Evaluating the drivers of B2B performance: An empirical analysis based on Alibaba

Area of Science:

• Business and Management
• E-commerce
• Supply Chain Management

Background:

• Intensifying competition in business-to-business (B2B) markets necessitates strategies for supplier differentiation and performance enhancement.
• Gaining customer attention is a critical challenge for suppliers in the evolving B2B landscape.
• Understanding the drivers of B2B performance from an enterprise capability perspective is vital for both academia and industry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the key enterprise capabilities that drive B2B performance.
• To examine the mediating role of customer attention in the relationship between supplier capabilities and B2B performance.
• To differentiate the impact of capabilities on customer attention for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) versus non-OEM suppliers.

Main Methods:

• Data collection from 325 suppliers on the Alibaba 1688 platform, encompassing transaction and enterprise data.
• Construction and application of a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze the proposed relationships.
• Comparative analysis of capability impact on customer attention between OEM and non-OEM suppliers.

Main Results:

• Supplier service capability, logistics capability, and production capacity significantly and positively influence B2B performance.
• Customer attention acts as a crucial mediator in the pathway from supplier capabilities to B2B performance.
• Service and logistics capabilities are more effective in attracting customer attention for OEM suppliers compared to non-OEM suppliers.

Conclusions:

• Enterprise capabilities, particularly in service and logistics, are essential drivers of B2B performance, mediated by customer attention.
• Strategic focus on service and logistics capabilities can enhance customer acquisition for B2B suppliers, especially OEMs.
• The study provides actionable insights for B2B suppliers seeking to improve market competitiveness and performance in the digital era.