability engineering. Morgan Kaufmann.

Peng, J., Agarwal, A., Hosanagar, K., and Iyengar, R., 2018. Network overlap and content sharing on social media platforms. Journal of marketing research, 55(4), pp.571-585.

Pine, B. J., 2015. How B2B companies create economic value by designing experiences and transformations for their customers. Strategy & Leadership, 43(3), pp.2-6.

Pm, P., 2003. Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol, 88, pp.879-903.

Rodriguez, M., Peterson, R. M., and Krishnan, V., 2012. Social media’s influence on business-to-business sales performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.365-378.

Sangwan, S., Sharma, S.K. and Sharma, J., 2022. Disclosing customers' intentions to use social media for purchase-related decisions. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 14(1), pp.145-160.

Schimel, E., (2018), Strategic Social media is essential for B2B sales, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/03/22/strategic-social-media-is-essential-for-driving-b2b-sales/?sh=6edf6a421db0 (Accessed on 12 January 2024)

Siamagka, N. T., Christodoulides, G., Michaelidou, N., and Valvi, A., 2015. Determinants of social media adoption by B2B organizations. Industrial Marketing Management, 51, pp.89-99.

Siti-Nabiha, A.K., Nordin, N. and Poh, B.K., 2021. Social media usage in business decision-making: the case of Malaysian small hospitality organisations. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 13(2), pp.272-289.

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 modeling. Industrial Marketing Management, 83, pp.288-300.

Van den Steen, N., Basu, A., Muylle, S., and Standaert, W., 2020. Digitization in B2B buying and selling. In 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 5214-5223).

Venkatesh, V., and Davis, F. D., 2000. A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: Four longitudinal field studies. Management science, 46(2), pp.186-204.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., and Davis, F. D., 2003. User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS quarterly, pp.425-478.

Zhang, C. B., and Li, Y. N., 2019. How social media usage influences B2B customer loyalty: roles of trust and purchase risk. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 34(7), pp.1420-1433.