B2B customer referencing in a community of practice context : Conceptualizing legitimating mechanisms in the health technology sector

The phenomenon of customer referencing entails sellers engaging with existing customers to influence new potential customers. In a business-to-business (B2B) setting, this has typically been studied through the lens of the reference communication activities of sellers. However, the role of the customer peer community (to which both existing and new potential customers belong) and the mechanisms through which this community legitimates the seller's customer referencing activities have largely been neglected in the literature. To address this shortcoming and build on customer referencing knowledge, we draw on the community of practice (CoP) literature and empirically explore the legitimating mechanisms for customer referencing and how sellers can harness these mechanisms. Our multiple case study is based on 32 interviews with sellers and customers from the health technology sector. The findings uncover three CoP-driven mechanisms: similarity, authority, and objectivity. We develop a conceptual model based on these mechanisms, which sellers can harness to gain legitimacy for their customer referencing. We discuss the implications of the conceptual model and detail how sellers should focus on planned customer referencing tactics to facilitate peer-to-peer interactions in a customer CoP context.