Integrating technology within the sales-service ecosystem: the emergent sales techno-ecosystem
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 26 October 2023
Issue publication date: 12 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Sales organizations embrace technological innovation. However, salespeople’s willingness to use new technology influences a firm’s return on investment, representing a significant concern for the organization. These concerns highlight tensions regarding the tradeoffs associated with technology implementations. The purpose of this study is to offer insights that help reduce the complexities of sales technology (ST) by exploring the changing dynamics of contemporary business relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper synthesizes the ST literature using the service ecosystem perspective to propose the sales techno-ecosystem (STE) framework, providing new insights into organizational decision-making related to the ongoing digital transformation of sales tasks.
Findings
This synthesis of the ST literature with the service ecosystem seeks to clarify the impact of technology within the evolving nature of buyer–seller relationships by providing four unique perspectives.
Research limitations/implications
Perspective 1 reviews the sales-service ecosystem framework and develops the theoretical underpinnings and relevant terminologies. Perspective 2 summarizes critical aspects of the ST literature and provides foundations for future research in the STE. Perspective 3 offers a more granular view, explicating roles and contexts prevalent in buyer–seller–technology interactions. Perspective 4 provides a set of tenets and advances research questions related to each tenet.
Practical implications
The culmination of these four perspectives is the introduction of five key tenants designed to help guide strategy and research.
Originality/value
The paper advances Hartmann et al. (2018) service ecosystem paradigm by explicating critical aspects of its ST domain to generate insights for theory and practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the editors and the review team for constructive and insightful suggestions throughout the review process. The authors are listed in alphabetical order to denote equivalent contributions. Since acceptance of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliations: Jen Riley is at the Department of Marketing, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Citation
Bauer, C., Galvan, J.M., Hancock, T., Hunter, G.K., Nelson, C.A., Riley, J. and Tanner, E.C. (2024), "Integrating technology within the sales-service ecosystem: the emergent sales techno-ecosystem", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 782-811. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2023-0221
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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