Editorial

Citation

Alejandro, T.B. (2013), "Editorial", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-05-2013-0115

Editorial

Article Type:

Editorial

From:

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Volume 28, Issue 6

This special section is a compilation of manuscripts featuring papers from participants attending the annual CBIM Academic Workshop. The theme of the workshop held in San Juan, Puerto Rico was, “Marketing value creation: process, service, brands and relationships”. This special issue features seven papers.

Tukel and Dixit in their study “Application of customer life time value model in make-to-order manufacturing” develop a CLV model and show its usefulness for a make-to-order manufacturing company in a supply chain to develop customer-focused manufacturing strategies. They incorporate historical and survey data to forecast the CLV of a portfolio of customers and their findings show that the most valuable customers increase exponentially. They also found that the top quartile of customers account for more than 80 percent of the CLV of the customer portfolio. The authors provide a set of suggestions to enhance process improvement and increase CLV.

In the article by Javalgi, Joseph, Granot and Gross titled “Strategies for sustaining the edge in offshore outsourcing of services: the case of India” the authors provide a survey of the literature of offshore outsourcing to identify strategic drivers for developing capabilities as an exporter of services and build long-term competitive advantages. The model is applied to the context of the Indian market as a strategic roadmap of policy implications to move from low value added to a high value-added design and delivery of services. The authors’ paper also incorporate India’s current and prospective assets and liabilities that correspond to the model’s four components.

Trust has been a central construct in the B2B and management literature over the last two decades. Zanini and Musante in their article “Trust in the knowledge economy” look at role of trust in the knowledge economy, in particular in knowledge businesses. Highlighted in the analysis are issues surrounding trust with respect to both intra-company and inter-company dynamics. The authors look at the challenges faced by those companies operating within the Knowledge economy may be unique but trust remains an impactful consideration that must not be overlooked in this new age.

Parvinen, Aspara, Kajalo and Hietanen in their article “Sales activity systematization and performance: differences between product and service firms,” argue that despite an emergence of a service-dominant logic, B2B service and product companies still differ in how the sales process contributes to firm performance. The study compares companies focusing on service offerings to those focusing on product offerings with regard to the impact of systematized sales activities on B2B sales growth. The findings suggest that differences between service and product firms stem from the different underlying modes of interaction. The study contributes to the wider need of operationalizing sales process management at organization and business unit levels. This allows businesses to differentiate between productive sales process management practices in product and service firms.

The article by Kowalkowski, Kindström and Gebauer, “ICT as a catalyst for service business orientation,” uses a multi-case research design with data from eight multinational goods manufacturers to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) can enable service differentiation and in turn act as a catalyst for a service business orientation. The authors look at two distinct types of service-oriented differentiation: services in support of the product (SSP) and services in support of the client’s actions (SSC). The study finds that SSC have the largest positive impact on firms’ service business orientation. To a certain extent. successful firms are likely to pursue both SSP and SSC differentiation traits through ICT. The two options are interdependent and the framework presented helps managers to understand both key specificities and their interrelatedness.

Rehme, Kowalkowski, and Nordigården present a longitudinal case study of ABB exploring how sales activities can be coordinated to accommodate national and international KAM programs. The article “Sales coordination and structural complexity: a national-international comparison,” covers a 12-year period, 1996-2008, and the emerging the diversity associated with geography and product complexity creates demands for a more flexible organization that can provide a more complete offering portfolio across national boundaries and still handle the demands of local organizations. In addition to internal organizational contingencies, the key factors and driving forces for the development of KAM programs are the marketing and purchasing strategies that buyer and seller firms perceive and encounter.

“The relationship between supplier development and firm performance,” Anthony K. Asare Brashear, Yang and Kang, uses a market based assets framework to examine the role of marketing process improvements between a buyer firm’s supplier related activities and its performance. Data from 338 executives was used to test the hypotheses developed in the study. The authors find that marketing process improvements mediate the relationship between a firm’s supplier development efforts and firm performance which supports for the market-based asset framework. The study also found that a firm’s supplier development activities can lead to improvements in its marketing processes. The findings in this study demonstrate the value of the relationship between a firm’s supply chain and its marketing activities and as such makes the case for marketing executives to be more involved in supply chain activities.

Thomas Brashear Alejandro