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The purpose of the current research seeks to understand what role supply chain (SC) collaboration plays in effectively managing customers of a firm. The research also investigates what role industry competitive intensity plays on SC collaboration formation.

The current research utilizes empirical survey data from professionals whose companies collaborate within a SC. Structural equations modeling is employed to assess the relationship of collaborative process competence on SC collaboration as well as the moderating impact of industry competitive intensity. A further boundary condition is examined with the partner interdependence SC collaboration relationship. Additionally the SC collaboration account management relationship is also investigated.

The paper provides empirical insights on how SC collaboration contributes to focal firm customer account management. Additionally, results suggest that collaborative process competence and its relationship with SC collaboration works differently in the presence of partner interdependence and the moderator of industry competitive intensity.

While the findings help to promote the generalizability of the new research, future research could seek to understand how firms could develop specific account management value propositions through SC collaboration in specific contexts.

The main contributions of the work include empirical analysis of a proposed theoretical model, a better understanding of the role collaborative process competence plays on SC collaboration formation and the discussion of customer account management as an outcome of SC collaboration.

This paper aims to study the role of the emerging technology landscape and collaborative platforms in customer relationship management (CRM) unravelling novel opportunities for mutual co-creation in Indian banking context.

This study used the case-study method for collecting various sources for “triangulation”.

The advancement of technology has drastically increased avenues of dialogue and access and brought transparency in the relationship, offering opportunities for co-creation and increased dependence on technology in CRM. A longitudinal approach explained how bank leveraged technology in multiple aspects of CRM for enhancing relationship quality and outcome.

The study is exploratory in nature in Indian banking context, and thus it should be viewed as a preliminary step in contributing to the understanding of CRM in a new collaborative technology landscape.

This study explains the changing shape of CRM and provides relevance of customer orientation and offers insight about co-creation which has taken centre stage because of the emergence of collaborative technologies.

This study is possibly one of the first to conduct a case study to understand the way collaborative technological advancements are being exploited by organisations to develop superior CRM capability and achieve co-creation. This study analysed and comprehended the design and implementation of CRM in an Indian bank in real-life settings to gain a better understanding of the adoption of new collaborative technological advancements by a bank for customer centricity and facilitating co-creation.

This paper aims to establish how strategic target-market selection decisions are shaped, challenged and driven in response to the rapidly evolving technological landscape. The authors critically evaluate the implications of these changes for the role of marketers and the organizational function of marketing.

The research uses qualitative methods. Key-informant interviews are conducted among senior organizational practitioners within client-side organizations, digital agencies and strategic marketing consultancies, seeking to contrast their views.

The findings reveal an erosion of responsibility for the integrated strategic role of marketing decision-making. In particular, the authors reveal that the evolving digital landscape has precipitated a sense of crisis for marketers and the role of marketing within the firm. This extends beyond simply remedying a skills-gap and is triggering a transformation that has repercussions for the future of marketing and its practice, thus diminishing functional accountability.

The findings have long-term implications for marketing as a strategic organizational function of the firm and for marketing as a practice.

The study considers an increasingly digitalized marketplace and the associated impact of big data for the function of marketing. It reveals the changing scope of strategic marketing practice and functional accountability.

The purpose of the research project was to examine the process of developing a data sharing framework between different public sector organisations.

A two-year case study of a data sharing project between a UK fire and rescue service, local council, NHS primary care trust and a police force was undertaken.

It is important to carefully determine the requirements for data sharing, to establish data sharing agreements, to have secure arrangements for data sharing, and to ensure compliance with data protection legislation.

Data sharing between public sector organisations can operate effectively if appropriate care is taken when creating data sharing agreements between partner organisations.

Data sharing can assist in reducing duplication of effort between public sector organisations and can reduce costs and enable more co-ordinated provision of public services.

The detailed analysis of a data sharing case study identified the need for a systematic data sharing framework. Such a framework is proposed and illustrated with practical examples of specification, implementation and evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the constituents of cause-related marketing (CRM) capabilities in the context of an emerging market healthcare sector, by incorporating the resource-based view alongside the dynamic capability perspective. Moreover, the authors aim to illustrate how the typologies of CRM capabilities help to achieve service innovation whilst taking into consideration the role of service flexibility (SF) and service climate.

The authors develop a research framework through a representative and novel case study in the Indian healthcare market by utilizing and analyzing the subject-specific literature. Furthermore, a quantitative survey of healthcare professionals was conducted to assess the relationships utilizing PLS–SEM.

After identifying the constituents of CRM capabilities, the study confirms the mediating mechanism of SF between CRM capabilities and service innovation. Furthermore, findings from the study suggest that service climate positively moderates the relationship between CRM capability and SF.

The study was conducted in the emerging country healthcare market of India. Thus, the generalizability of the framework needs to be tested in a similar or contrasting context. Furthermore, the sample size for the study was limited to healthcare professionals, and the customer’s perspective was missing.

This paper is a first step to identify the specific dimensions of CRM capability and explain it as a higher-order factor. The study further provides an integrative framework that includes CRM capability, service innovation, SF and service climate. More specifically, it enhances the understanding of the constituents of the CRM capabilities and their influence on service innovation.

Marketing, Pricing, Strategic marketing.

The case is developed for an MBA-level program.

In May 2017, the telecom industry in India witnessed an intense price war over 4G (fourth generation) data prices. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel was exploring various options on how best to respond to the situation. He had to take a final call regarding Bharti Airtel’s marketing team’s counter move to tackle this price war by Jio – should Bharti Airtel ignore it, accommodate it or retaliate with even lower prices? Bharti Airtel strongly believed that Jio pricing structure had violated “fair pricing” norms, and its pricing was anti-competitive. It had filed a case with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to restrain Jio from further giving “free” promotional offers and penalize it for it. Could the legal recourse by Bharti Airtel dampen Jio’s consistent subscriber growth rate?

The case provides the students with an insight into how the competition focused on pricing happens in the telecom industry. The pricing war affects the profit margin of all competing companies. It changes the customer reference point for evaluating the competing products and services. The students would also learn practical applications of positive-sum pricing, pricing war, fair pricing and legal aspects of pricing. This case provides the students with an opportunity to understand the pricing war and how to respond to it in a particular situation; understand positive-sum pricing and negative-sum pricing in telecom industry context; understand legal aspects of pricing; and how to leverage data for gaining newer customer insights.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore very recent data about how large organizations are dealing with a shortage of information and communications technology (ICT) specialists, in terms of its implications for information management.

This paper is based on qualitative interview-based research with 11 large European companies, with an estimated ICT workforce of around 400,000 (about 14 per cent of ICT professionals in Europe), covering hiring, retention and upskilling of ICT staff, and expectations concerning graduates from European universities. These data are combined with International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst reports on the demand for different categories of ICT products and services, and data from the authors’ consulting work.

Larger organizations expect hiring to be a challenge, with strong competition for talent, whether from existing users or from the many rapidly digitalizing companies – digitalizing their organizations; their products and services; and their relationships with customer, suppliers and business partners. Upskilling and retraining workforces is seen by large organizations as a better approach than hiring, allowing them to create the right skills balance and retain their workers better. However, softer skills, such as communication and problem solving, are seen as just as important. ICT workers will benefit from a lifelong approach to learning, acquiring new skills and adapting existing skills. Many ICT companies have created academies for developing employee skills and certifications related to their own technologies, while the education sector has been working on creating curricula (alone or sometimes in partnerships with vendors) to improve graduate employability.

The research is based on a small sample of large companies. The situation may be different in other companies and smaller organizations.

Organizations can cope with the skills shortage by anticipating and working with the market forces rather than trying to oppose them.

ICT employees will show the way for employees in other sectors where skills are scarce, by demonstrating how to reinvent themselves as the skills needed change.

This paper demonstrates that employers have changed their expectations of universities. They expect less that graduates will be ICT-employment ready, and more that they will have the skills to make and keep themselves employment ready. This has significant implications for university course design.