Business Actor Engagement : Understanding Collaborative Business Initiative Outcomes

• Business and service literature has recognized engagement as a crucial concept that influences the success of business initiatives beyond core transactions. Engagement involves various actors’ contributions like time, knowledge, and other resources that extend beyond contractual obligations. Engagement was initially studied in business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts, where its activities include word-of-mouth feedback and co-creating value propositions. As engagement research extended into business-to-business (B2B) contexts, engagement activities included customer referencing and participation in service development, with contributions like influence, time, and expertise. This thesis focuses on understanding engagement in B2B contexts – conceptualized as business actor engagement (BAE) – and offers practice-relevant midrange theory conceptualizations of collaboration in business initiatives beyond the contracted and regular transactions. The study employs a qualitative approach to studying Swedish real estate landlords and their efforts to involve commercial tenants in collaborative business initiatives (conceptualized as engagement initiatives) to deepen the understanding of BAE. The collaborative business initiatives in the thesis’ empirical setting address issues of environmental sustainability, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency. Despite providers using similar strategies to involve their B2B customers, the outcomes of these engagement initiatives vary, often due to hidden aspects affecting customers’ engagement. The findings are presented in four papers that offer insights on BAE such as how prerequisite factors, antecedents and manifestations impact customers’ BAE and consequently the outcomes of collaborative business initiatives. By exploring BAE, the study offers an understanding of the variety in outcomes from collaborative business initiatives, i.e., why some business initiatives succeed or fail. By understanding and managing BAE aspects, the study suggests collaborative business initiatives may result in achieving intended outcomes, such as goals related to addressing climate change and societal problems. Although the study centers on the real estate industry, the findings have broader implications for businesses striving to develop and adopt initiatives that will require their partners’ engagement to achieve intended outcomes and – by doing so – build strong, lasting relationships with their partners.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Business Administration

företagsekonomi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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