Essays on business -to -business (B2B) marketing network and firm value

The objective of this dissertation research is to empirically investigate the impact of Business-to-Business (B2B) relationship network on firm value.;Essay 1 links three types of B2B networks with startups' Initial Public Offering (IPO) value, and identifies three matching types of absorptive capacity that transforms B2B social capital into IPO value. For the transformation to occur, I find that young firms need not only the opportunity to access the resources provided by B2B relationships, but also the ability to leverage them through absorptive capacity. This study based on a sample of 177 IPOs provides empirical evidence of B2B social capital's financial value, as well as the contingency factors that are manageable through marketing activities. The results are robust to alternative measures and modeling approaches. As one of the first studies in marketing-finance interface that focus on young firms, this essay's findings provide novel insights to entrepreneurs, managers, and investors, including the deleterious financial consequence of having marketing and R&D alliance relationships without the relevant absorptive capacity.;Essay 2 demonstrates that B2B network can add financial value to the firm by influencing the evolution pattern of Customer-to-Customer (C2C) Word-of-Mouth (WoM) in new product introductions. Based on marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and sociology literature, I develop and test a set of hypotheses to systematically examine the linkages among B2B network, C2C WoM evolution, and new product success. Using functional data analysis method, the study reveals significant heterogeneity in the pattern of pre-release C2C WoM evolution across products. Results show that B2B network characteristics influence not only the WoM evolution pattern, but also the impact of WoM evolution pattern (volume and velocity) on sales and firm value upon new product release. Moreover, the influence of B2B network characteristics varies over time across the pre-release period. The study provides unique insights as of how B2B and C2C network influences new product performance, and meaningful implications in WoM and new product management.