Relational key account management: Building key account management effectiveness through structural reformations and relationship management skills

Literature has widely recognised the importance of key account management (KAM) in building long-term customer relationships. Although KAM grounds significantly on the relationship marketing theory, most empirical studies focus on the financial impact a KAM programme can produce. Hence, only normative work can advise practitioners on the implications from adopting a relational approach in managing their business with customers who can help the supplier realise a broader set of strategic objectives. Drawing from 304 cases of different suppliers, this article seeks to start filling this gap in the literature and offer empirical evidence regarding the structural and relational implications from a KAM programme. In summary, the findings suggest that adopting a relational perspective through the development of key account management orientation (KAMO) will result in certain, necessary, structural reformation while allowing for specific relational skills to develop. Consequently, supplier's performance also improves. Moreover, this chain of effects remains strong independently of resources available to the supplier, suggesting that KAM can be a significant basis for developing a competitive advantage irrespectively of the supplier's size.     

Singapore-based subsidiaries of US multinationals and singaporean firms: A comparative management study

The objective of this exploratory study is to compare and contrast various aspects of US management with Singapore management. One hundred and four top managers, 99 middle managers and 780 operating employees from 20 manufacturing companies participated in the survey. The chief executive of each company was contacted by mail before the survey was begun.Hypotheses concerning the management philosophies, management practices and management effectiveness were tested for differences between US subsidiaries and Singaporean firms.The results of the research indicate significant statistical differences for the two groups of companies with respect to the management variables. Explanations regarding these differences are presented.A paper comprising a substantial portion of this article was presented by the author at the43rd National Academy of Management Conference held in Dallas, Texas between August 14 and 17, 1983.The author is grateful to Dr Bruce W. Stening, of the Department of Management at the University of Western Australia for his perceptive guidance during the study. The author is with the Department of Management, University of Western Australia.     

美国能源独立的构想与努力及其启示

研究了上世纪70年代以来美国能源政策演变的3个阶段。从美国能源独立政策的构想与能源独立的实际路径的分析和对比中评价美国的能源政策,揭示美国迈向能源独立的真正推动力。指出：1）美国能源独立构想的实质是通过节能和发展替代能源减少石油的对外依赖;2）美国的社会节能效果不理想,但经济结构的重大调整对节能的贡献较大;3）替代能源相关政策并不仅仅是出于能源安全的考虑,而是着眼于美国的整体经济利益。美国减少石油对外依赖的突破口是以页岩气为代表的非常规油气的大发展。美国页岩气革命的成功,既有政府在资金和技术研发上的支持,也有多方面因素的综合推动。中国能源战略和政策的制定可借鉴美国在技术创新、企业家精神和宏观经济与产业体制方面的经验。     

2012中国玩具行业“危机”与“转机”

当前，由于世界经济形势日趋恶化，欧债危机及美国经济持续低迷，传统的出口市场增长乏力，而新兴的经济体也出现不同程度的经济增速减缓问题，整个外围的市场环境不容乐观。     

金融危机下我国职业教育面临的机遇与挑战

职业教育是国家教育事业的重要组成部分,是促进经济、社会发展和劳动就业的重要途径。当前全球经济正面临着空前的金融危机的挑战,大力发展职业教育,从而推动社会生产力水平,是应对这场危机的重要途径。我国职业教育水平还处于相对落后的阶段,这对我们既是机遇也是挑战。如何采取切实可行的措施,抓住机遇,迎接挑战,促进职业教育迅速发展,是摆在职业教育工作者面前的一项艰巨任务。     

美国石油危机应对机制及其对我国的启示

20世纪70年代第一次石油危机后,美国开始构建综合性的石油危机应对机制.历经30年的发展演变,这一机制已经相对成熟和完整,成为美国能源安全的可靠保障.就应对机制自身而言,这一机制在管理机构上采用联邦政府统领、各州政府密切协同配合,垂直管理与矩阵式管理相结合的多元模式;在构成上,包含战略石油储备建设与投放、国际能源机构为核心的能源集体安全体系、燃料转换、需求限制和国内紧急增产等单元和具体应对措施.这一机制还包括广泛的国际协商、与产油国及石油消费国的对话、灵活的媒体宣传以及必要时政府全面介入管制等内容.不断自我学习、调整和改善的内在特性在美国石油危机应对机制建设和运作的实践中得到体现.面对日益严峻的能源安全形势,我国应从国家安全的战略高度重视石油危机应对机制的确立和建设.研究美国石油危机应对机制并结合我国的实际,我们应尽快建立综合性、权威的能源领导部门,构建完善的法律、法规体系,建立战略石油储备体系,积极扩大国际协调与合作.     

未雨绸缪——浅谈印染企业的危机管理

危机是企业生存和发展中的一种普遍现象。印染企业的危机管理,重点就在于预防,有效的危机预防管理不仅能够预测可能发生的危机情境,积极采取预控措施,而且能为可能发生的危机做好准备,拟好计划,从而自如应付。本文阐述了印染企业危机预防和处理的相关策略。     

Organizational values and procedures as antecedents for goal interdependence and collaborative effectiveness

Organizational values of people and respect and interdependent structures of team procedures and task interdependence may help departments believe their goals are cooperative and thereby coordinate effectively. CEOs in China completed measures of their organization’s values and interdependent structures and their Vice-Presidents completed measures of the department’s goal interdependence (cooperative, competitive, and independent) and collaborative effectiveness. Structural equation analysis suggested that values and interdependent structures promote cooperative, but not competitive or independent, goals that in turn results in collaborative effectiveness. These results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that people and respect values, team procedures, task interdependence, and cooperative goals are complementary foundations for synergy in China and perhaps other countries as well.

International cattle ID and traceability: Competitive implications for the US

Global standards for animal identification and traceability are evolving rapidly. Major world animal health, trade, and food safety organizations have formally recognized the importance of, and actively promoted, animal identification and traceability system development. Advanced animal traceability systems have been deployed by major beef exporters and are increasingly being adopted by important beef importing countries. This study summarizes and compares animal identification systems across major export and import countries. Results reveal that the United States lags behind both major export and import countries in development and adoption of cattle identification and tracing systems. As such, the United States has placed itself in a vulnerable position relative to competing export countries with respect to demonstrated animal traceability. This status could adversely affect market access in the future for US beef exports.     

A framework for key account management and revenue management integration

Key Account Management (KAM) and Revenue Management (RevM) have been widely practiced in the service industries for more than three decades, but the effects of RevM on KAM remain largely unknown. This paper addresses this neglected area of study in the marketing field by presenting a framework for KAM and RevM integration that aligns the potentially conflicting management priorities of the two. The study uses an international hotel company as a research context to investigate, first, how a long-term relational approach to KAM may have been affected by RevM short-term revenue maximization goals, and, second, how KAM could be facilitated by RevM through an integrated approach to yield optimization from perishable products and from key accounts. The proposed framework is the first attempt of its kind to amalgamate KAM and RevM, involving critical analysis to assess comprehensively the revenue and the relationship value of a key account.     

美国对可常温下保存和流通的软包装食品研究与应用

目前，软包装食品在美国市场十分活跃繁荣，由于其生产技术多年来得到许多改善，促进了食品软包装有了较快发展和增长。但是，食品软包装还尚未完全取代金属罐和阻隔性塑料罐头的市场，只是处在不断渗透进入食品、家禽肉、煮花生以及自热型两道主餐之间的小菜类食品中，并逐渐获得市场的阶段性发展。在通过与低酸的无菌食品包装的市场竞争后，食品软包装以供给高质量加工食品的身份被推广进入世界食品业中，成为堂堂正正的一员。     

Managing industrial pharmaceutical R&D. A comparative study of management control and innovative effectiveness in European and Anglo-American companies

Drug regulation and pricing have put strong pressure on the cost-benefit ratio of the innovative pharmaceutical industry. Therefore a study has been conducted in fourteen large and medium sized companies to determine some important organisational and managerial factors influencing success in pharmaceutical innovation. The study consists of structured interviews with Research Directors and questionnaires, submitted to the heads of the different research departments. The following conclusions are tentatively drawn. Firstly, the data suggest that a threshold investment of approximately $150–200 million is needed to maintain the innovative potential. Above approximately $750 million, 'economies of scale' seem to appear in pharmaceutical innovation. Secondly, an incremental strategy aimed at reducing the duration of the development process seems to be more successful than a radical strategy which lays more emphasis on discovery. Thirdly, pure play pharmaceuticals seem to be more successful than the pharmaceutical divisions of conglomerates. Management control, especially the way in which reorganisations are performed, is assessed more positively in pure play pharmaceuticals. Fourthly, the greater emphasis on human resources management in Anglo-American companies, in comparison to continental European companies, seems to be an important explanatory factor for their greater success on the pharmaceutical market.     

Licensing Exam Difficulty and Entry Salaries in the US Market for Lawyers

This article provides evidence of a correlation between licensing exam difficulty and salaries in a regulated profession. Exam difficulty is positively correlated with salaries across states and over time, both at the aggregate and individual state levels. The magnitude of this correlation is substantial: a 1 per cent increase in exam difficulty implies a 1.7 per cent increase in median entry‐level salaries. Exam difficulty does not significantly affect the inter‐quartile difference in salaries.     

金融危机对国际贸易的影响及其对我国的启示

考察国际贸易的变化是测度金融危机影响的一种直接手段。通过比较借鉴经典的银行挤提理论和引力模型,对国际贸易视角下的金融危机影响进行了理论分析;筛选了20个国家2008年的双边贸易数据、宏观经济数据等作为样本,进行了实证检验。结果表明,金融危机对国际贸易有显著影响且其影响具有滞后性。同时探讨了我国可以采取的对策。     

The effectiveness of different mechanisms for integrating marketing and R&D

The integration of marketing and R&D is a major concern for companies that want to improve their new product performance (NPP). For this integration, companies are using mechanisms such as physical proximity, cross-functional teams, and job rotation. This study examines the effectiveness of these mechanisms by developing a model that distinguishes between indirect effects of mechanisms on NPP (i.e., through a higher level of integration) and direct effects. The model is tested with data collected from 148 pharmaceutical companies. We were able to measure and compare the effectiveness of seven different integration mechanisms, which produced insights that are interesting and relevant for theory as well as practice.
We found that housing marketing and R&D closer to each other and using an influential cross-functional phase review board are the most effective mechanisms to foster integration. Equal remuneration and career opportunities for marketing and R&D and cross-functional teams are somewhat less effective, whereas personnel movement and informal social group events contribute little. ICT appears to be a very effective tool for enhancing NPP. ICT not only fosters integration between marketing and R&D, but it also has an independent direct positive effect on NPP. Through ICT the day-to-day communication between the different parties in the companies becomes much easier, and we think that this fosters the knowledge creation process within marketing and R&D. For cross-functional phase review boards we found a negative direct effect on NPP. Notwithstanding its strong positive effect on integration, a price is paid in terms of NPP. This may be related to the amount of formalization and complexity accompanying this mechanism.     

美欧俄乌地下储气库现状及前景

目前全球约有630座地下储气库,工作气容量合计3588亿立方米.其中,美国、欧盟、俄罗斯、乌克兰四方拥有584座,占总数的93％;工作气容量合计3269亿立方米,占全球总工作气容量的91％.美国境内地下储气库数量及工作气容量均占全球首位,其地下储气库具有布局合理、发展稳定且速度快、配套软硬件完善的特点.欧盟拥有世界第二大工作气容量的地下储气库,并存在“西欧多东欧少、北欧多南欧少”,盐穴型储气库占比相对较高,人均占有量较低的特点.俄罗斯地下储气库则分布过于集中,且单座库容量大、出口导向性强、较美欧发展相对迟缓.乌克兰地下储气库与国土面积比例之高以及人均占有量之高在世界上绝无仅有,其地下储气库类型规模与俄罗斯类似,呈现东西两地库容差异大、战略位置突出的特点.未来除乌克兰外,其他三方的总体发展趋势将是不同程度地朝着逐步扩大的方向发展.     

WTO negotiations on agriculture and the distributional impacts for US rice farm households

The policies of wealthy countries have proven the most difficult to reform in the WTO Doha Round negotiations. Considerable emphasis has been placed on developing country impacts, but a gap in the literature remains on the stakes for rich country farmers despite the large role these countries play in global agricultural protection. The research here considers the particular case of US rice households and their sensitivity to Japanese market access reform. Using an applied general equilibrium model with multiple farm households we highlight the distributional impacts among these producers. We argue that concessions to Japan on market access make domestic reforms in rice a difficult political sale in the US since the wealthiest producers bear the largest losses. Improving our understanding of the distributional impacts and political realities of the richest countries is critical to informing the negotiating process because the gains to the world’s poor can only be realized with creative policy redress in these rich nations.