Charting the course: a framework for networking across the selling ecosystem
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 6 December 2023
Issue publication date: 12 March 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the notion of thin crossing points from a social network perspective and to outline the concrete networking strategies that enable salespeople to foster mutually valuable resource exchange (i.e. to thin crossing points) across a selling ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors integrate extant theoretical perspectives to advance a conceptual framework of sales-related networking across three key actors in a selling ecosystem: intraorganizational selling actors and actors in customers and external partner organizations.
Findings
Thin crossing points are defined as figurative transaction points at the boundary between organizations or organizational subunits at which actors engage in mutually valuable resource exchange in the process of value cocreation. To thin crossing points with key ecosystem actors, salespeople must adapt networking strategies considering the time and trust constraints inherent in a network relationship. Such constraints inform the most advantageous network centralities (degree, eigenvector and betweenness) and actions to impact key network properties (tie strength, contact diversity) that enable salespeople to efficiently develop social capital and thus to optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first social network-based exploration of salespeople’s role in thinning crossing points with key ecosystem actors. It advances a novel conceptual framework of sales-related networking strategies that foster social capital development and optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the helpful comments of Bryan W. Hochstein, Christopher R. Plouffe, and Nathaniel N. Hartmann.
Since submission of this article, the following author has updated their affiliation: Maria Rouziou is at the College of Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.
Citation
Burchett, M.R., Epler, R.T., Pappas, A., Butler, T.D., Rouziou, M., Bolander, W. and Lussier, B. (2024), "Charting the course: a framework for networking across the selling ecosystem", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 733-755. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2023-0223
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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