Proposed topic
T he COVID-19 pandemic and potential post-pandemic B2B Market: new opportunities or
failure?
Introduction
OVID-19 emerged as one of the worst pandemics in this period as it was able to affect every
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country across the world. Corporations are among the ones affected, and many were negatively
influenced by their operational modes (Al-Alawi, Mehrotra and Sanosi, 2021). The COVID-19
pandemic has changed the interaction between salesforce and customers, including
business-to-business B2B organizations in a way that now organizations must confront the shifts
in how the Market operates (Rangarajan, Sharma, Lyngdoh and Paesbrugghe, 2021).
T he main purpose of this study is the following. First, to define what B2B sector to take into
consideration since the research of a whole B2B will be out of the scope for the proposed study.
Second, to determine the success criteria of pandemic operations for the proposed B2B sector.
This study, therefore, may be used as a Best Practice for the interested parties. Additionally, the
study may contribute towards improving one's understanding of pandemic consequences and
potential B2B state after the pandemic.
Literature review
T he researchers concluded that there are three main aspects that B2B sales organizations are
taking into consideration during the pandemic. The first is how the customer has taken control
of the sales conversation, forcing the sales organization to become more and more
customer-centric. Second, the traditional sales process has changed rapidly due to the
pandemic, and sales organizations need to become more flexible in the way they must adapt to
these changes. Third, B2B organizations need to increase the speed of their digital
transformation initiatives to help their salespeople be effective and meet the customer's
complex demands (Rangarajan, Sharma, Lyngdoh and Paesbrugghe, 2021).
T he COVID-19 pandemic is bringing challenges for many B2B sales teams. Such kinds of
challenges require methods that can be applied to aid sales managers in understanding the
impact of and responses to the pandemic. Leavitt's model of organizational change or Leavitt's
Diamond Model is considering four variables: human, structure, task, and technology. This
model allows to analyze the organizational change and to recognize that change of one variable
can be predicted and/or to change other variables (Hartmann and Lussier, 2020).
s a result of the pandemic, it has been quite difficult for most companies to address their
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respective targets within their respective markets of operation. Various conditions attached to
COVID-19 have influenced some companies' practices due to the change in multiple modes of
perations. The biggest difficulties include a reduced number of workers following the World
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Health Organization's new policies to prevent the COVID-19 spread and reduced operations
following fewer employees (Al-Alawi, Mehrotra and Sanosi, 2021).
Research questions of the study
( a) What are the challenges in maintaining a stable revenue or even its growth during and after
the pandemic? What features allow B2B organizations to be successful during and potentially
after the pandemic?
( b) How does the pandemic compare with other economic crises in terms of its consequences
on the B2B Market?
(c) What are the views of B2B professionals on the possible post-pandemic B2B operation?
Proposed methodology
T o do this research I am planning to use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gather
data. Interviews will be processed by using qualitative methods, while the organization's
economic indicators will be processed by using quantitative methods.
S ubjects. The subjects for this study will be B2B organizations that have been able to survive the
first two years of pandemic and the ones that couldn't make it.
Instruments. An interview with marketing and sales executives will be used to collect data for
this research. The company's annual reports which can be found in open access will be used to
estimate the numbers and how they can be aligned to the information gathered during
interviews. In addition, Leavitt's Diamond Model will be used to analyze the organizational
changes that brought the COVID-19.
ata analysis. The data will be analyzed by statistical packages, interviews will be transcribed,
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and processed to obtain the research outcomes.
L imitations and delimitations. Potential issues with the study include the validity of results for a
whole B2B sector given that only a particular B2B sector will be used. In this case, the potential
outcomes of the research will be a reflection of only one sector of B2B and might not be
applicable for the entire B2B.
Timeline for Completing the Thesis
1.
Literature Review
2.
Research Proposal
3.
Development of tools
4.
Data Collection
5.
Analysis of Data
6.
Thesis Write-up
7.
Submission of thesis and thesis defense
The significance and anticipated impact of the work
T he proposed research aimed to deep dive into economic and social criteria for pandemic
success of the B2B organizations. During the literature review that has been done for this
Research Proposal, the next observation has been noticed: countries of the ENEA region (East
and North-East Asia) have been affected by the pandemic COVID-19 much earlier than the rest
of the world, but they have been successful in controlling the outbreak (Fu, 2020) which has
influenced the economic efficiency and, thus, the B2B sector. I think that opportunity to study in
Europe in Austria and to do research on this topic will be extremely impactful for the proposed
research since it will be possible to interview and examine directly B2B companies that were the
second wave influenced by the pandemic and to compare these to ENEA regions.
T he thesis will be beneficial for one who is interested in the nature of the B2B Market reaction
to the pandemic and the reasons behind the success of the COVID-19 B2B "survivors".
Positioning of the PhD project withinCentral EuropeanUniversity research landscape
I am very impressed by the faculty and alumni of the CEU Department of Economics and
Business and will be honored to study and do research at such a remarkable institution. I would
like to highlight that I am interested to conduct my Ph.D. research with Professor Laszlo Matyas
whose research interests are consistent with the framework for the proposed research topic of
the B2B market and COVID-19 consequences. Since Professor Matyas at his last publication
“Emerging European Economies after the Pandemic” have focused on COVID-19 and how it hit
Central and Eastern European countries, I believe his research interests will be highly applicable
to my proposed topic. I would be happy to work with such an experienced faculty member and
practicing professional as Professor Laszlo Matyas.
The applicant's experience, participation in research projects
I do have a research background within the Mechanical Engineering field, and I consider this
experience to be very suitable for research in the Marketing area since research approaches and
methods are similar and even intersect for both these areas. I have learned a lot doing research
within Energy Engineering and Environmental Engineering and I believe that gained skills and
knowledge will be applicable to do high-level research within the Marketing field of study.
References
. Rangarajan, D., Sharma, A., Lyngdoh, T. and Paesbrugghe, B., 2021. Business-to-business
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selling in the post-COVID-19 era: Developing an adaptive sales force. Business Horizons, 64(5),
pp.647-658.
. Hartmann, N. and Lussier, B., 2020. Managing the sales force through the unexpected
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exogenous COVID-19 crisis. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, pp.101-111.
. Al-Alawi, A., Mehrotra, A. and Sanosi, S., 2021. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Corporations
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and Management Change. Global Perspectives on Change Management and Leadership in the
Post-COVID-19 Era, pp.125-135.
. Fu, Jiangyuan. (2020). Trade facilitation in times of pandemic: practices from the East and
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North-East Asia, ARTNeT Working Paper Series, No. 196, August, 2020, Bangkok, ESCAP
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