A relationship strategy perspective on relationship portfolios: Linking customer profitability,commitment, and growth potential to relationship strategy

The paper develops a three-dimensional portfolio model for business relationships which distinguishes among six different categories. Based on assessments of customer profitability, customer commitment, and growth potential, the positioning of a given customer relationship in the portfolio allows managers to determine appropriate customer relationship strategies and appropriate performance indicators. Results from applying the portfolio model are reported and managerial implications and future research are discussed.     

Developing business customer engagement through social media engagement-platforms: An integrative S-D logic/RBV-informed model

While the service-dominant logic-informed nature of customer engagement in social media has been recognized in business-to-consumer contexts, little is known regarding this theoretical interface in business-to-business (B2B) settings. Insight into business customer engagement (BCE), as expressed through social media and/or other B2B engagement-platforms (e.g. trade shows) and its S-D logic-based antecedents and consequences thus remains limited. Based on the observed gap, this paper integrates the theoretical entities of BCE, B2B social media engagement-platforms, and S-D logic and through its analyses, uncovers the related importance of the resource-based view (RBV) in affecting this association. An integrative S-D logic/RBV-informed model is developed, where BCE denotes an industrial customer's investment of operant/operand resources in supplier interactions via particular B2B engagement-platforms, including social media. The model considers business customer actors and resources in driving business customer resource integration, business customer resource integration effectiveness, and business customer resource integration efficiency, which act as BCE antecedents that extend to coincide with BCE. BCE, in turn, triggers business customer cocreation and relationship productivity, which subsequently, contribute to business customer relationship quality and ultimately, supplier performance. A set of research propositions is derived from the model, which serves as a useful guide for further research. Managerial implications focused on B2B social media marketing are discussed, before we conclude with an overview of research limitations and future research directions.     

Entrepreneurship: Its relationship with market orientation and learning orientation and as antecedents to innovation and customer value

This paper seeks to address two main problems. First, it evaluates the direct effect of entrepreneurship and business orientations namely, learning orientation, integrated market orientation and human resource practices on innovation and customer value. Second, it examines the interaction effect of entrepreneurship and business orientations on innovation and customer value. Data were collected from small and medium-size hotels in Indonesia and analysed using the structural equation model. The results show that entrepreneurship and human resource management were shown to be the most significant drivers of innovation and customer value. The results further suggest that interaction of entrepreneurship and integrated market orientation as well as human resource practices has significant impact on customer value and innovation respectively. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Customer interactivity and new product performance: Moderating effects of product newness and product embeddedness

Understanding customer needs which drive significant product innovation is particularly challenging for new product development (NPD) organizations. Research has addressed how organizations benefit from interacting with customers, but more conceptualization is needed into the dimensions of the customer interaction process. In a business-to-business (B2B) setting, customer interactivity is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of bidirectional communications, participation, and joint problem solving during NPD projects. Drawing upon organizational information processing theory, customer interactivity is hypothesized to be positively related to customer information quality when developing highly innovative products, but not when developing modifications or extensions of existing products. Another condition affecting this relationship studied is the embeddedness of the new product in the customer's business environment. Customer interactivity is hypothesized to be positively related to information quality for highly embedded product, but not for low embedded product. Results from a sample of NPD organizations in several B2B industries support these hypotheses. The study contributes to the marketing literature and practice by identifying important dimensions of the customer interaction process which lead to more proactive organizations, and identifying two moderating conditions of the customer interactivity and NPD performance relationship.     

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

Both researchers and practitioners have been focusing extensively on business model innovation, as it has shown to positively influence business performance. Although the effect of business model innovativeness on customer behavior might be an important mediator between business model innovation and business performance, it has not yet been analyzed. In line with recent calls to consider the customer side in business model innovation research, our paper addresses this problem by studying the influence of customers' perceived business model innovativeness (CPBMI) on customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior in the service sector. We, therefore, emphasize customers' perceptions and reactions to business model changes. Relying on data from a large‐scale survey of restaurant customers, we find that perceived value creation innovativeness and value proposition innovativeness positively affect customer satisfaction and customer value co‐creation behavior. In addition, we identify a significant indirect effect of CPBMI on customer satisfaction via customer value co‐creation behavior. Our findings allow deriving concrete implications for both researchers and practitioners.     

Network configuration,customer centricity,and performance of open business models: A solution provider perspective

While research has shown a positive impact of open business models on value creation, it has remained silent on the configuration of the corresponding partner networks and their effect on performance. Studying three cases of solution providers which involve external service partners for solution delivery, we find that solution customer centricity – the degree to which the focal firm focuses on solution customers in the joint delivery of solutions – moderates the relationship between partner networks and open business model performance. For open business models with low solution customer centricity, a network configuration characterized by many weak ties to service partners leads to superior performance. Conversely, for open business models with high solution customer centricity, few but strong ties to partners lead to superior performance. Based on these findings, three ideal configurations of networks for open business models are derived: the controlled, the joint, and the supported model.     

Importer and exporter capabilities,governance mechanisms,and environmental factors determining customer-perceived relationship value

Although value creation is the overarching goal of interfirm exchange relationships, there is little research on relationship value in business markets in general and in global business markets in particular. The current research draws on the theoretical perspectives of dynamic capabilities, relational contracting, industry structure view, and Uppsala model of internationalization and synthesizes their insights to develop a model of customer-perceived relationship value in importer-exporter relationships. A mail survey was used to collect data from 211 import distributors of industrial products. The study results indicate that exporter core offering and customer responsiveness capabilities, importer market-sensing and customer relationship management capabilities, relational governance, psychic distance, and environmental munificence are important determinants of relationship value, while contractual governance has no detectable effect. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are presented.     

The transition from products to solutions: External business model fit and dynamics

This article provides empirical evidence and contributes to theory building concerning business model fit and dynamics in the area of solutions business. Business models are seen in this context as going beyond considerations such as offerings and internal processes or even relationships, and as including network and market considerations. Indeed the paper highlights the fact that a business model is not firm-focused, nor dyad-focused, but rather network-, and even market-focused, demonstrating that a business model is not static, but dynamic. Manufacturer and customer continuously shift form and content of their respective business models to adapt both to the needs of the counterpart and to market context. A qualitative case study approach is adopted, with subsequent content analysis. The case study relates to the aerospace industry with focus on a complex engineering firm, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, its customer — a national airline — and their network partners of various kinds. The data were collected through multiple face-to-face interviews with managers in both companies, as a part and parcel of a network of actors that influences and is influenced by the supplier–buyer relationship. Relationships over time between these firms and network partners are described, highlighting the interplay of products and services related to the provision of solutions. Findings highlight the dynamic nature of business models over the relationship lifecycle between supplier and customer in a complex engineering environment, and the need for reciprocal adjustment of models.     

Understanding the role of service innovation behavior on business customer performance and loyalty

Providing new services to customers gives firms a competitive advantage in the market. Consequently, firms strive to develop innovative service that delivers new value propositions to customers and leads to customer satisfaction and the acquisition of new customers. The authors investigate the relationship between the innovative behavior of service providers, business customer performance, and business customer loyalty in the safety industry. The study's results show that technology-oriented and co-creation-oriented innovative behavior leads to business customer performance. Business customer performance is closely related to recommendations and re-contracts. Moreover, the degree of safety involvement has a moderate effect between service innovation and business customer performance. The findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for service innovation for researchers as well as service providers.     

Creating value in retail buyer–vendor relationships: A service-centered model

We present a “service-centered” model of retail buyer–vendor relationships, in which retail buyers' perceptions of a vendor's economic and social resources affect their assessments of relationship value and relationship outcomes. Economic resources offered at the organizational level of the vendor include brand equity and customer support activities (e.g., merchandising support and margin maintenance). Social resources offered at the individual level of the salesperson include special treatment and customer advocacy. Relationship outcomes include the buyer's intention to grow the business, and in the event of business termination, maintain the interpersonal relationship with the sales representative. Survey data from 532 retail buyers were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that relationship value mediates the effects of economic and social resources on relationship outcomes. However, the process by which this occurs varies.     

Market orientation and customer satisfaction: Evidence from British machine tool industry

This paper examines empirically the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the context of British machine tool industry. An industry-specific market orientation scale was developed. Factor analysis revealed that there were four latent dimensions underlying the market orientation: customer orientation, competitor orientation, departmental responsiveness, and customer satisfaction orientation. Findings suggest that customer orientation and customer satisfaction orientation have a stronger impact on performance than the other dimensions, and that competitor orientation has a U-shape relationship with performance. Departmental responsiveness did not appear to be significantly related to the business performance. Managers could use the multidimensional conceptualization to develop particular kinds of orientations required for better performance.     

A knowledge-enabled procedure for customer relationship management

The value of knowledge management and customer relationship management is well recognized by many leading companies. This study presents a proposed model of Knowledge-enabled Customer Relationship Management and demonstrates the way in which the presented model can facilitate the identification of important factors that have key impacts on business performance in particular settings. The results show that employees in the steel industry indicate that to provide product and service information for customers and to share internally the best practice information can have benefits for hard measures such as market share, repeat purchases, and customer retention and for soft measures such as customer satisfaction, market leadership and customer loyalty. Employees in the textile industry report that to provide customer complaint information of customers and to share internally the best practice information can have benefits for hard measures such as customer retention, cost savings, and market share and for soft measures such as customer satisfaction, market leadership, customer loyalty, and customer and employee productivity.     

Knowing me,knowing you: Self- and collective interests in goal development in asymmetric relationships

This paper investigates how self-interests and collective interests in goal development are manifested in the context of asymmetric customer–supplier relationships. Taking an interaction approach (IMP Group, 1982), a conceptual structure highlighting possible patterns of characteristics of the asymmetric customer–supplier relationship and approaches to self- and/or collective interests in goal development has been created.Based on a multiple case study approach, the findings suggest that smaller suppliers who deliberately pursue self-interest in their business activities with larger customers experience better outcomes. Larger customers recognise that the creation of collective business goals enhances the outcome of joint efforts in terms of market impact and profitability. The findings also highlight that trust is perceived as a necessity for the development of collective interests in asymmetric relationships and that the power of the larger customer is not perceived as a constraint. A key conceptual contribution is the identification of two distinct types of asymmetric relationships: ‘product/technology-oriented’ in which self-interest dominates by focusing on one party's resources for developing new products or technology and ‘complementary competencies-oriented’ in which collective interests link the competencies of the larger and smaller party for new joint business ambitions.     

Market-driving versus market-driven: Divergent roles of market orientation in business relationships

This study focuses on market orientation (MO) and customer intimacy (CI) in business-to-business marketing. These are generally regarded as key success factors in marketing. The authors argue, however, that the relationship between MO and customer relationship has not been properly examined, nor has its dependence on a firm's strategic market posture been understood. A contingency framework is proposed to test the postulated relationships between the key constructs. Our results indicate a strong positive association between MO and CI. Furthermore, this linkage is clearly influenced by the market focus and business logic adopted. In managerial terms, business executives must carefully match the strategic posture of the firm, its MO, and customer relationship management (CRM). Our findings strongly support a contingency modeling approach in studying the factors underlying marketing performance in business markets.     

Customer reference marketing: Conceptualization,measurement and link to selling performance

The use of customer references to facilitate marketing and sales in business markets has received growing interest among practitioners and academics. The importance of references has been highlighted in a wide range of contexts, such as customer relationship management, customer value management, sales, and marketing communications. Yet knowledge about the effective application of references in business remains scant, and studies have not addressed in-depth what constitutes customer reference marketing or studied its relation to firm performance. This study contributes to this important but underdeveloped business marketing topic by 1) conceptualizing customer reference marketing based on theory and an extensive qualitative field study, 2) building a measure for the construct using survey data, and 3) demonstrating its relevance by linking the construct to firms' selling performance with additional collected data. The results broaden and specify the current understanding of how to effectively deploy references in business markets and provide evidence of the hypothesized performance, as well as contingency effects. The established conceptual foundations for the phenomenon provide substantial opportunities for practitioners and theory-testing oriented business marketing research.     

System supplier's customer strategy

The article addresses the management of dynamic customer relationships in large-scale, complex system business. It combines the existing knowledge on system business, high-tech services and buyer-seller relationships with an international multiple case study. As a result, we produce a framework model, which provides the answers to the following critical questions: What are the key activities through which a system supplier provides value for the customer? What are the system supplier's roles for the customer? How does the customer's strategy and capabilities influence the customer's need for the supplier's activities and its evaluation of potential suppliers? And, how does the stage of the supplier-customer relationship and the system's technology cycle influence the customer's perceived need for the supplier's activities? In sum, the framework model provides a major theoretical contribution to more profoundly understand and manage complex system supplier-customer relationships.     

Understanding the role of marketing-purchasing collaboration in industrial markets: The case of Russia

This study aims to investigate the role of interfunctional collaboration between marketing and purchasing functions in industrial companies. Interfunctional collaboration is considered as a measure of the internal alignment and partnership between departments in the firm, which in turn contributes to the creation of sustainable advantages via improved external partnerships and facilitating demand chain integration. We test the impact of customer orientation as well as the interactions between departments (specifically marketing and purchasing) as collaboration antecedents, and analyze the direct impact of marketing-purchasing collaboration on business performance. The model is tested on a sample of 148 industrial companies in Russia with two key respondents in each firm, incorporating the purchasing as well as the marketing perspective. The results show that marketing-purchasing collaboration mediates the effects of interfunctional interaction as well as customer orientation on business performance. Alternative model testing shows that the direct effects of these antecedent constructs on performance are non-significant in the context of Russian industrial companies.     

On the creation and evaluation of e-business model variants: The case of auction

E-business model variants aim at creating customer value through differentiation. At the core are two major components of the business model concept—business process and customer value. Focusing narrowly on these components, this paper provides a new and systematic way to identify both, create potentially competitive variants, and to evaluate them quantitatively. With a clear presentation of the whole business process, it is possible to highlight key sub-processes, and increase a shared understanding between multiple stakeholders. Moreover, understanding customer preference and the expected market share of potential variants can allow managers to benefit from clear value propositions for variants' potential profitability. Our method also promotes rapid and efficient consensus-building about the most competitive variant. Taken together, our proposed method will help both managers and researchers refine the business model more precisely. An e-auction case in Korea is presented to illustrate the empirical application of our method in detail.     

Industrial relationships and the effects of different types of connections

Emphasizing the primary and secondary functions in business networks, this paper is based on the presumption that the primary function of the focal dyadic relationship is connected to business, political, ancillary and competitive relationships, i.e. what has been denoted as the secondary function. The question is how these secondary functions affect the primary function. The conceptual view developed for the focal dyadic relationship is founded on the two key relationship concepts of trust and commitment. The empirical study is based on a survey of 353 firms and their most important customer relationships. The analysis examines nine hypotheses through a structural model in LISREL. Conclusions from the statistical test show the heterogeneity in the impacts of these different types of connections on trust and commitment. Knowledge of the impact of these connections can aid the further understanding of relationship connections and also assist business firms in developing strategies towards these units.     

Interaction Orientation and Product Development Performance for Taiwanese Electronics Firms: The Mediating Role of Market‐Relating Capabilities

While academics and practitioners are increasingly aware of the value of including the customer in new product development (NPD), processes for doing so effectively remain unclear. Therefore, this study explores the process through which a firm's interaction orientation (the ability to effectively interact with customers) influences product development performance. Drawing on the resource‐based view, this study develops a research model in which two market‐relating capabilities—market‐linking and marketing capabilities—mediate the effect of interaction orientation on product development performance. The validity of this model is examined by analyzing primary data gathered from 167 Taiwanese electronics companies. The model results provide support for a process link between interaction orientation, market‐relating capabilities, and product development performance, such that a firm's capabilities enable the conversion of customer‐based resources into productive new product outcomes. More specifically, the interaction orientation–product development speed relationship is mediated by both marketing and market‐linking capabilities, while the interaction orientation–product innovativeness relationship is partially mediated by marketing capability. That is, interaction orientation has indirect effects on product innovativeness and product development speed by strengthening both marketing and market‐linking capabilities that in turn improve product development performance. In addition, the results suggest that a firm's interactive rationality moderates the relationship between interaction orientation and marketing capability. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of how firms achieve superior product development performance by developing effective customer interaction. The findings of this study provide important strategic insights into NPD.