Acquiring cross-border business customers: The roles of relevance and novelty in online communication

Abstract

In the competitive landscape of cross-border online business-to-business (B2B) customer acquisition, suppliers are urgently seeking insights into leveraging communication content to differentiate themselves and attract customers' attention. However, the literature has not provided sufficient empirical evidence on this prevalent and important phenomenon. Addressing this gap, our study draws from B2B advertising creativity research and the B2B advertising effects model to examine the effects of communication relevance and communication novelty in cross-border online B2B customer acquisition. We utilized data from 195 business customers in the electronics manufacturing industry across 22 countries (regions) to examine our hypotheses. Our findings indicate that communication relevance enhances customer acquisition, whereas communication novelty does not. Additionally, we identified two organizational responses of business customers—customer verification and perceived risk—as mediating factors influencing customer acquisition. Finally, we explored how trade reference from the business network moderates these relationships in cross-border B2B transactions. This study sheds light on suppliers' effective communication content strategies in cross-border online B2B marketing communication content and offers practical implications for customer acquisition in the digital era.