Business actor engagement : Exploring its antecedents and types

Funding Information: Elena Anastasiadou, Peter Ekman, and Jimmie Röndell acknowledge the support of the Swedish Energy Agency (research grant numbers: P41842-1 and P46805-1 ), and Peter Ekman had additional support from the Jan Wallander, Tom Hedelius, and Tore Browaldh Foundation (research grant number: Fh20-0006 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The AuthorsBuilding on recent engagement research, this study contributes to a deepened understanding of business actor engagement (BAE) dimensions that includes both behaviors and emotions. Following a systematic combining approach, this study contextualizes and clarifies BAE. Through an analysis of dyadic data (providing firm and customers), we offer in-depth knowledge of the antecedents and types of BAE. This study identifies engagement disposition combined with engagement connectedness as the antecedents of an engagement initiative's overall BAE. Building on these dynamics, we propose a conceptual BAE framework with a set of testable propositions that links BAE with its proposed antecedents. Finally, we use the empirical and theoretical insights to derive a BAE taxonomy consisting of four types that offers guidance on how to manage customers with different engagement characteristics in practice.Peer reviewe