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The article “Digitalization in B2B Marketing: Omnichannel Management from a PLS-SEM Approach” by Alonso-Garcia et al. (2022) aims to establish a reference model for understanding the factors influencing omnichannel management in a business-to-business (B2B) context. The methodology used to develop this model was Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which involved a comprehensive literature review and a Delphi process with a panel of 30 experts from various countries. The final sample included 124 C-level executives from multinational B2B companies across 35 countries.
The model’s findings emphasize the importance of a customer-centric proposition in omnichannel management, highlighting that optimal management should focus on individualized marketing tailored to each client. Customer knowledge at each touchpoint is crucial, and the results reveal that sales and marketing are the primary predictors of effective B2B omnichannel management, even more so than the channels themselves. Good omnichannel performance is measured by the performance of the industrial buyer, with loyalty and experience being the primary measures of this performance.
In terms of reliability and validity of the model, the collinearity between the formative indicators was examined using the variance inflation factor (VIF), and all values were found to be within acceptable limits, suggesting that multicollinearity was not an issue. The composite reliability for customer performance was above the threshold of 0.7, indicating reliability in the research.
Regarding the structural model assessment, the R2 values for dependent latent variables exceeded the minimum variance, with the ‘Channels’ construct having the lowest value. The model demonstrated that all latent variables had a significant effect, except for ‘management’ on ‘channels’ and ‘channels’ on ‘omnichannel management’, which had a small effect. The standardized path coefficients all met or exceeded the required minimum of 0.2, except in one case, indicating significance in the predictors’ ability to explain the variance in predicted variables.
Alonso-Garcia, J., Pablo-Marti, F., Núñez-Barriopedro, E. and Cuesta-Valiño, P. (2023), “Digitalization in B2B marketing: omnichannel management from a PLS-SEM approach”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 317-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2021-0421