Identifying new innovations in diverse b-to-b sales meetings

The purpose of the paper is to study the role of b-to-b sales meetings and related social media in the innovation process. The paper combines literature on innovation with customers and value co-creation in b-to-b sales. The study employed a qualitative case study approach and used qualitative data collected from four buyer and four seller interviews. The interviewed buyers sent a contact request to the seller through the Internet. The paper discusses the types of and routes for ideas that have emerged in sales meetings, as well as the use of these ideas. The results show that the interaction between the buyer and the seller provides rich knowledge and ideas for new innovations, and these ideas are triggered by both the salesperson and the customer. However, these ideas may not be used further in the organizations.