Search results

The last two decades have seen a surge of interest in the concept of value in business markets. Furthermore, extant literature suggests that value capture can be conceptualized as the return on the firm's customer assets. However, the existing customer asset management literature has a strong bias towards consumer markets. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to create a conceptual framework for managing customer assets for improved value capture in a business market context, and to illustrate the use of the framework empirically.

The authors approach the topic with conceptual development and a longitudinal case illustration from a globally operating forestry product firm.

The findings of the study indicate that B2B firms can increase their value capture by dividing their customer base into customer portfolios, which are managed with differentiated customer management concepts targeted to increase the economic profit contribution of each customer portfolio.

The business practitioners in B2B contexts are likely to find the proposed customer portfolio approach to managing the customer assets more approachable than the prevailing customer lifetime models. In order to gain maximum value capture benefits from portfolio-specific customer management concepts, they should be approached cross-functionally instead of limiting them to the domains of marketing and sales.

The study contributes to literature on value capture and customer asset management by providing a framework for managing customer assets for increased value capture that is applicable to business markets and circumvents the majority of challenges associated with the customer lifetime value models.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asset size regarding how the level of a bank’s premium asset management service interaction quality influences the referral intention using performance expectation and customer satisfaction as mediators.

The study employs data collected from an anonymous survey on 185 customers who visited the PB centers. The study employs confirmatory factor analysis methods following a path analysis and structural equation modeling for testing research hypotheses with stepwise moderating effect test.

The results indicate that superiority in interaction quality of premium asset management services has a positive influence on customer satisfaction and performance expectations, and these quality factors also show a positive influence on the intent to maintain relationships and even referral intentions. The results also show that customers with larger asset sizes only have mediocre intentions to refer bank services to people around them.

Marketing positions, which remain faithful to the asset management obligation to fulfill a stable profit rate through constant interactive processes based on a trusting relationship between the customer and dedicated staff member that forms over time, can be a basis for service quality that can secure mid-to-long-term competition superiority in financial firms that offer asset management services.

This study focuses on whether interaction factors that form the quality of services for customized premium asset management through the bank’s dedicated staff member have a positive influence on customer satisfaction and referral intentions. Based on this analysis, the authors presented strategic implications on conditions that financial firms must focus on in order to secure competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a representation scheme that helps original equipment manufacturers and their customers choose between different constellations of visibility‐based service.

The paper uses conceptual modeling and analysis of visibility‐based service infusion using demand‐supply chain representations.

In the context of service infusion, increased visibility refers to the improved tracking, retention, and sharing of evidence on which service requirements are based. A representation model of three distinct provider‐customer constellations is conceptualize that reflects specific types of visibility: collaborative service supply chain management: condition‐based maintenance as a service: and visibility‐based asset management. The representation is a useful tool for comparing manufacturers' optional service strategies from the perspective of the demand‐supply chain view. The constellations vary in terms of the type of visibility provided by the customer, the provider's use of this visibility, and the potential benefits and costs of transitioning between constellations.

The demand‐supply chain representations of visibility‐based service infusion are based on conceptual modeling and a literature review. Empirical research is needed to validate the use of the proposed representation for purposes of making comparative choices, and for exploring other purposes in decision making beyond that of comparative choice.

A tool for customers considering the benefits of visibility‐based services, comparative representation of constellations can help providers formulate better strategies for introducing visibility‐based services in a customer relationship.

The study combines supply chain theory with the service infusion literature in a novel way to produce a framework for comparative representation and decision making in visibility‐based service infusion.

This paper presents the major findings of recently completed research in the UK concerning the attributes of information as an asset and its impact on organisational performance. The research study employed an automated information asset- and attribute-scoring grid exercise and semi-structured open-ended interviews with 45 senior UK managers in four case study organisations. The information asset-scoring grid was developed to provide a simple visual representation of information assets and attributes using Excel charts. The semi-structured open-ended interviews aimed to identify the attributes of information assets considered significant by 45 senior UK managers and to explore relevant issues such as the value of information and organisational effectiveness.

The paper aims to present a study of the question of customer information management in business‐to‐business (B2B) firms, what distinguishes firms that manage customer information well, and what internal processes are necessary for success.

This paper summarizes the themes from several research studies using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The study finds that companies that distinguish themselves from others in the area of customer information management practices pay attention first to their company's overall strategy, establish and/or enforce data quality standards, involve functional departments in the development of customer databases and their applications, and use both relational and transactional data in their data applications.

Managers in this area would do well to follow the precepts suggested in this work, especially in terms of developing quality databases before embarking on a customer marketing strategy.

The value of the paper is the consistent themes throughout research studies in various B2B contexts.

The extant literature provides much-needed support to understand marketing accountability and how marketing actions are related to financial performance (FP). However, we have limited understanding of the relationships between marketing actions and firms' social performance (SP) and environmental performance (EP). Understanding these links is critical to enhancing sustainable FP, SP, and EP. Moreover, the literature provides limited understanding of the measures by which SP and EP may be operationalized, or the data necessary to reach a conclusion. This study bridges these gaps by extensively reviewing the extant literature to offer a set of measures and data sources to operationalize SP and EP, and empirically show their relationships with marketing actions. We find that greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, environmental disclosure score, waste reduction, energy consumption, and recycling are prominent measures of EP, and that social disclosure score, philanthropy or community spending, and diversity of gender and race are prominent measures of SP. The KLD, ASSET4, and Bloomberg are prominent sources of data that can be used to operationalize SP, to which CDP may be added for EP. We also show that marketing actions positively affect EP and SP. This study contributes to the extant literature on SP and EP by identifying measures and data sources and linking marketing actions to both performance types. It contributes to policy development by identifying the importance of EP and SP and how marketing actions can help achieve such performance.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model that retailers engaged in e‐commerce (e‐tailers) can use for determining the optimal mix of customer segments within a customer portfolio from an integrated risk and return perspective.

Portfolio Selection Theory of Markowitz is applied to find the optimal composition of customer portfolios. The model is developed and discussed for two customer segments (relationship‐ and transaction‐oriented customers) and exemplarily applied to a data set of an e‐tailer.

Portfolio Selection Theory of Markowitz is well‐suited and promising for determining an optimal customer portfolio from a risk‐return perspective. However, since customers vary from financial assets in several aspects, the results of the model have to be interpreted conscientiously and the resulting action options have to be interpreted within the context of customer relationship management (CRM).

The model proposes to carry out a sequential set of one‐period optimizations. To reduce complexity, several simplifying assumptions were made within the model regarding the characteristics of customer segments and portfolio as well as the expected risk and return.

A current survey among German companies indicates that companies already have broad experiences in customer evaluation. However, it also turned out that evaluating customers' potential and risk simultaneously is still a major challenge. Our new approach facilitates the making of sound investment decisions into single customer relationships with respect to an overall optimal customer portfolio. Thus, a formal link to value‐based management is established.

Using CRM for a value‐based management of customer portfolio according to a superordinated risk management objective has so far received little attention in literature. This paper's model is a new approach in customer portfolio management for e‐tailers taking customers' risk and return characteristics simultaneously and in real‐time into consideration.

Marketing; customer segmentation; operations and logistics.

Undergraduate business and management students, MBA/MA level application for international marketing modules incorporating customer segmentation and customer asset management.

DHL, the international air express and logistics company, serves a wide range of customers, from global enterprises with sophisticated and high volume supply-chain solutions shipping anything from spare parts to documents, to the occasional customer who ships the odd one or two documents a year. To be able to effectively manage such a diverse customer base, DHL implemented a sophisticated customer segmentation cum loyalty management system. The focus of this system is to assess the profitability from its customers, reduce customer churn, and increase DHL's share of shipments.

Case teaching objectives: to demonstrate the concept of customer segmentation with loyalty management as a total system in a logistics company setting, and to evaluate appropriateness of the classification; to utilize the concept of service tier model within the company's current operations, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the model; to analyze the implementation of the customer segmentation cum loyalty management system and development of the necessary rules required to classify the various accounts into categories; to highlight the possible challenges arising from the implementation of customer segmentation cum loyalty management system, and to discuss possible methods of resolution.

Teaching note.

Today, Big Data plays an imperative role in the creation, maintenance and loss of cyber assets of organisations. Research in connection to Big Data and cyber asset management is embryonic. Using evidence, the purpose of this paper is to argue that asset management in the context of Big Data is punctuated by a variety of vulnerabilities that can only be estimated when characteristics of such assets like being intangible are adequately accounted for.

Evidence for the study has been drawn from interviews of leaders of digital transformation projects in three organisations that are within the insurance industry, natural gas and oil, and manufacturing industries.

By examining the extant literature, the authors traced the type of influence that Big Data has over asset management within organisations. In a context defined by variability and volume of data, it is unlikely that the authors will be going back to restricting data flows. The focus now for asset managing organisations would be to improve semantic processors to deal with the vast array of data in variable formats.

Data used as evidence for the study are based on interviews, as well as desk research. The use of real-time data along with the use of quantitative analysis could lead to insights that have hitherto eluded the research community.

There is a serious dearth of the research in the context of innovative leadership in dealing with a threatened asset management space. Interpreting creative initiatives to deal with a variety of risks to data assets has clear value for a variety of audiences.